Macapagal-Arroyo regime poisons backchannel line of communications

Luis T. Jalandoni
Chairperson
Negotiating Panel
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
December 20, 2004

By issuing and conveying threats of assassination and demanding the capitulation of the NDFP in the guise of indefinite ceasefire, the Macapagal-Arroyo regime poisons the backchannel line of communications that is meant to facilitate the removal of obstacles to the resumption of formal peace talks. This comes in the wake of brazenly false and wild accusations against the New People�s Army that portray the NPA as terrorists and criminals.

This poisoning of the backchannel line of communications demonstrates the lack of sincerity of the Macapagal-Arroyo regime in pursuing peace negotiations which address the root causes of the civil war by carrying out fundamental social, economic and political reforms. It proves that all the regime wishes is the capitulation and destruction of the revolutionary movement in order to perpetuate the rotten system of exploitation and oppression that inflicts intolerable suffering on the people.

In collaboration with the US and other foreign governments, the regime continues to use the so-called terrorist listing of the CPP, NPA and the NDFP Chief Political Consultant Prof. Jose Maria Sison to threaten Europe-based panelists and consultants and especially Prof. Sison with assassination and US request for extradition on the basis of fabricated intelligence reports of the GRP. The regime refuses to stand up for the national sovereignty of the Filipino people and applauds the escalating military intervention of the US in the Philippines. It refuses to stand up for the dignity of the Filipino people and their inherent right and competence to judge the Philippine situation, events and circumstances. It allows the foreign plunder of our natural resources.

Based on past experiences with so-called unilateral ceasefire of the GRP and the regime�s proven record of anti-people and anti-national policies and actions, the regime�s unilateral ceasefire for Christmas and New Year holidays must be considered a tricky psywar scheme. Therefore, the people and the revolutionary forces must be vigilant against treacherous acts of the military, police, paramilitary and private armed gangs of the regime.

At the peak of the people�s movement for the ouster of the Estrada regime in December 2000 and January 2001, the NDFP did not declare ceasefire on the holidays of Christmas and New Year in order to underscore the people�s outrage against the regime then. The Arroyo regime is now in a similar situation, the broad masses of the people want to remove it from power as soon as possible because of its extreme puppetry, corruption, brutality and propensity to lie. It is up to the central organs of the NDFP and CPP to decide.

The regime must be held accountable for its anti-people and anti-national policies and actions. It must be held accountable for sabotaging the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations and poisoning the backchannel line of communications. The broad masses of the people have all the right to remove from power a regime that wishes to perpetuate foreign and feudal domination and bureaucratic corruption.

Luis G. Jalandoni
Chairperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel

Website: http://home.wanadoo.nl/ndf
Email address: [email protected]
Telephone: +31-30-2310431
Fax: +31-30-2322989
Mailing address: Amsterdamsestraatweg 50, NL-3513 AG Utrecht, Netherlands