CARHRIHL does not allow US combat troops to intrude into Philippine, GRP or NDFP territory under pretext of relief operations

Prof. Jose Ma. Sison
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
Chief Political Consultant
December 16, 2004

The entire Filipino people must condemn all pronouncements and actions of the US government and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) to justify and push the entry of US combat troops in the Philippines under such pretexts as joint military exercises, training, civic action, and relief operations. All these are violative of the national sovereignty of the Filipino people and territorial integrity of the Philippines.

In this regard, the GRP and Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo are betraying the national sovereignty of the Filipino people and territorial integrity of the Philippines by allowing US combat troops to enter the country under the pretext of relief operations.

Civilian agencies of foreign governments can offer civilian relief personnel and aid very properly and easily. There are also more than enough Filipinos who can do the relief work. Why should the GRP and Romulo allow US combat troops to enter the country under the pretext of relief operations, provocatively show off their military weapons and vehicles and conduct psywar and intelligence operations on Philippine territory? Is relief work really the objective or is it to make the escalation of US military intervention in the Philippines acceptable to the public?

According to the CPP Information Department, the New People�s Army is magnanimously not targeting the intrusive and marauding US combat troops and is giving them the chance to get out of the country as quickly as possible. But such magnanimity should not be linked to the wrong notion that the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) permits US combat troops to enter the Philippines under the pretext of relief operations.

The GRP and the US government are in the first place condemnable for violating the national sovereignty of the Filipino people and the territorial integrity of the Philippines. It is erroneous for anyone to claim that CARHRIHL permits US combat troops to enter Philippine, GRP or NDFP territory for any length of time under the guise of relief operations and that the GRP can decide unilaterally the scope of operations and types of arms and equipment which the US combat troops can bring for their supposed security.

1. CARHRIHL does not allow the entry of US combat troops into the Philippines but allows only timely limited agreements between the GRP and NDFP as co-belligerents in a civil war to grant safe passage on certain humanitarian grounds to the Filipino troops of one side or the other or the International Committee of the Red Cross and other permitted civilian agencies.
2. nder CARHRIHL, the GRP and NDFP are contracting parties on an equal footing, with their respective political integrity. The GRP cannot unilaterally decide the scope of operations and types of arms and equipment of even GRP troops and police when they seek on certain humanitarian grounds to enter the territory of the NDFP or people�s revolutionary government or contested areas.

As NDFP chief political consultant, I advice all forces and personnel of the CPP, NDFP and NPA to study carefully the CARHRIHL and other agreements entered into by the NDFP with the GRP and appreciate how the NDFP has upheld revolutionary principles and made policy agreements, without leaving any ground for capitulation or submission to GRP authority by any revolutionary force or element. ###

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