US 'terrorist' listing of CPP, NPA and Sison runs counter to GRP-NDFP agreements

Negotiating Panel
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
April 02, 2004

By Luis G. Jalandoni
Chairperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel

The US government has absolutely no basis for listing the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), New People's Army (NPA) and the NDFP chief political consultant, Prof. Jose Maria Sison, as terrorist.

The US "terrorist" listing is a brazen interference in the Philippine internal affairs and is a malicious attempt to disrupt the peace negotiations between the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).

It runs counter to the principle of national sovereignty in the Hague Joint Declaration, the guarantees in the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees, rights defined in the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law and the Hernandez political offense doctrine in Philippine jurisprudence.

The armed revolution for national liberation and democracy is not terrorism. Under international law, it is a legitimate movement of the people in a civil war against the reactionary government of the exploiting classes. It is arrogant and ludicrous for any US officials like William Pope and Joseph Mussolmeni to slander the CPP and NPA as "terrorist".

What is clearly terrorism on a grand scale is the killing of more than 1.5 million Filipinos by the US from 1899 to 1913 and the continuing oppression and exploitation of the Filipino people under US imperialist hegemony.

Until now, the US has not apologized for the colossal crimes of mass murder and plunder it has committed against the Filipino people.

The US listing of the CPP, NPA and Prof. Sison as "terrorist" is a futile attempt of the US, particularly the Bush administration, to deflect attention from its failure to focus on and hunt down the suspects in the 9/11 attacks.

The people of the world, including the American people, should denounce the US government for using the 9/11 attacks to wage wars of aggression and intensify oppression and exploitation under the pretext of anti-terrorism.#

Reference:
Ruth de Leon
Head, NDFP Negotiating Panel Secretariat

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