GRP collaborates with the United States in scuttling the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations
Ruth de Leon
Executive Director
International Information Office
National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)
April 09, 2005
The Government of the Republic of the Philippines, particularly the Arroyo regime, exposes not only its hopeless subservience to US imperialism in general but also the US-GRP collaboration in scuttling the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations. The GRP declares that the US, under the pretext of anti-terrorism, has all the sovereign power:
- To trample upon the national sovereignty of the Filipino people in violation of The Hague Joint Declaration;
- To nullify the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and take away these guarantees from any of the NDFP panelists, consultants, staffers and others duly-authorized to participate in the peace negotiations; and
- To violate the Hernandez political offense doctrine in the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law(CARHRIHL).
For the NDFP to demand GRP�s compliance with bilateral and joint agreements that they have mutually approved is not to make a precondition on the peace negotiations. On the other hand, it is the GRP that is trying to precondition the peace negotiations with a demand for a prolonged ceasefire. This is nowhere in the existing agreements, except as a possible subject under the last item of the substantive agenda. This is subject to the Joint Agreement on the Sequence, Formation and Operationalization of the Reciprocal Working Committees.
The NDFP has known all along, on the basis of ample evidence, that the US and GRP have colluded in "designating" the Communist Party of the Philippines, New People's Army and the NDFP chief political consultant as "terrorists" for the purpose of pressuring the NDFP to capitulate to the GRP, as well as for justifying the escalation of US military intervention in the Philippines if as expected the NDFP does not capitulate.
The GRP has exposed itself as negotiating in bad faith by refusing to comply with the agreements that it has signed with the NDFP and by colluding with the US to attack the revolutionary forces and members of the NDFP Negotiating Panel. The GRP has also exposed itself as a malicious and murderous force by escalating human rights violations in a futile attempt to intimidate and pacify the people.
The GRP�s bad faith has resulted in the unnecessary and unjust death of the 75-year-old Hj Amad Upao who was among the sick and elderly whom the GRP promised to release before May 5, 2004 in the Second Oslo Joint Statement signed on April 3, 2004. He was killed in the assault in Bicutan prison on March 15, 2005. Fourteen others whose release was promised before May 5, 2004 remain in prison. The GRP is also accountable for the summary execution of 32 leaders and members of democratic organizations since January this year and the disappearance of five others. ###
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