The revolutionary movement will not be cowed by the EU's inclusion of the NPA and Comrade Sison on the FTO list!

Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal
Spokesperson
Communist Party of the Philippines
November 01, 2002

The puppet Macapagal-Arroyo government is laboring under the illusion that the European Union's declaration on October 28 that it has included the New People's Army and Comrade Jose Ma. Sision on its list of terrorist organizations will push the revolutionary movement to surrender or renounce the armed struggle. Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople has been gloating that through this declaration, the CPP and NDFP will be cowed into engaging in peace talks under the puppet government's unjust and unreasonable conditions.

In advancing its own imperialist interests even as it hews to the US' "anti-terrorist" line, the EU has run roughshod on its much vaunted concept of due process and has included on its list of terrorists, revolutionaries who struggle on the basis of principle using humane methods and who thoroughly advance the people's welfare. Although this has not wrought heavy losses on the revolutionary movement, the unreasonableness and injustice of the US, EU and puppet Macapagal-Arroyo regime's measures must be thoroughly assailed and resisted.

The revolutionary movement engages in peace talks with the GRP to give way, if possible, to a political resolution of the armed conflict or civil war now raging in the Philippines. It is an effort to discuss on the negotiation table the roots of the armed conflict and come to an agreement to end it to the people's advantage.

Before the formal negotiations took place, both parties had agreed through The Hague Joint Declaration, among others, on the framework, principles and substantive agenda to be followed in the talks. This agreement clearly indicates the equal standing of the two parties in entering the negotiations.

The NDFP strictly adheres to the nine other important agreements that have already been achieved in the talks, including the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL). The revolutionary movement can never allow the GRP to trifle with these important agreements.

Contrary to the GRP's claim that Ople's campaign to have the NPA and Comrade Sison declared as "terrorist" by the EU is meant to facilitate the NDFP's return to the peace negotiations, Ople's actuations have led to the scuttling of the peace talks.

Prior to this, the US and the puppet Macapagal-Arroyo government had conspired to the hilt to pressure NDFP consultants and officers in Europe involved in the negotiations led by Comrades Jose Ma. Sison and Luis Jalandoni.

The revolutionary movement can never allow the puppet GRP to trample on the brilliant record, integrity and prestige that the movement has achieved and continues to achieve in more than three decades of life-and-death struggle against the most brutal attacks of successive puppet regimes in the Philippines.

The revolutionary movement has already made clear its stand that if the Macapagal-Arroyo government has no desire for peace talks and insists on the NDFP's surrender, the NDFP is ready to wait for whoever will succeed the Arroyo regime. Anyway, the current regime's days in power are numbered.

Meanwhile, the revolutionary movement will continue building the foundations of a society that enjoys genuine, just and lasting peace, with or without the peace talks.

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