GRP DELEGATION: WASTING PEOPLE�S MONEY TO THWART THE PEOPLE�S WILL

Luis T. Jalandoni
Chairperson
Negotiating Panel
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
October 12, 2002

The Macapagal-Arroyo government�s delegation to European countries is wasting the people�s tax money in order to thwart the Filipino people�s will.

Ignoring the call of numerous people�s organizations, Church, human rights and other progressive groups to resume the formal peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), the Macapagal-Arroyo regime is instead sending Secretary of Foreign Affairs Blas Ople and his entourage to a cosly tour of European countries. Their aim is to convince European governments to follow the US move of labelling the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), the New People�s Army (NPA) and Prof. Jose Maria Sison as terrorists and thereby throw a monkey wrench on the resumption of formal peace talks.

Completely ignorant of or ignoring The Hague Joint Declaration, signed and approved by the GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) and the NDFP in 1992, which stipulates the principle of non-capitulation, Mr. Ople said his European campaign was not meant to derail the peace talks but to force communist rebels to give up the armed struggle. �We do want the CPP-NPA to come to the table but we demand that they lay down their arms as part of the peace process.�

This latest move against the resumption of peace talks follows Ms. Macapagal-Arroyo�s unfounded statement that 95% of Filipinos are against peace talks. She was immediately echoed by her militarist Defense Secretary, Gen. Angelo Reyes who declared: �peace talks with the reds are useless�.

Gen. Reyes is hypocritical in saying that the revolutionary forces lack sincerity because the NPA has launched a series of successful tactical offensives. He hides the fact that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) have been carrying out massive and widespread military operations and committing numerous human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law. It is the GRP that has refused to implement the GRP-NDFP Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and rebuffing NDFP proposals for setting up the Joint Monitoring Committee as provided for in Part V of CARHRIHL.

The Ople entourage is bound to meet with strong opposition. Europarliamentarians from nine countries objected to the listing of the CPP/NPA and Prof. Sison as terrorists and called for support for the resumption of formal peace talks. Objections to such listing have been raised in the Danish, Swedish, and Dutch parliaments and even in the European parliament. Church, human rights and other progressive organizations in Europe support the option of peace talks and oppose the US push towards war.

The NDFP is ready to resume formal peace negotiations between the two negotiating panels on the basis of The Hague Joint Declaration and the 9 other agreements, including the CARHRIHL. It is prepared to go into serious negotiations which address the root causes of the 33-year-old armed conflict. It welcomes the willingness of the Norwegian government to continue hosting and facilitating the formal peace talks.

But the NDFP will not accept any pre-conceived and unilaterally drafted �final agreement� that means surrender or the laying down of arms.The NDFP is prepared to hold serious talks with the GRP. But if the GRP insists on following the US instigation for all-out war, the revolutionary forces are likewise prepared to carry forward their revolutionary armed struggle and wage all-out resistance to the US sponsored all-out war.

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