PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

US wants Arroyo to drop peace talks, deploy combat troops against NPA, MILF
February 22, 2003

The US government is pushing the Macapagal-Arroyo government to drop peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front altogether to pave the way for a full-scale US military intervention against the revolutionary forces in the Philippines.

According to Communist Party of the Philippines Spokesman Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal, "the Arroyo government's persistent undermining of the peace negotiations with both the NDF and the MILF is in line with US war policy."

"For the past two years," Rosal said, "the US-Arroyo regime has been feigning that it still wants to hold peace talks with the NDF and the MILF only because the majority of the people, middle forces, a section of the ruling classes and international proponents want the peace talks to continue."

Rosal further said that the actions of the US-Arroyo regime reveal its true intentions. "Upon the insistence of the US and the militarists around Arroyo, Malacañang has been foisting take-it-or-leave-it surrender documents in the guise of 'peace agreements' while simultaneously launching all-out attacks and imposing the terrorist tag on both the NDF and MILF."

"Malacañang's refusal to withdraw the terrorist tag on the CPP-NPA-NDF before the resumption of peace talks shows that it is not really interested in the peace process but only in forcing the CPP-NPA-NDF to fall on their knees and do away with all obstacles to full-scale US intervention in the Philippines," Rosal added.

"Even now, American military officials posing as 'advisers' are clandestinely making the rounds of areas in the Bicol and Southern Tagalog regions covered by AFP units engaged in counter-guerrilla operations," Rosal said further.

Earlier this week, Rosal revealed that an American military official was seen together with forces of the 203rd, 901st and 902nd brigades of the Philippine Army, "conducting an inspection tour of areas of AFP counter-guerrilla operations in the Bicol region." He identified the official as US Army Major Jeffrey D. Antonio.

"The puppet Arroyo government continues to cover-up the true intentions and nature of the new deployment of US troops in the Philippines and keep denying that Bush and Macapagal-Arroyo have already agreed on this," Rosal said. "The Pentagon and US military officials have been more forthright about it."

"The very purpose of the current deployment of 350 US Special Operation forces in Sulu province on top of 400 more US troops in Zamboanga and 1,000 standby US marine forces in US ships off the coast of Sulu is to ensure the US forces' engagement in direct combat with the Abu Sayaff."

Rosal added, however that the bigger objective is the full deployment of American troops for direct combat operations against the revolutionary forces in the Philippines.

Reference:
Anne Buenaventura
Media Officer
Cellphone Number: +63910-240-3553



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