PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

CPP challenges Arroyo to denounce US interference and insistence on terrorist tag
February 24, 2004

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today vehemently denounced the US government for its self-appointed role as the world's "anti-terror" policeman, its arrogant violation of Philippine national sovereignty and its blatant use of the terrorist label to blackmail the Philippine revolutionary movement into putting down its arms and surrendering.

US Charge d'Affaires Joseph Musommeli declared that the US is not likely to remove the CPP, the New People's Army and National Democratic Front Chief Senior Consultant Jose Ma. Sison from its "terrorist listing" until a final agreement is reached between the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front (NDF).

CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal also said in reaction to this that the Arroyo government should abide by its February 14 accord in Oslo, Norway with the NDF and challenged the government to censure the US for scuttling the NDF-GRP peace talks and interfering in matters internal to the Philippines.

Otherwise, its approval of US' continued intervention in Philippine affairs and the peace talks imperils the recently resumed GRP-NDF talks. Mussomeli earlier confirmed that the US has not even received a request from the GRP for the CPP-NPA's delisting from its terrorist list.

"This only shows that the Philippine government has yet to really comply with the provisions of the NDF-GRP Oslo Accord," Rosal said.

Rosal explained that the peace talks between the NDF and the Philippine government are premised on the principle of national sovereignty as stipulated in The Hague Joint Declaration of 1992. "How can we forge resolutions addressing the roots of the armed conflict if the Philippine government cannot act independently of the US? The no. 1 scourge of the Filipino people and root of the armed conflict is US plunder and aggression as well as the puppet government's slavish obeisance to it."

Rosal said that the US has absolutely no right to dictate its so-called terrorist list on the rest of the world.

"It is an arrogant violation of Philippine sovereignty for the US government to persist in imposing its 'terrorist list' on the Philippine government. It is an act of obsequious treachery for the Arroyo government to render unqualified support to US intervention and its 'terrorist' listing," said Rosal.

The CPP spokesman said "throughout the past century, the US has accumulated countless terrorist blood debts that remain unpaid to this day."

"US imperialism, the world's no. 1 terrorist, is in no position to decide who is terrorist and who is not. With the blood of almost a million Filipinos in its hands, not to mention the millions of others in other countries throughout the world, the US has no right at all to accuse the CPP, the New People's Army and Jose Ma. Sison as terrorists," Rosal added.

Rosal said that for more than a hundred years, the US has been trying everything to defame those who oppose its imperialist designs. "Recall how the US tried to disparage the Katipuneros by tagging them as bandidos."

"Since embarking on its so-called war against terrorism, the militarist US government has committed ever graver acts of terrorism in violation of practically all international humanitarian principles and laws," Rosal added. "September 11 pales in comparison with the grave accounts of US terrorism in Vietnam, the Philippines, and now Iraq and Afghanistan, which have no equal anytime and anywhere in the world."

"The US' terrorist tagging, however, does not affect at all the advance of the revolutionary movement," Rosal said. "The Filipino people know that the CPP-NPA is not terrorist in principle and in practice and thus give their widespread support to the revolution under the leadership of the Party."

"In the past years, the revolutionary movement has been making major strides as the crisis of the ruling system worsens daily as a result of the Arroyo government's blind subservience to imperialist interests."



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