PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

CPP Hopeful For Talks But Expects No Quick Resolution Of War
February 10, 2004

The Communist Party of the Philippines said today it was hopeful that the resumption of formal peace negotiations today between the NDF and GRP in Norway would achieve concrete results and acknowledges President Gloria Arroyo's concession yesterday that there need not be a timeframe to the peace talks.

"Indeed, solutions to the roots of the current civil war should not be shortchanged by unrealistic shortcuts," CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal emphasized. He explained that Philippine society has many problems with long historical and deep systemic roots.

Arroyo's concession was a reaction to the comments by the CPP as well as NDF peace panel spokespersons that signing a peace accord in time for the May polls would be unrealistic. The CPP and NDF reacted to earlier reports that stated that Malacanang wanted the peace talks to be concluded before the May elections.

Rosal added that the basic issues have to be identified and each of them thoroughly discussed and resolved. "We cannot just gloss over the fact that the orientation and program of government of the CPP-NDF-NPA and of the present government remain in basic opposition and need to be painstakingly threshed out down to their fundamentals," said Rosal.

"The study and resolution of many complex and historically and socially-rooted defects of the ruling system that have caused the suffering of the vast majority of the Filipino people for centuries now cannot be cramped into four short months and will certainly spill over to the next term of the presidency, whoever will win come May."

He said, however, that everyone can look forward to arriving at concrete agreements that can be realistically implemented in the short time left before the May elections. He added that there were also many agreements already previously signed but that they needed to be reaffirmed, their violations checked and their implementation ensured.

Rosal stressed that only from there can the peace talks proceed further.

He cited that some of the things that can surely be of benefit to the people and not just to the revolutionary forces are real, concrete efforts on the part of the Philippine government to pressure the US and the European Union to undo their unjust and unfair inclusion of the CPP, NPA and Senior NDF Peace Consultant Jose Ma. Sison in the list of "Foreign Terrorists"; the actual setting up of the long-overdue Joint Monitoring Committee to oversee and support tne implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law; the setting up of the Reciprocal Working Committee on Social and Economic Reforms; the release of political prisoners; and the automatic indemnification of the 10,000 victims of martial law in the original list of claimants against the Marcoses' stolen wealth. ###

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



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