JASIG termination invalid, blackmail�CPP

August 10, 2005

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) denounced the GRP's unilateral termination of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) as blackmail and reiterated its stand on the invalidity of the GRP's move.

CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal said the GRP's contempt for the peace process was evident in its cavalier treatment of duly-signed agreements. "Not only does the GRP have a penchant for one-sidedly disregarding previous agreements like the JASIG; it could not even muster the courtesy of formally informing the NDFP of its decisions." Rosal said the GRP has not even bothered to advise the NDFP directly of the cancellation and neither has it coursed its decision through the Norwegian government which serves as third party facilitator.

Rosal moreover assailed the GRP for using its JASIG termination to blackmail the NDFP into withdrawing its declaration to postpone the peace talks until a new government has replaced the present lameduck regime. "Since it announced its unilateral termination of the JASIG on August 2, the GRP has been brandishing its threats to arrest NDFP personnel and consultants enjoying JASIG protection," said Rosal. The NDFP had earlier said that it would be deferring formal talks with the GRP until a new government was in place, citing the pointlessness of negotiating with a regime that is not only uncooperative also on the brink of collapse.

Rosal said Arroyo's threats to arrest officials of the NDF negotiating panel and related offices lay bare the fact that the Arroyo regime is not really interested in peace but only in suppressing the people's revolution and inveigling the revolutionary movement into surrendering.

"For the past four years," said Rosal, "Arroyo has gone through the motions of engaging the NDF in peace negotiations but has consistently violated current as well as previous agreeements and has refused to cooperate in addressing the socio-economic and political roots of the ongoing civil war. Instead, the Arroyo regime has only used the peace negotiations in combination with its support of the US 'terrorist listing' of the CPP, NPA and Jose Ma. Sison to compel the NDF to capitulate."

Rosal said that the Arroyo regime has no real intent to genuinely pursue peace and desperately wants the formal resumption of peace talks to salvage its hopelessly tarnished image and gain some credibility among the Filipino people. Rosal clarified, however, that any formal resumption of formal peace talks at this time would merely be a mockery of the peace process.

Reference:

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

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