CPP welcomes UNDP report denying CPP/NPA are terrorists

November 1, 2005

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today welcomed the 2005 Philippine Human Development Report (PHDR 2005) commissioned by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) refuting the US and Philippine governments' categorizing of the CPP and New People's Army as terrorist organizations.

The UNDP report, made in collaboration with the Human Development Network (HDN) and New Zealand Agency for International Development (NZAID), categorically stated that, from its historical record of armed struggle, policy and general practice, "In fairness to the CPP-NPA, it has not engaged in terrorism or acts of terrorism by deliberately targeting civilians."

CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal said the PHDR 2005, HDN and NZAID report "gave a true and fair assessment" of the CPP, the NPA and the armed revolutionary movement in the Philippines and pinpointed the real terrorists-the interventionist US and its puppet Arroyo regime."

The PHDR 2005 report refutes the Arroyo governments' statements that "the CPP-NPA has engaged in terrorist acts against civilian targets as part of the overall aim to overthrow the duly constituted government and the democratic system."

Rosal noted that instead of the CPP-NPA, the collaborative report of the PHDR 2005, HDN and NZAID pinpointed the "militarist policy" of the US and the Arroyo governments as the actual source of the problem. The collaborative report said that the Arroyo government's adoption of the US militarist stance in fighting insurgency has only worsened the problem. According the the report, the US-led "global war on terror" has only added fuel to the local war situation.

Rosal said "The PHDR-HDN-NZAID report places the CPP-NPA-NDF on the moral high ground against the real terrorists and boosts the international campaign of anti-imperialist organizations and personalities to strike out the CPP, NPA and National Democratic Front (NDF) Senior Consultant Jose Ma. Sison from the US list of "foreign terrorist organizations."

The CPP spokesman said that "The refusal of the Arroyo regime to heed the PHDR, for fear of going against the militarist US line of global aggression on the pretext of anti-terrorism will not help any in the pursuit of peace and only serves to prolong and escalate the war."

According to the report, "The (Arroyo) government cannot seem to develop a bolder, more imaginative and coherent plan of dealing with the CPP-NPA-NDF that puts the main premium on a negotiated political settlement." The report said further that the Arroyo administration has instead chosen to toe the line of the US, which has branded the CPP-NPA as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), and has even used the terror tag to justify its "all-out-war policy."

The report castigated the Arroyo government for claiming that the terror tag is part of a "multitrack process" to justify diplomatic pressure, including foreign intervention in dealing with insurgencies. The study stongly urged the Arroyo government to drop its "militarist mentality" in dealing with the CPP-NPA and instead put more seriousness in pursuing peace talks with the revolutionary forces.

The report also scrutinized Arroyo's "9-Point Guidelines" which spell out her government's policy in dealing with the CPP-NPA. Based on these guidelines, the report finds fault in the Arroyo government for "putting military action over peace negotiations in dealing with the CPP-NPA which it treats more as a terrorist than as communist."

Rosal pointed out that "In waging armed revolution, the CPP has established policies and long adopted practice to avoid harm to unarmed civilians and to aim only at precise legitimate military targets. The rules of the NPA and discipline instilled among its forces in respecting and protecting civilians and hors d' combat fully conform with international humanitarian laws and civilized rules of war."

Rosal pointed out that the NPA, through the National Democratic Front, have acceded to the Geneva Conventions and Protocols of War. Furthermore, the NPA strictly complies with the provisions of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) which the NDF signed with the Philippine government in 1998.

"In contrast," Rosal said, "the Arroyo regime and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have intently inflicted widespread terror among civilian communities and have systematically and viciously trampled on human rights." The CPP spokesperson further said that the "intensifying use of state violence by the Arroyo regime is directly linked to its desperate cling to power and campaign to suppress the people's rights and struggle.

He cited the bombing of communities in San Luis, Aurora in the fourth week of September purportedly in pursuit of an NPA unit in the area. The indiscriminate bombings carried out by the Philippine Army's 48th IB have caused the evacuation of at least 1,400 families in the area.

Rosal also cited the AFP's "killing spree" in Central Luzon which has victimized at least 19 unarmed civilians in the past two months, mostly officers and members of mass-based progressive organizations and alliances which have been at the core and forefront of protest actions demanding Arroyo's ouster.

"The Arroyo regime is clearly a terrorist regime. In the past four years, it has killed at least 400 unarmed activists, illegally arrested hundreds more, employed torture, caused the forcible evacuation of communities and imposed a reign of terror in the countryside," said Rosal.

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

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