By Jose Maria Sison
NDFP Chief Political Consultant
6 January 2002

The Macapagal-Arroyo regime is double-faced regarding the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations and is actively engaged in scuttling these.

It has spread the disinformation that there would soon be a final peace agreement in a short while but at the same time it has scuttled the scheduled 7 to 11 January formal talks in Oslo by deliberately failing to send the pertinent note verbale to the Norwegian government.

It is absurd for the militarists like defense secretary General Angelo Reyes, national security adviser Roilo Golez and OPAPP head General Eduardo Ermita to think that the NDFP can be pushed into a position of capitulation through a series of back channel talks.

The NDFP has repeatedly stressed that a just and lasting peace can be reached only by addressing the roots of the civil war. The social, economic and political problems cannot be glossed over.

Serious formal negotiations are needed to arrive at formal comprehensive agreements on social, economic and political reforms. In this regard, both the GRP and the NDFP are bound by The Hague Joint Declaration.

The Macapagal-Arroyo regime should not block the formal talks for the purpose of avoiding the formation of the Joint Monitoring Committee and the implementation of the GRP-NDFP Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.

The regime should not poison the atmosphere for the peace negotiations by reneging on its promise to release political prisoners and by refusing to issue the SOMO and SOPO required for the safe and orderly release of the four prisoners in the custody of the New People’s Army in Mindanao. #