By Jose Maria Sison
NDFP Chief Political Consultant
27 February 2002
The Filipino people should know that the Macapagal regime is systematically killing the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
The regime has taken the following steps by way of manifesting its loss of interest in the peace negotiations.
1. It has informed the NDFP that it wants to nullify The Hague Joint Declaration (framework agreement) and the Joint Agreement on the Sequence, Formation and Operationalization of the Reciprocal Working Committees (agreement on the sequence of the negotiations).
2. It has in fact demanded the capitulation of the NDFP through a so-called final peace agreement rushed in a few months of mock negotiations. It has therefore grievously insulted the NDFP.
3. It has evaded the formation of the Joint Monitoring Committee under the GRP-NDFP Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and has expressed the wish to lay aside this comprehensive agreement.
4. It has increased surveillance on NDFP consultants and, in violation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), has threatened to arrest them.
5. It has escalated campaigns of military suppression against the revolutionary forces and the people and in the process wantonly violated the CARHRIHL by kidnapping, torturing and murdering suspected revolutionaries and ordinary civilians and by carrying out bombardments, arson and bulldozing to force the evacuation of the masses from their homes and farms.
6. It is whipping up a vicious psywar campaign to demonize the revolutionary forces and leaders by depicting them as “terrorists” for the purpose of preparing public opinion for the deployment of US aggressor troops against them.
The Macapagal regime is hellbent on killing the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations in the belief that it stands to benefit politically and financially from a pro-imperialist, anticommunist and “antiterrorist” position. #
