Press Statement, January 14, 2018

I welcome the positive statement of President Duterte that he would like to converse with me one on one. Such statement is more important than his still angry words in his recent interview with Minda News.

In the interest of the Filipino people and for the sake and purpose of resuming the peace negotiations. I am willing to have serious conversations with President Duterte. It would indeed be a waste if we would not interface even once, considering the success of the four rounds of formal talks since 2016.

Considering our mutual convenience and sense of prudence, we can meet in a country that is a neighbor of the Philippines. In this regard, the chairmen of the GRP and NDFP negotiating panels can agree on the arrangements. After the resumption of the peace negotiations, I can go to the Philippines for my first visit after a long time.

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By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Founding Chairman, Communist Party of the Philippines
Chief Political Consultant, National Democratic Front of the Philippines
December 20, 2017
First published by TelesurTV on December 19, 2017
Posted: December 20, 2017

The Negotiating Panels of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) were poised to hold the fifth round of formal peace talks in Oslo when GRP President Duterte went into a daily series of anti-communist rants from November 18, 2017 onwards and subsequently issued Proclamation 360 to terminate the peace negotiations with the NDFP and Proclamation 374 to designate the Communist of the Party of the Philippines (CPP), New People´s Army (NPA), their suspected supporters and financiers as ¨terrorist¨.

Ironically, the two negotiating panels were about to make the biggest advance in the peace process by finalizing and initialing the drafts of the general amnesty to release all the political prisoners listed by the NDFP, Part I Agrarian Reform and Rural Development and Part II National Industrialization and Economic Development of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) and the Coordinated Unilateral Ceasefires (as prelude to a bilateral ceasefire agreement).

The panels expected that within the first quarter of 2018 CASER would be ready for signing by the principals and the Comprehensive Agreement on Political and Constitutional Reforms (CAPCR) would be negotiated and forged in coordination with the processes of the GRP Congress in revising the 1987 Constitution and possibly arriving at a consensus of all major political forces on what ought to be a federal system of government. But obviously Duterte had all along wished to preempt and exclude the NDFP from what is now coming to light as his scheme of fascist dictatorship under the pretense of federalism.

Duterte had allowed his panel to engage the NDFP panel in back channel consultations in October 2017 in Utrecht and in subpanel bilateral meetings in Manila from September to November 2017 to complete the aforesaid drafts for panel-to-panel processing until he abruptly changed his mind and terminated the peace negotiations. The somersault followed his extended conversations with US President Trump who supposedly assured him of political and military support for a plan to crack down on the CPP and NPA and finish them off before the end of 2018.

Termination of Peace Negotiations Necessary for Duterte Fascist Dictatorship

Although the plan is overambitious and quite impossible to achieve, it is necessary for Duterte to terminate the peace negotiations and slander the CPP and NPA by labeling them as ”terrorists” to pave the way for further extension of martial law in Mindanao for the whole year of 2018 and the eventual nationwide expansion of martial law directed against the CPP and NPA. This is in line with Duterte´s scheme of imposing his fascist dictatorship on the Philippines.

Even before the first extension of the proclamation of martial law in Mindanao could lapse at the end of 2017, Duterte boasted that he had defeated the Dawlah Islamiyah (Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups) in Marawi City and therefore he had basically no more need for martial law in Mindanao. But he found in the extension of the martial law proclamation a device for including the CPP and NPA as targets in a further extension to the whole of 2018 through the expediency of terminating the peace negotiations and accusing the CPP and NPA of escalating violence and endangering public safety.

Duterte was quite confident of getting the further extension of martial law in Mindanao because of his ” supermajority¨” in his rubber-stamp Congress. He also has a steady majority of at least eight of the justices in the Supreme Court (four are his own recent appointees and five are appointees of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo) to uphold his martial law proclamation in the same way that they have been able to dismiss the plunder case against Arroyo and allow the burial of Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani due to Duterte´s super-corrupt alliance with the Luzon-based dynasties of Marcos, Arroyo, Estrada and other notorious plunderers..

Duterte is hell-bent on realizing his scheme to reimpose a fascist dictatorship on the Filipino people by revising and in effect scrapping the 1987 Constitution under the pretext of adopting a federal system of government. The trick is similar to that of Marcos in pretending to opt for a parliamentary form of government in order to scrap the 1935 Constitution and install a fascist dictatorship under the cover of transitory provisions.

Federalism As Pretext for Imposing Duterte Fascist Dictatorship on the People

Duterte is not really keen on establishing a federal system of government but on actually installing a highly centralized unitary kind of a presidential dictatorship on top of regional governments run by dynasties, including warlords and the most corrupt bureaucrat capitalists like himself. The big comprador-landlord state servile to foreign monopoly capitalism will remain intact under his scheme.

To satisfy his appetite for autocratic power, Duterte finds it absolutely necessary to use martial law nationwide in a hysterical and futile attempt to intimidate and suppress the armed revolutionary movement, dissent and opposition in general. The suspension of the writ of habeas corpus provides an effective cover and license for abducting, dispossessing, torturing and murdering revolutionaries and all people who oppose him. Even now, he cannot wait for a court to approve his designation of the CPP and NPA as ¨terrorists. Ḧe has repeatedly called on his military minions to kill them upon sight.

The Bicameral Resolution No. 8 with the title ¨Constituting the Senate and the House of Representatives, of the 17th Congress, into a Constituent Assembly by Adopting a Federal Form of Government and for Other Purposes¨ is already on the rails and will be railroaded when congressional sessions resume in January 2018. Duterte and his cohorts will be the sole determinant of the content of the pseudo-federal charter. The charter is already slated for ratification during the May 18 barangay elections. The Kilusang Pagbabago, the Duterte troll army and the pro-Duterte hacks in print and electronic media are all arranged to rah-rah the ratification.

Even before Duterte is able to get a new constitution for his despotic purposes, the Filipino people have become familiar with his propensity for mass murder and
deception in Oplan Tokhang. Combine this with the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus under martial law and you can expect a far bigger catastrophe than the Marcos fascist dictatorship in terms of of murder and mayhem.

In the absence of any revolutionary social transformation, the country will be getting more of the same ruling families of big compradors, landlords and bureaucrat capitalists at all levels of government. Corruption will continue to run rampant on top of excessive expenditures for establishing and elaborating on the regional level of government. The US and other multinational firms will continue to plunder and ravage the human and natural resources of the Philippines.

To get the blessings of the US and other imperialist powers, the new pseudo-federal constitution will get rid of the nationality requirements or restrictions on foreign investments in violation of economic sovereignty and national patrimony by simply inserting the phrase, “unless otherwise provided by law.” Precious limited resources for economic development, at best through centralized and regional planning, will be dissipated by profit remittances and capital repatriation by foreign monopoly firms, bureaucratic corruption and rising bureaucratic and military and police personnel for the central and regional levels of government.

The ever worsening crisis of the semicolonial and semifeudal ruling system will continue to result in the divisiveness of the reactionary classes, the intensification of the anti-imperialist and class struggle, the further rise of the armed revolutionary movement, dissatisfaction of indigenous peoples and national minorities and stronger currents of separatism among the Bangsamoro.

Surpassing Marcos as Best Recruiter and Supplier of the Armed Revolution

Duterte is bound to surpass Marcos as the best recruiter and supply officer of the armed revolution, as the unwitting wrecker of his own regime and ruling system and as provider of an ever more fertile ground for the growth of the people´s democratic revolution through people´s war. However, Duterte does not have as many years left as Marcos had when he imposed fascist dictatorship in 1972. His aberrant speech and behavior reveal the state of his mental and physical health.

His propensity to monopolize political power and bureaucratic loot and his ability to run the reactionary government Mafia style will eventually work against him due to his own personal and class infirmities and more importantly due to the systemic crisis and lethal blows from the revolutionary movement and the people. The adverse results of his broken promises will soon bear heavily upon him. The broad masses of the people are already taking him to task for failing to solve the problem of illegal drugs, for destroying the entire Marawi City and for terminating the peace negotiations with the NDFP.

By his pseudo-independent foreign policy, Duterte is trying to turn the Philippines into a condominium of the imperialist powers. He thinks as if he can freely get, without strings attached, military equipment from these powers and limitless loans for limitless infrastructure building to buoy up the economy and keep himself in power. He has in fact allowed China to trample on the sovereign rights of the Philippines over the West Philippine Sea under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

He is aggravating the semicolonial status of the Philippines as well as the underdeveloped, agrarian and semifeudal character of the economy.
This kind of economy is ever dependent on the export of cheap raw materials, semimanufactures and cheap labor, on the import of foreign manufactures for consumption and on an ever desperate resort to increasing amounts of foreign loans and speculative capital and to higher taxation to cover trade and budgetary deficits.

The broad masses of the people are angered today by the recently railroaded Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN). This further raises the prices of basic goods and services and generates inflation by increasing indirect taxes (excise, sales and value-added taxes) just to cover tax cuts and tax holidays for the upper classes and fund the counterproductive spending and debt servicing by the state. The rates of unemployment and inflation, though understated in official statistics, are actually causing more poverty and misery on a wider scale.

Contrary to the assurances of his neoliberal economic advisers, Duterte cannot be saved by any increase in the GDP growth rate. The higher the growth rate, the bigger the take of the multinational firms, the big compradors and bureaucrat capitalists and the more severe the conditions of underdevelopment, mass unemployment and poverty afflicting the broad masses of the people. In the final analysis, the big problem for the US-directed Duterte regime is that the oppressed and exploited people have an armed revolutionary movement for undertaking meaningful change in terms of national and social liberation.

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By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Founding Chairman, Communist Party of the Philippines
Chief Political Consultant, National Democratic Front of the Philippines
December 10, 2017

It is fine that GRP President Rodrigo R. Duterte is on record as having terminated the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations by issuing Proclamation 360 for the purpose. He and the officials of his regime and armed forces have boasted that they are hell-bent on unleashing a single-minded war of suppression to destroy the revolutionary forces of the Filipino people.

The Filipino people and their revolutionary forces are therefore fully justified to defend themselves and defeat the current Duterte regime of the US-dominated big comprador-landlord state and pursue the people´s democratic revolution. The terrorist regime of Duterte is merely a passing phase in the ever worsening chronic crisis of the semicolonial and semifeudal ruling system.

Duterte, the No. 1 terrorist of the Philippines, has also issued Proclamation 374 labeling the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People´s Army (NPA) as terrorist organizations. His purpose is to apply the Human Security Act of 2007 (RA 9373) and the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012 (RA 10168)

The vile purpose of the Duterte regime is to proscribe the CPP and NPA as terrorist organizations and wage a campaign to slander them, arbitrarily list down suspected officers and members for general intimidation, abduction, torture and mass murder as in Oplan Tokhang and further list individuals who are suspected of financing and aiding the CPP and NPA , who are themselves deemed as terrorists and who are thus made vulnerable to the violations of human rights and extortions by the terrorist regime.

Within the Philippines and abroad, the Duterte regime is already notorious for the use of state terrorism and for human rights violations against suspected users and pushers of illegal drugs in impoverished communities, the toiling masses of workers and peasants, the Cordillera, Lumad and Bangsamoro national minorities and the brutal occupation of communities and destruction of the entire Marawi City by bombing.

The US-directed Duterte regime perpetrates gross and systematic acts of terrorism and human rights violations. It has no moral, political and legal basis for proscribing and further unleashing fascist violence against the revolutionary forces, the democratic organizations and the broad masses of the people who have the sovereign to resist and overthrow a regime that is oppressive and tyrannical.

The Filipino people and revolutionary forces encompassed by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and by the People´s Democratic Government (PDG) have the inherent status of co-belligerency in their long running civil war with the US-propped big comprador-landlord state currently represented by Duterte. The CPP is the leading party of the new democratic revolution and the PDG. The NPA is the main armed force of the PDG.

The revolutionary political character of the CPP and NPA is solemnly manifested in the Program for a People’s Democratic Revolution of December 26, 1968, the Guide for Building Organs of Political Power of April 1971, the Guide for Establishing the People’s Democratic Government of October 1972, the Guidelines and Program of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) I of 1973 and 1977, the Declaration of Undertaking to Apply the Geneva Conventions of 1948, approved by the NDFP of July 5, 1996 and the GRP-NDFP Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL)..

The PDG has a constitution founded on the sovereign will of the Filipino people and on the basic alliance of the working class and peasantry. It aims to complete the people’s struggle for national liberation and democracy under the class leadership of the working class and its revolutionary party. From its modest beginnings in 1969, the PDG has grown and spread nationwide mainly in the form of local organs of political power to more than 110 guerrilla fronts covering large parts of 17 regions and 71 provinces of the Philippines.

The PDG has a comprehensive administrative structure from the village to higher levels: municipal or city, district, provincial and regional. At the basic level of the village, the local organs of political power develop from the stage of the appointive barrio organizing committees to the elective barrio revolutionary committees through various ways of consolidation, which involve the building of the revolutionary forces.

The revolutionary forces include the local branch of the Communist Party of the Philippines, the revolutionary mass organizations of various exploited classes and sectors, the people’s militia and self-defense units of mass organizations and the formation of the five basic subcommittees for public education, mass mobilization, economy, defense and health, subject to the formation of further subcommittees in order to better serve the people.

The US-directed Duterte regime is daydreaming that it can discredit and destroy the sovereign revolutionary will of the Filipino people by proscribing the revolutionary forces as terrorist organizations, requiring them to submit themselves to the sham processes of the reactionary state and unleashing gross and systematic crimes of terrorism and human rights of violations. The Filipino people and the revolutionary forces are determined to fight for national and social liberation, people´s democracy, economic development, cultural progress and just peace.

The Duterte fascist regime has terminated the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations. But it cannot be too sure that it will last long because the Filipino people and even those in the GRP detest the monstrous crimes of the regime, especially mass murder, corruption and puppetry to the US. The crisis of the ruling system continues to worsen and the resources of the regime for violence and deception are limited. Thus, it is wise for the NDFP to remain open to peace negotiations with the GRP because the people and the broad united front of patriotic and progressive forces can get rid of the Duterte regime as it got rid of the Marcos and Estrada regimes.

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Kodao Productions
November 28, 2017

An alliance of peace advocates urged President Rodrigo Duterte to return to the negotiating table with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), calling the Government of the Republic of the Philippines’s (GRP) termination of the peace talks “sudden and unjustified.”

Kapayapaan Campaign for a Just and Lasting Peace in a statement also deplored Duterte’s order to re-arrest NDFP peace consultants, threat to tag the NDFP, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) as “terrorists” and to arrest legal activists he accused of fronting for the communists.

“These constitute a complete turnaround from his avowed policy of talking peace with the CPP-NPA-NDFP to end close to five decades of armed conflict in the country by negotiating much-needed socio-economic and political reforms,” Kapayapaan said.

Duterte issued Proclamation No. 360 last week terminating his government’s peace negotiations with the NDFP in the middle of “discreet” preparations for the fifth round of formal negotiations in Oslo where agrarian reform, ceasefire and release of political prisoners agreements were expected to be signed.

“Just peace is an overarching concern for millions of Filipinos. This was the basis for the popular support the peace negotiations enjoyed during the initial months of the Duterte administration, when hopes for significant changes became possible with both sides exhibiting openness to resolve the roots of the armed conflict,” Kapayapaan spokespersons Fr. Benjamin Alforque, MSC and Sharon Cabusao said.

The group also decried “grave obstacles” to the peace negotiations, saying military operations in the countryside continue without let up under Duterte’s counter-insurgency and anti-drug campaigns that have reportedly killed thousands.

“The bombing and destruction of Marawi City is also an additional thorn to the peace process, with calls for justice by the affected victims remaining unheeded by the Duterte administration,” the group added.

Meanwhile, amid Duterte’s tirades against the communists, nine communities in Surigao del Sur have again evacuated due to fears brought about by the presence of Philippine Army soldiers in the area.

Start of crackdown against Lumad communities and schools?

Lumad education group Tribal Filipino Program of Surigao del Sur (TRIFPSS) reported Monday at least 244 families, 1,102 individuals from nine (9) Lumad communities in Lianga and San Agustin, Surigao del Sur were forced to evacuate to safety when more than 80 military men were spotted near the communities.

The evacuation affected 406 students and 59 teachers of nine Lumad schools who are now staying in another community, TRIFFPS reported.

“Under Duterte’s Martial Law, the situation worsened. Duterte threatened to bomb Lumad schools and communities. This is no different from Aquino’s term where the massacre happened back in September 1, 2015. The Lumad evacuated for a year in Tandag City after the killing of their teacher and leaders by paramilitary forces who accompanied the 75th IBPA in their military operations,” the group said.

The affected communities are located within the Andap Valley Complex targeted for coal mining and are refusing to allow these companies to operate in their ancestral lands, TRIFFPS said.

Coal mining contracts in Andap Valley Comlex have been awarded by the Department of Energy to Benguet Mining Corp., Great Wall Mining and Power Corp., Consolidated Ores Phils. Inc., Abacus Coal Explorations and Development Corp., PNOC, and ASK Mining and Exploration Corp, the group added.

In a related development, Lumad schoolchildren camped out at the Department of Education (DepEd) main office in Pasig City expressed alarmed at the presence of motorcycle-riding men they suspect of conducting surveillance operations against them over the weekend.

Rius Valle, SOS Mindanao Spokesperson, said the harassment is part of harass Duterte’s threats of crackdown against suspected CPP sympathizers.

“If they just want to know what the Lumad students and teachers are fighting for, they only need to talk to us. But what is alarming is they take pictures without our permission while riding in motorcycles without plate numbers and usually with face mask. They wouldn’t do that if they don’t have malicious intentions” Valle said.

“Before, only DepEd security personnel are taking pictures without our permission. Shortly after Duterte’s crackdown threat against suspected CPP allies, men riding in motorcycles without plate numbers are also harassing us,” Valle added.

Sabotaged peace process

Kapayapaan said such actions only sabotage the peace process and hamper confidence and goodwill measures carried out by the GRP and NDFP negotiating panels during the initial months of the Duterte Presidency.

“Such actions are harmful to the people do not and never will constitute a favorable environment for the peace negotiations which the government panel itself has repeatedly tried to set as a precondition for resuming the peace process,” Kapayapaan said.

Kapayapaan added that the reported escalation of armed clashes between government troops and the NPA throughout the country following Duterte’s termination of the peace talks is all the more reason to return to the negotiating table.

“Kapayapaan urges the Duterte administration to return to the peace table and do the hard work of hammering a peace agreement acceptable to both sides and to the Filipino people and avert the prolongation of a civil war fuelled by long-standing social injustice and violations of the people’s democratic rights,” the group said.

Kapayapaan likewise urged the Filipino people “to continue to champion the cause of just and lasting peace, and resist efforts to foster the peace of the graveyard that result from warmongering, saber-rattling and authoritarian rule.” # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

File photo: NDFP Negotiating Panel / JBustamante

Negotiating Panel – National Democratic Front of the Philippines
24 November 2017

We, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), hereby declare that we await receipt of the written notice of termination of the peace negotiations by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) as a consequence of the reported signing of Proclamation No. 360 by GRP President Duterte declaring such termination.

As stipulated in the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations shall be deemed terminated 30 days after receipt of the written notice of termination to be given by one party to the other. We expect the GRP to comply with this provision.

In the past year, the GRP President has suspended or terminated the talks three times while these were ongoing or had just concluded. It has been the sad experience of the NDFP and the Third Party Facilitator, the Royal Norwegian Government (RNG), as well as the GRP’s own personnel, to be subjected to the whimsical and arbitrary outbursts of GRP President Duterte. No one can rule a country in Mafia-style fashion where it becomes a personal turf and all forms of opposition are wiped out while the army and police are transformed into enforcers and hit-men.

The GRP-NDFP peace negotiations are governed by agreements. We expect the written notice to be sent to us immediately now that Proclamation No. 360 has been published.

In any event, in accordance with the JASIG, all immunities shall remain in full force and effect even after the termination of the peace negotiations.

If President Duterte is determined to turn the entire country into a wasteland similar to Marawi, that is his own lookout. He will meet the fierce resistance of the people to his fascist rule and go down in history as a worse dictator than Marcos.##

Reference:
Fidel V. Agcaoili
NDFP Panel Chairperson
November 24, 2017

Contact No. 0031 64 1324348
fidelagcaoili@ndfp.org

Duterte’s decision to declare communist rebels terrorists risks destroying years of progress to end insurgency, they say

A child gets her face painted during a demonstration in Manila to call for the continuation of peace
negotiations between the government and communist rebels. (Photo by Angie de Silva)

Joe Torres – UCA News
November 24, 2017

Manila, Philippines – Church leaders in the Philippines warned of an upsurge in violence around the country after the government formally declared the termination of peace negotiations with communist rebels this week.

Catholic and Protestant bishops said the government’s decision will only “incite more violence and virtually close the door to the peace talks.”

The Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform, an alliance of five Catholic and Protestant churches supporting the peace process, described the cancellation of the talks as “tragic.”

“We find nothing more tragic than the refusal of warring parties to continue to open the doors for dialogue that can result in a further escalation of violence,” the group said in a statement.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte formally terminated negotiations with the communists on Nov. 23, accusing the rebels of engaging in “acts of violence and hostilities” during the talks.

Duterte issued a proclamation declaring “the termination of peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front-Communist Party of the Philippines-The New People’s Army.”

The NDF is the umbrella organization of the communist-led underground movement that has been waging war against the government for almost five decades.

The NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, earned the ire of the president for staging attacks that killed civilians.

Last week, Duterte announced that he would issue a proclamation that will classify the communist rebels as terrorists and criminals.

“I will remove them from the category of a legal entity or at least a semi-movement, which would merit our attention, placing them as terrorists,” he said.

On Nov. 22, Duterte said he would also order the arrest for terrorism, members of the communist movement’s “legal fronts.”

The church leaders warned that “the war is intensifying, and it can only get worse.” The group said “positive results from the talks” should be pursued and not abandoned.

“The roots of the armed conflict should be addressed and this could be achieved through the negotiations,” it added.

Government and rebel peace negotiators earlier signed agreements that were supposed to address incidents of violence during past talks.

The Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law and a supplementary agreement to revive and strengthen a joint monitoring body were supposed to address violations by both parties.

There was also progress in recent months in the negotiations for the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms and a possible bilateral ceasefire agreement.

“It is in this spirit that we appeal to the government to reconsider its plan to categorize the NPA as a terrorist organization,” said the church leaders.

For its part, the NDF said it “views with grave concern” Duterte’s sudden unilateral cancellation of negotiations “at a time when unprecedented advances have already been achieved.”

Only last week, government and rebel peace negotiators drafted documents reflecting substantial agreements on agrarian reform and rural development, and on national industrialization and economic development.

The drafts include significant reforms pursued by Duterte’s administration, including the free distribution of land to tillers.

Formal negotiations between the government and the communist-led NDF opened in Norway in August 2016 after years of suspension.

The country’s communist insurgency started in the 1960s and is considered to be one of the longest in the world and is estimated to have already claimed as many as 40,000 lives.

By RONALYN V. OLEA – Bulatlat
November 23, 2017

MANILA – An alliance of peace advocates deplored President Duterte’s unilateral and sudden cancellation of peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

On Wednesday, Nov. 22, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza announced the cancellation of all planned meetings with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)/ New People’s Army (NPA)/National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), which he said is “in line with President Duterte’s directive that there will be no more peace talks with them.”

Three days before, in his speech in Davao City, Duterte threatened to label the New People’s Army (NPA) as a “terrorist group composed of bunch of criminals.” Duterte further warned he would launch a crackdown on the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and other legal organizations for “conspiracy” with the communists.

Kapayapaan, an alliance of advocates for a just peace, said “these constitute a complete turnaround from his avowed policy of talking peace with the CPP-NPA-NDFP to end the close to five decades of armed conflict in the country by negotiating much-needed socio-economic and political reforms.”

In justifying the termination of talks, Dureza said, “Recent tragic and violent incidents all over the country committed by the communist rebels left the President with no other choice but to arrive at this decision.”

Kapayapaan said the continuing armed clashes between government forces and the CPP-NPA-NDF is all the more reason for both parties to return to the negotiating table.

“The quest for just peace is a complicated process that requires perseverance amidst difficulties, wisdom in handling disagreements and a sincerity to bring about significant reforms as the people demand. It cannot be solved with armed might and threats and actual harming of defenseless civilians, particularly activists and community leaders,” the group said.

In a separate statement, the NDFP committee tasked to propose socio-economic reforms expressed regret over the cancellation of meetings, which were supposed to start this week.

The NDFP Committee on Social and Economic Reforms (RWC-SER) said Duterte’s latest scuttling of the talks “comes at a time when unprecedented advances have already been achieved in forging agreements on urgently needed socio-economic reforms to alleviate mass poverty and resolve the roots of the armed conflict. “

Just four days before Duterte cancelled the talks anew, the bilateral teams of the NDFP and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) RWCs-SER initialed draft documents reflecting substantial agreements on agrarian reform and rural development, and on national industrialization and economic development.

“The drafts include potentially significant reforms to benefit millions of Filipinos,” the NDFP RWC-SER said. “President Duterte bears full responsibility for the failure of the talks on social and economic reforms because of his sudden turn-around and heightened hostility to the revolutionary forces and the people.”

NDFP RWC-SER Chairperson Julieta de Lima in a discussion during the 3rd round of peace talks
held in Rome, Italy in January 2017 / Photo: JBustamante

NDFP Media Release
23 November 2017

By Julieta de Lima
Chairperson
NDFP Reciprocal Working Committee on Social and Economic Reforms

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Reciprocal Working Committee on Social and Economic Reforms (RWC-SER) views with grave concern Pres. Rodrigo Duterte’s sudden turn-about and unilateral cancellation anew of peace negotiations with the NDFP. It is the third time in six months that Pres. Duterte has obstructed the progress of the talks.

His latest scuttling of the talks comes at a time when unprecedented advances have already been achieved in forging agreements on urgently needed socio-economic reforms to alleviate mass poverty and resolve the roots of the armed conflict.

Just four days before Pres. Duterte cancelled the talks anew, the bilateral teams of the NDFP and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) RWCs-SER initialed draft documents reflecting substantial agreements on agrarian reform and rural development, and on national industrialization and economic development. These were the result of a series of bilateral technical meetings by the NDFP and GRP RWCs-SER on October 26-27, November 9-11, and November 16-17.

The drafts include potentially significant reforms to benefit millions of Filipinos. These include the free distribution of land to tillers, farmers, farmworkers, agricultural workers and fisherfolks. Agrarian reform beneficiaries who have not yet been able to occupy the land awarded to them will be installed immediately, including those in contested lands and agricultural estates. The scope and coverage of agrarian reform will be expanded to include plantations and large-scale commercial farms covered by leasehold, joint venture, non-land transfer schemes like stock distribution option, and other such arrangements. There are also measures to prohibit and eliminate exploitative lending and trading practices.

The NDFP and GRP also agreed on the need for national industrialization and for planning to develop Filipino industrial capacity. Measures will be taken to ensure that foreign investments cease being one-sided and contribute to developing the national economy. Domestic industrialists and smaller enterprises will be protected and supported. The importance of nationalizing public utilities was affirmed. Both sides also agreed to identify key industries and priority industrial projects to jump-start industrialization. The importance of unions and workers’ councils was also acknowledged.

Further measures of even greater significance were set to be tackled. The GRP and NDFP RWCs-SER were optimistic that they would be able to complete the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) for signing by their respective negotiating panels and approval by their principals by January 2018.

The NDFP RWC-SER regrets the unilateral cancellation of talks on such vital social and economic reforms which, if implemented, would have immediately benefited tens of millions of oppressed and exploited Filipinos. The NDFP at the same time recognizes that the people’s continued daily struggles on these issues are unabated and, if anything, are made more urgent and will gain greater momentum. Pres. Duterte bears full responsibility for the failure of the talks on social and economic reforms because of his sudden turn-around and heightened hostility to the revolutionary forces and the people.###

Kodao Productions
November 22, 2017

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Negotiating Panel said President Rodrigo Duterte has chosen to go against the people’s clamor for just peace in cancelling “planned meetings” between the Left and the Manila-based government.

Reacting to the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) announcement of the cancellation earlier today, NDFP chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili told Kodao what was apparently cancelled are further meetings between the parties and not the peace negotiations itself.

“At any rate, the people are clamoring for a just peace and not the peace of the grave in the struggle for national and social liberation against foreign domination, landlordism and corruption,” Agcaoli said.

“The Duterte regime has chosen to go against such clamor. This is its own lookout,” he added.

In his announcement, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza said there will be no peace negotiations until an “enabling environment conducive to a change in the government’s position becomes evident.”

“We will closely watch the developments,” Dureza said.

The GRP and the NDFP recently held bilateral technical meetings in the Philippines on social and economic reforms in their bid to finalize agrarian reform and rural development agreements.

The parties agreed to free land distribution to landless and poor farmers in Rome, Italy last January as part of their agrarian reform agreement package.

The formal peace negotiations between the NDFP and the Duterte government that started in August 2016 however failed to sustain its fast pace after their six-month long reciprocal unilateral ceasefire declarations were cancelled following complaints of violations by the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The scheduled fifth round of formal talks in The Netherlands last May also failed to start after the GRP failed to secure a bilateral ceasefire agreement with the NDFP. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

In this July 29, 2017 photo, President Duterte meets with Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) Secretary General Renato Reyes Jr.at the Malacañan Palace. (Presidential Photo)

MART D. SAMBALUD – Davao Today
Nov. 19, 2017

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – If President Rodrigo Duterte has a problem with the New People’s Army (NPA), this could be addressed through peace talks, a spokesperson of a progressive group said on Sunday, November 19.

Renato Reyes Jr., secretary general of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), said that the resumption of the stalled peace talks between the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the government is the “best” solution to all the issues that Duterte have with the NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

“All the issues Duterte against the NPA are best addressed through the peace talks. He knows who he needs to talk to,” Reyes said.

Reyes’ issued a statement following Duterte’s pronouncement that he is no longer inclined to resume the peace talks with the communists while branding the NPA as “terrorists.”

On November 18, the President took a swipe against the NPA, hinting a possibility that peace talks may still be in limbo.

“I am tired of seeing properties destructed, equipment burned, and the killing of innocent people, and there’s even a four-month old (baby) involved,” Duterte said in Filipino, referring to the armed group’s atrocities.

When asked by a reporter about the slated resumption peace talks, he said: “No, I am not anymore inclined to.”

The President is also planning to issue a proclamation that would declare the NPA as criminals and not a legitimate rebels.

But Reyes said that Duterte’s orthodox style of tagging NPA as terrorists “would not accomplish anything, only intensified attacks on the people.”

He also responded to the President’s threats against Bayan and political dissenters.

“It is such a Marcosian mindset. Duterte’s threat of a crackdown is intended to eliminate the most effective resistance to fascist dictatorship, human rights abuses, anti-people economic impositions and increased US intervention,” he pointed out. (davaotoday.com)