National Council of Churches in the Philippines
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
August 8, 2017

“And the seed whose fruit is justice is sown in peace by those who make peace” (James 3:18).

The National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) and National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCCC-USA), bound by our faith in Jesus Christ and our common witness for the fullness of life, reaffirm a shared commitment to support the formal peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). We uphold peace as the hope of all people and the formal peace talks as a platform and venue for principled negotiations to strive toward the attainment of this peace. As a platform, the peace talks aim to define concerns, resolve the roots of the armed conflict, and forge what all parties long for – a just, durable and sustainable peace. As a venue, government and all stakeholders gather to negotiate and resolve both historical and contemporary outstanding issues.

As Councils of Churches, we hold firm that the negotiations between the two parties are not simply the silencing of guns through ceasefire or surrender. An active pursuit of justice and meaningful change for the majority of the people leads to a negotiated peace settlement that is truly transformative as it addresses the roots of the armed conflict – poverty, landlessness, inaccessibility to services and the inequitable distribution of resources. This also means instituting socio-economic and political reforms in the country.

As the road to peace is long and arduous, fraught with dangers, we believe that peace advocates must work hand-in-hand to accompany both parties in the difficult task to achieve a just and lasting peace in our lifetime. This is why the religious community in the Philippines has advocated the formal peace talks since the beginning.

We are saddened by the current setback in the negotiations. The fifth round of formal peace talks between the government under the administration of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and the NDFP did not push through in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. We are troubled with the recent pronouncements by President Duterte that the government is abandoning the peace negotiations with the NDFP and will order the arrest of previously freed consultants. He also said that he is ready to sign the letter of termination of the peace talks. The possible scuttling of the peace talks may also spell the non-release of many political prisoners still languishing in various jails around the country, including Bishop Carlo Morales of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente and NDFP Peace Consultant Mr. Rommel Salinas who were arrested on trumped-up charges on May 11, 2017.

We urge the GRP and the NDFP to stay the course and continue the formal peace talks. Recent setbacks only further support our call for both parties to continue the conversations to pursue the negotiations. Great strides achieved in the last few months should be proof enough that talking to each other is the best way to clear matters.

We invite our sisters and brothers in the international community to join us in monitoring the peace process in the Philippines and join us in our call for both sides to respect and honor all obligations agreed upon previously.

We continue to encourage the United States of America to remove the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army, both members of the NDFP, from its list of foreign terrorist organizations and to openly support the peace negotiations in the Philippines.

The continuing Martial Law of the Philippine Government is worrisome, especially as no less than President Duterte himself has said that based on the past, Martial Law has brought the country nowhere. And though we support a campaign against the drug menace, we must insist on the rule of law rather than any of the controversial means that were raised by concerned states during the Universal Periodic Review on the Philippines by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

As the Philippines continues to face significant challenges, we are resolved to work hand-in-hand as peace advocates in supporting the GRP-NDFP Peace Talks. Our fervent prayers surround the Philippines, and all those who work for peace in this nation.

Rev. Rex Reyes, Jr.
General Secretary
National Council of Churches, Philippines

Jim Winkler
President and General Secretary
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA

An MQ-9 Reaper flies a combat mission over southern Afghanistan. (Photo by Lt. Col. Leslie Pratt/U.S. Air Force website)
By DEE AYROSO – Bulatlat
August 8, 2017

MANILA – Different groups today denounced the reported proposed airstrikes by the US military against ISIS-linked groups in Mindanao, warning that this will violate Philippine sovereignty, as well as the 1987 Philippine Constitution, which bans foreign troops from participating in combat operations.

In an Aug. 7 report, NBC News cited two unnamed US defense officials who said Pentagon may soon allow drone airstrikes against ISIS-inspired terror groups in the Philippines, as part of “collective self-defense.”

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said such proposed US airstrike may also lead to America’s permanent military presence in the country. The group has long argued that continued defense agreements, joint trainings and military aid from the US has failed to help the Philippine military build its defense capability.

“There is a concerted effort now on the part of several US agencies to push for an expanded US role in the fight against ISIS in Mindanao, using the ongoing conflict as a pretext for permanent US basing and power-projection in Southeast Asia,” said Renato Reyes Jr, Bayan secretary general.

“The US wants to make the Philippines another Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria or Somalia,” he said.

Malacanang has denied that there has been any discussion on such a proposal.

For more than two months, the Philippine military has been locked in a fierce battle against the local armed group Dawlah Islamiyah, which attacked the Islamic City of Marawi. Dawlah Islamiyah is reportedly affiliated with the Daesh, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, also called ISIS. The terror group remains entrenched in Marawi in spite of military airstrikes, which has left the city in tatters and accidentally killed 13 government troops.

In July, Bayan cited a Senate testimony by Gen. Raymond Thomas III, commander of the US Special Special Operations Command (Ussocom), who said that the Philippines is now one of the “priority areas” of the Ussocom, which focuses against “violent extremist organizations” or VEOs, such as ISIS. Thomas gave the testimony to the US Senate Armed Services Committee on May 4, three weeks before the fighting broke out in Marawi.

Since the Marawi crisis, President Duterte has shifted his stance, from harshly criticizing America’s wars of aggression, to meekly accepting “technical assistance” from the US military intelligence. Early in his term last year, the President threatened to revoke the Visiting Forces Agreement or VFA, and said he want the remaining US troops under the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P) out of the country.

Reyes said Duterte now seems to be falling into the trap set by the US, which exploits armed conflicts to justify military presence in different parts of the world.

“He will expose himself as the biggest US puppet in Asia if he allows the US to carry out airstrikes in Mindanao,” Reyes said.

Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate called the proposed airstrikes a “US interventionist plan” and warned that these will “signal the commission of blatant human rights violations with impunity by faceless and nameless US officials and troops safely ensconced in far-away military base.”

Progressive groups have said that the continued presence of US troops in the country failed to wipe out the bandit Abu Sayyaff, which, like the ISIS, was a creation of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

“The US cannot be expected to be effective against ISIS as it was the US itself which caused the creation of ISIS. In the same way, the US was not effective against the Abu Sayyaff despite being in Mindanao for 15 years,” Reyes said.

The Philippines has three defense pacts with the US: the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT), which says the two countries aim to strengthen “collective defense for the preservation of peace and security.” The Senate-ratified Visiting Forces Agreement or VFA allows rotational presence of US troops, while the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement or Edca allows US troops’ basing in “agreed locations.”

The Bayan leader said such a US-led military operation in Mindanao may be announced in time when US President Trump visits the country in November for the ASEAN meet.

In April 2014, Philippines and US officials signed Edca in time for the visit of then US President Barack Obama.
(http://bulatlat.com)

http://noforeignbases.org
Reposted Aug 4, 2017

We, the undersigned peace, justice and environmental organizations, and individuals, endorse the following Points of Unity and commit ourselves to working together by forming a Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases, with the goal of raising public awareness and organizing non-violent mass resistance against U.S. foreign military bases.

GLOBAL US TROOP PRESENCE

While we may have our differences on other issues, we all agree that U.S. foreign military bases are the principal instruments of imperial global domination and environmental damage through wars of aggression and occupation, and that the closure of U.S. foreign military bases is one of the first necessary steps toward a just, peaceful and sustainable world. Our belief in the urgency of this necessary step is based on the following facts:

1. While we are opposed to all foreign military bases, we do recognize that the United States maintains the highest number of military bases outside its territory, estimated at almost 1000 (95% of all foreign military bases in the world). Presently, there are U.S. military bases in every Persian Gulf country except Iran.
2. In addition, the United States has 19 Naval air carriers (and 15 more planned), each as part of a Carrier Strike Group, composed of roughly 7,500 personnel, and a carrier air wing of 65 to 70 aircraft — each of which can be considered a floating military base.
3. These bases are centers of aggressive military actions, threats of political and economic expansion, sabotage and espionage, and crimes against local populations. In addition, these military bases are the largest users of fossil fuel in the world, heavily contributing to environmental degradation.
4. The annual cost of these bases to the American taxpayers is approximately $156 billion. The support of U.S. foreign military bases drains funds that can be used to fund human needs and enable our cities and States to provide necessary services for the people.
5. This has made the U.S. a more militarized society and has led to increased tensions between the U.S. and the rest of the world. Stationed throughout the world, almost 1000 in number, U.S. foreign military bases are symbols of the ability of the United States to intrude in the lives of sovereign nations and peoples.
6. Many individual national coalitions — for example, Okinawa, Italy, Jeju Island Korea, Diego Garcia, Cyprus, Greece, and Germany — are demanding closure of bases on their territory. The base that the U.S. has illegally occupied the longest, for over a century, is Guantánamo Bay, whose existence constitutes an imposition of the empire and a violation of International Law. Since 1959 the government and people of Cuba have demanded that the government of the U.S. return the Guantánamo territory to Cuba.

U.S. foreign military bases are NOT in defense of U.S. national, or global security. They are the military expression of U.S. intrusion in the lives of sovereign countries on behalf of the dominant financial, political, and military interests of the ruling elite. Whether invited in or not by domestic interests that have agreed to be junior partners, no country, no peoples, no government, can claim to be able to make decisions totally in the interest of their people, with foreign troops on their soil representing interests antagonistic to the national purpose.

We must all unite to actively oppose the existence of U.S. foreign military bases and call for their immediate closure. We invite all forces of peace, social and environmental justice to join us in our renewed effort to achieve this shared goal.

Signed (in alphabetical order):

— Bahman Azad, U.S. Peace Council
— Ajamu Baraka, Black Alliance for Peace
— Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK
— Leah Bolger, World Beyond War
— Sara Flounders, International Action Center
— Bruce Gagnon, Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
— Tarak Kauff, Veterans For Peace
— Joe Lombardo, United National Antiwar Coalition
— Alfred L. Marder, U.S. Peace Council
— George Paz Martin, MLK Justice Coalition; Liberty Tree Foundation*
— Nancy Price, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom*
— Alice Slater, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
— David Swanson, World Beyond War
— Ann Wright, CODEPINK
— Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance

JIGGER J. JERUSALEM – DavaoToday.com
Jul. 31, 2017

In this photo taken last March 15, panel speakers during the Mindanao Peace Forum held at 
the Homitori Inn in Davao City shared light moments with the media and the participants 
who are mostly religious leaders. (From left to right) Fr. Rex Reyes, convener of the 
Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform; Atty. Antonio Arellano, government peace panel 
member; Bishop Felixberto Calang, convener of the Sowing the Seeds of Peace Movement; 
Satur Ocampo, independent cooperator for the National Democratic Front of the Philippines 
peace panel; and Sr. Luz Mallo of the Sisters Association of Mindanao. 
(Zea Io Ming C. apistrano/davaotoday.com)

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – Despite the setback in the peace negotiations, church leaders are optimistic the government and the Communists will go back to the negotiating table as it urged the present administration to be relentless in its endeavor to put an end to the decades-long conflict in Mindanao and not be swayed by those who are trying to obstruct the peace negotiations.

Peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) were ?cancelled following President Rodrigo Duterte’s pronouncement to end the talks just as panelists are scheduled to meet again for the fifth round of negotiations next month.

Bishop Felixberto Calang, of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI), said they are challenging the government “to pursue the peace talks, even if peace spoilers are passionate enough in their quest to sabotage the process.”

Although dismayed by Duterte’s announcement to cancel the peace negotiations which he had renewed following his assumption into office last year, Calang said there is now a pressing need for the government to go back to the negotiating table so issues affecting the Filipino masses could be resolved after years of being shelved.

“It is for the welfare of the people that peace talks conclude to address the root causes of the armed conflict,” he said in a phone interview on Monday.

Calang, co-convenor of the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP), a gathering of church leaders from various denominations in the country, said they support ?an initiative to revive the talks amid hostilities between the members of the New People’s Army (NPA) and government troops.

The PEPP has been acting as third-party facilitator to peaceful negotiations leading to the release of police officers and military personnel captured by the NPA in the past, as well as participating in peace-related initiatives by the government and the private sector.

He said “it is through the peace talks that a genuine agrarian reform and rural development coupled with national industrialization and economic development will have its realization.”

Setbacks like the extension of martial law by Congress and Duterte’s decision to discontinue the talks following the ambush of his security escorts, said Calang, has not dampened the optimism of the PEPP and other civil society organizations to support peace.

“Peace advocates will remain vigilant in their painstaking work of peace constituency building and consolidation because real peace is attained not with the barrel of the guns but by a responsible government that provides job and justice, and serves food and freedom for its people,” he added.

?Former NDF negotiator, ? Satur Ocampo, in a separate interview recently, said the government could not just discontinue the negotiations with the NDFP because Duterte said so.

Ocampo who also served as a partylist lawmaker for Bayan Muna is now an “independent cooperator”? actively involved in the peace talks between the government and NDFP.

For the peace talks to be officially terminated, Ocampo said, the government must first submit a formal letter to the NDFP office expressing its intent to put an end to the negotiations.

Both the government and the NDFP, he said, “have to go to the process before the declaration of the termination of the peace talks.”

After the submission of a formal notification, he said the government panel must wait for acknowledgement from the NDFP, and only then can the peace talks be officially terminated.

But, Ocampo said, this is the second time that Duterte has declared the termination of the talks, first in February when members of the New People’s Army (NPA) killed six soldiers and taken captive three military troopers.

A few days later, panelists from both sides went back to the negotiating table to resume the talks.

His second announcement was made following the ambush of the Presidential Security Group in Arakan, North Cotabato recently.

Ocampo said Duterte is prone to issuing statements at the height of his outbursts, many of them he will recant after his episodes of flare-ups had subsided.

With this, Ocampo said he is hopeful that Duterte will reconsider the revival of the peace talks after his anger has died down.

He said it is important for the President to confer with his panelists to implement the proper procedure if peace negotiations are to be officially terminated.

“Duterte said in [State of the Nation Address], ‘I will continue to pursue peace.’ How can he pursue peace if he will stop the peace talks?” he added.(davaotoday.com)

“ILPS statement on the upcoming Solidarity & Fightback conference to be held at the University of Toronto, August 5-7, 2017”

http://www.ilps.info
July 2, 2017

Imperialist war and aggression is one of the biggest threats to humanity today. The protracted economic crisis of the global capitalist system is compelling imperialist states led by the U.S. to become ever more aggressive in capturing and controlling more territory as sources of raw materials and low-cost labor, as captive markets and supply routes, and as launching pads for projecting military force overseas. The re-emergence of powers such as Russia and China is also seen by the U.S. as a threat to its global hegemony.

In this context, U.S.-led militarism and militarization has been escalating in recent years as evident in the rise of:

1. wars of aggression, military intervention and orchestrating regime change overseas
2. arms build-up and the growth of the military-industrial-financial complex
3. war provocation and the expansion of the military’s global footprint (bases, security alliances, etc.)
4. support for authoritarian regimes, paramilitary death squads, terrorist groups and pseudo-revolutionary groups overseas
5. militarization of the civilian bureaucracy, the national budget, academic institutions, policing and repression of civil liberties
6. neo-fascism, fear-mongering, xenophobia, racism and islamophobia
7. rape, harassment, violence against women as weapons of war and pacification of communities

The imperialist states are also increasingly repressive within their own borders. The rise of ultra-reactionary parties and politicians such as Trump and their fascistic and xenophobic tactics against oppressed minorities and the working class are moves to consolidate ruling class power amidst an untenable balance between the worsening and burdensome economic crisis of capitalism on one hand, and the people’s resistance, particularly the working-class, on the other.

In the face of the worsening atrocities of the U.S., its imperialist allies and its proxies, more and more people are resisting the U.S. imperialist war machine and aggression. All over the world, people are protesting against the presence of US troops and bases – in Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Honduras, El Salvador, even in Italy and Germany. The Palestinian people continue to resist the Zionist occupation of historic Palestine and Israel’s policy of ethnic cleansing and apartheid against the Palestinian people. The Kurdish people’s resistance, with the Kurdish women’s army at the forefront, have fought off and taken back territories from the Daesh while fighting off attacks from the fascist Turkish army. Peoples movements in the Philippines, India, Colombia, Mexico and other oppressed countries continue to wage militant and valiant struggles for national freedom and democracy. Even in the U.S. and other imperialist countries, the people are increasingly opposed to the wars that their governments are waging in their name.

In the face of grave and mounting threats posed by imperialist wars, militarization and neofascism, the ILPS recognizes the need to strengthen peoples’ calls and actions to oppose imperialist wars of aggression and intervention led by the United States and its allies. There is also an urgent need to foster and strengthen links among progressive anti-war groups in different countries, and between anti-war groups and resistance movements in oppressed countries. We need to help build a global anti-war and social justice movement that respects the right to self-determination of oppressed peoples, and supports various forms of resistance to imperialist aggression and intervention.

Objectives

The “Solidarity and Fightback: Building Resistance to US-led War, Militarism and Neofascism” conference is a gathering of anti-war and social justice activists, organizations, networks and movements from different countries who oppose wars, militarism and foreign intervention by the U.S. and other imperialist powers, and assert or support the right of oppressed peoples to self-determination, justice, liberation and peace.

This peoples’ gathering shall serve as a space for:

1. raising awareness and deepening understanding of the major aspects and current trends in militarization globally, including:
2. • wars of aggression, military intervention and orchestrating regime change overseas
   • arms build-up and the growth of the military-industrial-financial complex
   • war provocation and the expansion of the military’s global footprint (bases, security alliances, etc.)
   • support for authoritarian regimes, paramilitary death squads, terrorist groups and pseudo-revolutionary groups overseas
   • militarization of the civilian bureaucracy, the national budget, academic institutions, policing and repression of civil liberties
   • neo-fascism, fear-mongering, xenophobia, racism and islamophobia
   • rape, harassment, violence against women as weapons of war and pacification of communities
   • others
3. sharing lessons from the history of peace movements
4. raising awareness and support for peoples’ resistance to imperialist wars and militarism especially in countries that are targets of wars of aggression and military intervention by the U.S. and other major powers
5. building solidarity links and facilitating coordinated actions among activists, organizations, networks and movements from different countries against imperialist wars, militarism and neofascism
6. commemorating the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by U.S. imperialism.

LORIE ANN A. CASCARO – DavaoToday,com
Jul. 28, 2017

Rep. Arlene Brosas of the Gabriela Women’s Partylist (right​) says the military 
should learn about laws and international conventions that protect the ​L​umad schools 
from these attacks. (Lorie Ann Cascaro/davaotoday.com)

QUEZON CITY, Philippines — Lumad leaders and children from Mindanao, along with progressive groups, called on today for the continuation of peace talks between the government and communist revolutionaries, saying it is the only solution to their issues.

“Even in a small community, when there is a problem, it should be discussed to resolve them,” said Eufemia Cullamat, a Manobo and tribal leader, at a press conference in the International Center of the University of the Philippines in Diliman.

Indigenous groups, along with 222 children, came to Metro Manila, to formalize their complaints against military officials for human rights violations, including bombing ​L​umad schools and posing threats to the students, their parents and volunteer teachers. They have been calling for the President to lift the ​M​artial ​L​aw in Mindanao, waiting for him to speak with them personally.

PAPERS, NOT BOMBS. More than 200 ​L​umad children have been camping since July 20 at the 
International Center of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, waiting for 
President Rodrigo Duterte to speak with them and listen to their plight. (Lorie Ann 
Cascaro/davaotoday.com)

Duterte, during his second State of the Nation Address on July 24, said he will not talk with the revolutionaries anymore, despite advances in the peace process on ​the agenda on ​Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

The peace panel had discussed the provision on the Agrarian Reform and Urban Development last July 15-17. It includes the guidelines of free land distributions to farmers.

The land is also what we are fighting for, Cullamat said, noting that they base their livelihood on agriculture. “Our country will prosper if we don’t destroy our environment,” she added.

The peace talks will resolve the root causes of armed conflict, said Rius Valle, spokesperson of Save Our Schools Mindanao. “Land reforms and national industrialization are the answers to the worsening poverty not only of the Lumads, but of the Filipinos,” he said.

After his SONA, Duterte showed up to thousands of protesters outside the House of Representatives and told them he will resume the peace talks.

Asked whether or not the groups believe him, Benjie Valbuena, national chairperson of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers, said “Let’s rather wait for the next episode,” calling the President a veteran trapo (traditional politician).

Soldiers camp in our schools, we fear encounter

Lumad children accused military men camping at their schools, even inside their houses.

“The AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) violated the laws in our school,” said Jenky Malibato, one of the lumad children camping at UP. She said the NPA (New People’s Army) members stay away from their communities unlike the soldiers. “We are scared that when there will be an encounter, our classes will be affected.”

Serving more than 2,000 indigenous students in Mindanao hinterlands, the Salugpongan Ta’ Tanu Igkanogon Community Learning Center, Inc. filed a complaint on July 20 against AFP officers for several human rights violations, including threats, harassments, intimidation, destruction of school property, and school encampment. The center cited the encampment of 20 soldiers in a Lumad school in Talaingod, Davao del Norte on June 7.

Amid threats from soldiers and even the President’s accusation that the Lumad schools are teaching subversion, volunteer teachers are not intimidated and vow to continue giving education.

“The lumads just want to learn how to read, write and count,” said Arjay Perez, a volunteer teacher and secretary general of the Association of Community Educators. Coming from outstanding universities in the cities, the teachers walk long kilometers to reach the remote schools, he said.

"How can you say we're NPAs (New People Army)?" Volunteer teachers display the 
government permits of ​L​umad schools in Mindanao to operate as Alternative Learning 
System of the Department of Education on July 28 at a press conference in Quezon City. 
(Lorie Ann Cascaro/davaotoday.com)

“The President should appreciate the efforts and the initiatives of the ​L​umads to educate themselves,” said Gabriela Women’s Partylist Representative Arlene Brosas at the press conference. She cited that one out of 10 Filipinos of ages from 6 to 24 is out-of-school. The highest number of them are from the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao and Region 12 located in the south-central of Mindanao.

The Duterte administration should continue the peace talks, instead of solving issues through militaristic way, such as martial law and further militarization in lumad areas, Brosas added. #

No fewer than eleven illegal military bases within Syria’s borders. Turkey Reveals The Extent of Illegal US Military Base Building in Syria

By Russia Insider
Global Research, July 21, 2017
Russia Insider 20 July 2017

Let us be under no illusions.

Washington objective is to fracture and break up Syria as well as establish a permanent military presence in both Northern and Southern Syria.

(Michel Chossudovsky, GR, Editor)

* * *

Turkey’s state-owned Anadolu news agency has publicized the locations of 10 US bases in northern Syria, many of them previously unknown to the wider public.

For Turkey revealing the extent of increased US support for the Kurdish YPG militia—which Turkey insists is one and the same with the Kurdish PKK group it faces at home—serves to mobilize its public against the US.

Blowing the cover of the Americans is just a cherry on top.

The angle US media is centering on is just how upset the US is with Turkey for publishing this. Pentagon has asked US outlets not to reprint the information published by Anadolu and claimed doing so would endanger lives of US soldiers.

The Daily Beast:

Spokesmen for Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS, and for the U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida, asked The Daily Beast not to publish the detailed information reported by Anadolu.

“The discussion of specific troop numbers and locations would provide sensitive tactical information to the enemy which could endanger Coalition and partner forces,” wrote Col. Joe Scrocca, coalition director of public affairs.

“Publishing this type of information would be professionally irresponsible and we respectively [sic] request that you refrain from disseminating any information that would put Coalition lives in jeopardy.”

RT:

“While we cannot independently verify the sources that contributed to this story, we would be very concerned if officials from a NATO ally would purposefully endanger our forces by releasing sensitive information.”

However, we’d like to point out there is a party that has far more reason to be upset than the US. That would be Syria itself.

Along with the base at Al-Tanf the the US now has at least 11 permanently manned installations on the territory of Syria — all of them illegal.

All images in this article are from the author.

The original source of this article is Russia Insider
Copyright © Russia Insider, Russia Insider, 2017

ZEA IO MING C. CAPISTRANO – DavaoToday.com
Jul. 26, 2017

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — A week before President Rodrigo Duterte delivered his second State of the Nation Address, negotiators were engaged on a table battle to discuss reforms which would hopefully end the armed conflict.

Randall Echanis, member of the National Democratic Front Reciprocal Working Committee on Socio-Economic Reforms, told Davao Today in a telephone interview that bilateral teams of the government and the NDFP met last July 15 to 17 and tackled the provision on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ARRD).

He said their meeting achieved “positive advances” on the peace negotiations.

The bilateral teams were set up by both Parties during the fourth round of formal talks held in the Netherlands last April 6. The teams which are composed of three members each and supervised by the RWC-SER members aim to accelerate the negotiations on social and economic reforms.

“Positive yung in-advance nung naging pag-uusap (The talks gained positive advance),” Echanis said.

He said the bilateral teams finished tackling “about 60 to 70 percent of the common draft” on the agrarian reform and rural development part of the CASER.

There are still remaining issues which, Echanis said, they hoped to tackle in another bilateral team meeting in August before the fifth round of talks resume to tackle the remaining issues of CASER.

Echanis said the Parties also faced challenges, including the “unpreparedness” of the government on the “promised reformulation” to accelerate the talks of the bilateral team.

“Yung isa pang weakness sa part nila yung kanilang drafting team ay halos hindi familiar sa pinagdaanan na na mga discussion ng RWC (reciprocal working committee) level. Bago yung drafting team nila (Another weakness on their part is that their drafting team is composed of new members and are not familiar with the discussions covered in the RWC level),” he said. Echanis added that before they can proceed, they had to review the processes and the previous agreements.

But those challenges were easily overcome, he said.

The bilateral teams were able to complete the provisions, land distribution, compensation, scope and coverage – these, Echanis said, were “major parts of the provisions on ARRD.”

“We hope we can complete the ARRD provision during our next meeting and begin discussing the provision on ​n​ational Industrialization and ​e​conomic ​development,” he said.

He said it is possible that the Parties can “initial” the ARRD provisions if the fifth round of formal talks will push through next month.

The ARRD provision contains the guiding policy of free land distribution to farmers.

“The farmers will not pay for anything and the arrears or balances on the past agrarian reform law will be written off,” he said.

The ARRD also outlines the support services that should be afforded to farmers. Echanis said free land distribution will not be enough without the support from the government.

“There should be support services so that efficient production is continuous,” he said. Support services will come in the form of credit, irrigation, infrastructure, and crop insurance, among others.

Heart and soul of the talks

Both Parties see the CASER as the “heart and soul” of the peace process, which will put an end to the armed conflict.

Echanis said the problem of landlessness remains a reason why the majority of those who join the NPAs are farmers.

“They are the most exploited sectors of the society and land problem is the reason why there were many peasant uprisings in the Philippines. If this is addressed through reforms, it will be a big help in addressing the problem of the armed conflict,” he said.

Government chief negotiator Silvestre Bello III announced last month that the fifth round of talks will possibly resume in August. But President Duterte, who met on July 18 with the government peace panel gave a directive that there will be no resumption of talks if the NPA will not stop its offensives in Mindanao.

Echanis said another backchannel meeting is scheduled within the week prior to the second SONA of President Duterte to tackle how the fifth round of talks will resume.

However, on the day of Duterte’s second SONA, he lambasted the left for the offensives of the New People’s Army when it encountered with the Presidential Security Group on July 19, in the boundary of Davao City, North Cotabato and Bukidnon province.

Duterte repeatedly said the NPA’s were out to ambush the PSG five days before his SONA. He said he will not talk with the communists anymore.

“Simula ngayon, no more talks. I will prepare government. Lahat ng pera, gagastusin ko muna sa military, wala na muna iyang ano. Sila ang unahin ko ​ (From now on, no more talks. I will prepare government. I will spend the money first for the military, we will set aside the talks, i will prioritize the military)​,” Duterte said before the families of slain troops in Marawi City on Tuesday, July 25.

Since the encounter in Buda highway last July 19, Duterte has been addressing the communists in various speeches, criticizing them for “demanding a lot” and fighting the government while pushing for talks.

He said if it is war that the communists seek, he will give it to him.

The NDFP said they believe the enabling environment to proceed with the negotiations is the crafting of the CASER, the second substantive agenda of the GRP-NDFP peace talks. The other agenda is political and constitutional reforms and end of hostilities and disposition of forces.

“Ceasefire without substantial reforms will hold no strong basis and will not resolve the armed conflict,” Echanis said. (davaotoday.com)

Davao Today | Standpoint
July 22, 2017

*Paper read by Prof. Bobby Tuazon, Director for Policy Studies, Center for People Empowerment in Governance / CenPEG, pre-SONA 9th State of the Presidency, held July 20, 2017, UP Diliman, Quezon City

The peace negotiations between the government (GPH) and National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) resumed last year in an upbeat mood with both sides agreeing to fast track the process. A year later, the talks has lost its steam and is proving to be a difficult and protracted one with a probability of meeting the same fate as in previous negotiations. Even as both the GPH panel led by Silvestre Bello and the NDFP panel led by Fidel V. Agcaoili try to save the process through continuing back-channel talks the realities on the ground – such as military intransigence and President Duterte’s poor grasp of the peace process, on one hand, and the NPA holding its ground to resist AFP operations, on the other – far outweigh efforts to keep the talks going.

After fighting Marcos rule that eventually weakened the dictatorship’s repressive apparatus, the Marxist armed Left won tacit recognition as a belligerent force compelling the post-Marcos regimes starting with Corazon C. Aquino to negotiate for peace in 1986 with the NDFP which represents the CPP and its armed component, New People’s Army (NPA). The main thread that binds government negotiations over the past 30 years – with The Netherlands and Norway governments hosting the talks – has been to pressure the armed Left to capitulate while launching total wars resulting in human rights abuses and, of late, refusing to honor previous agreements and tagging the armed Left as “terrorist.” With its doctrinaire anti-communist and pro-US stance, the security establishment – politicized by Marcos military rule in the 70s-80s – held the leverage to eventually scuttle peace talks at every opportunity when these are held. Today, both government forces and the leftist guerrillas are technically in a deadlock as the NPA expands its zones of operation. US officials, a wikileaks expose reveals, admit that the Philippine government cannot defeat the NPA.

In the 30-year timeline of protracted peace talks, the social and economic conditions in the country worsened through widening income disparities, unemployment, and economic hemorrhage while patronage politics and corruption made elite rule even more entrenched. It was clear from the start of the peace talks that more than being a converging point the negotiating table served as a wall separating two opposing perspectives and interests. On one side was the GPH panel representing the state whose role is to preserve the status quo of the dominant class of oligarchs, an unequal alliance with the US, and a political system legitimized in principle by a constitution which is otherwise mocked by the ruling oligarchs themselves. On the other side, was a revolutionary organization that envisions, so its program claims, to overhaul the class system, implement a genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization en route to establishing a socialist state. Even as it wages armed struggle, the NDFP has stated, a negotiated political settlement that comprehensively addresses the roots of war remains an option.

For this option, a window was opened under Duterte. The new president appointed a few progressives to the cabinet and had some key political prisoners on temporary release to allow them to participate in a restored peace negotiations. Likewise, the president’s panel agreed with the NDFP to reaffirm previous agreements including the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and the Joint Agreement on Security and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG). Their joint communique paved the way for a round of formal talks that, both panels agreed, would tackle within two years a Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) – considered as the key that will unlock other agreements like a Comprehensive Agreement on Political and Constitutional Reforms (CAPCR), end of hostilities, and disposition of forces.

Thus far, both sides have reached an agreement in principle on free land distribution as they also began to hammer out mechanisms for monitoring the enforcement of CARHRIHL as well as ceasefire agreement. The NDFP’s chief political consultant, Prof. Jose Maria Sison, also proposed that the NDFP can co-found the Federal system of government, a priority agenda of Duterte to replace the current unitary and presidential system.

The May 2017 fifth round of talks in The Netherlands was, however, unilaterally put “on hold” by the GPH panel as the cabinet-level peace and security cluster led by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana prevailed upon the GPH principal – Duterte – to demand a stop of offensives by the CPP-NPA and that an early joint bilateral ceasefire agreement be signed first before talks can proceed. In response, the NDFP said that the NPA was acting in response to Lorenzana’s warning that the martial law declared in Mindanao against terrorist groups covered the NPA as a target. The NDFP negotiators added that a bilateral ceasefire agreement should be preconditioned first on agreements on social and economic reforms as well as political and constitutional reforms. As both panels gear for the calendared resumption of talks in August in Oslo, the countryside remains disquiet with internecine armed hostilities between government and NPA forces.

While both panels particularly the GPH are looking for an “enabling environment” for continuing the talks, core internal factors actually dictate the pace and prospects of the process. On the government side, is Duterte’s tendency to heed the preponderant voice of his peace and security cluster such as on an early bilateral ceasefire often overshadowing the conciliatory position of his own peace negotiators. There are factions and hawkish minds within the security force that are by heart opposed to the peace talks just as there are powerful elements who find fundamental social and economic reforms sought by the Left unsettling. By all indications the president is torn between ensuring that the security institution is loyal to him and pursuing talks with the Left to end what he calls “fighting among fellow compatriots.”

Despite the short-term goal of winning the loyalty of the AFP and promoting neo-liberal policies to boost economic growth, the president is oblivious of the long-term gain of forging a final peace agreement that will put in place comprehensive institutional reforms that he can perhaps leave as a legacy. It could be an arduous process but in the final analysis, how far the GPH panel can pursue the peace talks with the Left lies on the president’s hands. The GPH panel, however, is well-advised to take note that a just and lasting peace pact is a meeting of minds between two forces who face each other on equal footing and use a peace agreement as an instrument for instituting reforms with the effective participation of erstwhile belligerent forces and the people.

On the part of the NDFP, the government side has raised questions whether their negotiating panel truly represents the CPP and NPA given what AFP generals say are continuing offensives by the red guerrillas. The NDFP panel clarified that in the same way that the GPH party’s principal is the president their own principal remains to be the CPP, now led by a younger corps of cadres. As Sison, the NDFP’s chief political consultant, said in a Telsur analysis last June 26, the CPP, NPA, and NDFP “have publicly expressed their readiness to fight and defeat the all-out war policy of the Duterte regime. At the same time, they are still willing to pursue the peace negotiations with the GRP even under conditions of the severest fighting in the civil war in order to…forge the comprehensive agreements for a just and lasting peace against the oppressive and exploitative forces of foreign monopoly capitalism, domestic feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism.”

GMA News Online / News
Published July 20, 2017 5:31pm

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Maria Sison on Thursday deemed the peace talks with the government unnecessary due to the Duterte administration’s “obsession with martial law and mass murder.”

Sison’s scathing statement was issued a day after the government canceled its backchannel talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF), the CPP’s negotiating arm, following Wednesday’s rebel attack on a Presidential Security Group convoy in Arakan, Cotabato.

“There is really no need for GRP-NDFP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines-National Democratic Front of the Philippines) peace negotiations if the Duterte regime is obsessed with martial rule and mass murder as the way to solve social, economic and political problems and to frighten in vain the revolutionary forces and people to surrender and give up their revolutionary struggle for national and social liberation,” Sison said in a statement.

President Rodrigo Duterte has put the entire Mindanao under martial rule on May 23 following the attack on Marawi City by Islamic fundamentalist groups sympathetic to the ISIS terrorist organization.

The 60-day martial law will lapse on July 22, but Duterte has asked Congress to extend it until the end of the year.

Attack on PSG

Regarding the attack on the convoy, Sison questioned why the PSG van was in the area.

“What is the PSG van doing in Arakan, Cotabato? To make provocations or to stage an Enrile-type ambush on the eve of the martial law proclamation by Marcos in 1972? A preparation for martial law nationwide, thus the PSG van is made to appear as the target of NPA ambush?” he asked.

The attack injured five PSG men namely Staff Sergeant Arniel Matunhay, Sergeant Gerry Torsar, Corporal Rodel Ledesma, Corporal Ayam Alia, and a Staff Sergeant Lisondra.

The Duterte administration has kept firm on its stand to discontinue peace talks with the communists if they persist in their hostilities against the government.

The fifth round of talks was put on hold in May after the government peace panel pulled out from it following the CPP’s call for the NPA to intensify attacks on the heels of the martial law declaration in Mindanao. —Anna Felicia Bajo/KBK/KVD, GMA News