As ASEAN Shifts East, ISIS Follows

By Tony Cartalucci
Global Research, July 18, 2017
New Eastern Outlook 17 July 2017

Where US interests are threatened, ISIS coincidentally appears, threatening those standing in the way. What is behind this increasingly transparent pattern of geopolitical coercion?

As protracted warfare continues in southern Philippines between government forces and militants linked to the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS), fears that the US is leveraging the terrorist group far beyond Syria and Iraq where it was created are rising. Nations opposing or obstructing US interests beyond America’s borders now find themselves likely targets of this covert form of armed coercion.

The United States is increasingly at odds with nations and political orders across Southeast Asia it had once counted among its closest allies in the region. Included is Thailand, a nation of nearly 70 million people, who as of 2014, ousted a US-backed client regime in a bloodless military coup.

Since then, Bangkok has definitively shifted further away from Washington’s influence, toward Beijing, Moscow, and virtually any other nation-state that can provide Thailand with alternatives to Washington’s monopoly on geopolitical, economic, and military influence.

Much of Thailand’s military inventory – for decades consisting of US hardware – is now being replaced by a combination of Russian, Chinese, European, and even domestically developed weapon systems. These include orders of Chinese main battle tanks, Russian helicopters, Swedish warplanes, and both armored personnel carries and rocket artillery systems developed by local industry.

More recently, Thailand sealed a significant arms deal with China for the purchase of the Kingdom’s first modern submarines. In total, three submarines will be bought, enhancing Thailand’s naval capabilities across the region – and more specifically – drawing the navies of Thailand and China closer together in both technical and strategic cooperation.

Following Thailand, is a number of other nations including the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and even to certain degrees, Myanmar and Vietnam.

As Thailand and other members of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) pivot East, the US has predictably increased pressure on these states through the use of US-funded fronts posing as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) as well as opposition parties created, backed, and directed by Washington.

In nations like Myanmar where the ruling party is already a long-supported US client regime, pressure is placed upon it through the exploitation of human rights advocacy when it is perceived by Washington to be tilting too far in Beijing’s favor.

As these methods of coercion become increasingly futile, the US has also pursued more direct means of coercion – terrorism.

US-Linked Terrorism in Southeast Asia 

In 2015, when Thailand refused to heed US demands to allow Chinese citizens wanted for terrorism to travel onward to Turkey where they would inevitably join US-backed efforts to overthrow the government of neighboring Syria, terrorists detonated a bomb in the center of Bangkok leaving 20 dead and many more maimed. Even Western analysts concluded the likely culprits were members the Turkish Grey Wolves front, created by NATO and cultivated as a means of asymmetrical warfare by the United States itself for decades.

Also increasing across ASEAN is the presence of the so-called “Islamic State” or ISIS.

As Indonesia continues its own pivot East, it has been targeted by terrorists allegedly from ISIS. An attack in Jakarta in 2016 followed the nation’s decision to favor Chinese firms in the construction of additional national railway systems.

More recently, Malaysian security forces disrupted an alleged ISIS terror cell operating on both sides of the Thai-Malaysian border.

In the Philippines, ISIS violence has transcended mere terrorist attacks and has manifested itself as protracted warfare over the fate of Marawi City in the nation’s south.

And while US and European media sources openly admit the expanding presence of ISIS in Asia – they categorically fail to point out the otherwise illogical nature of how they explain this expansion.

ISIS is State Sponsored Terror, But Which States?

ISIS is – according to Western narratives – inexplicably able to maintain its fighting capacity in Syria and Iraq against a coalition consisting of Syrian and Iraqi government forces, backed by Iran, Russia, and auxiliary forces drawn from Lebanon-based front, Hezbollah. ISIS is also inexplicably able to project its militancy internationally – carrying out attacks worldwide, and building increasingly capable militant cells across Southeast Asia.

According to Western narratives, ISIS is doing this with funding drawn from hostage ransoms, black market oil, and meager revenue from “taxation” of its quickly shrinking territorial holdings in Syria and Iraq.

In reality, however, ISIS would not exist without constant and significant multinational state sponsorship. To answer which nations are providing ISIS sponsorship, one needs only to read the United States’ own intelligence reports.

The United State’s own Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in a 2012 report that revealed ongoing plans by an American led axis to create what it at the time called a “Salafist” (Islamic) “principality” (State).

In the DIA’s leaked 2012 report (.pdf) it stated (emphasis added):
“If the situation unravels there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in eastern Syria (Hasaka and Der Zor), and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime, which is considered the strategic depth of the Shia expansion (Iraq and Iran)”.

To clarify just who these “supporting powers” were that sought the creation of a “Salafist” (Islamic) principality” (State), the DIA report explains (emphasis added):

“The West, Gulf countries, and Turkey support the opposition; while Russia, China, and Iran support the regime.”

Leaked e-mails from presidential candidate and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, also revealed senior US political leaders assigning blame for the state sponsorship of ISIS on America’s closest Middle Eastern allies, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The e-mail, leaked to the public through Wikileaks, stated:

“…we need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to [ISIS] and other radical Sunni groups in the region.”

If ISIS is being used as a proxy by the US and its allies to coerce – even overthrow – the government of Syria and wage proxy war on Russia, Iran, and their regional allies, it stands to reason that ISIS’ sudden presence in Southeast Asia as nations there increasingly pivot away from Washington is no mere “coincidence.”

ISIS finds itself in Southeast Asia because America’s “pivot” to Asia has unfolded as a stumble, even a retreat. Despite bold declarations of primacy over Asia, the US has found itself in an increasingly bitter struggle with not only Beijing, but a number of nations seeking to rebalance power across Asia Pacific in favor of the nations actually residing in Asia Pacific.

Waning American Influence Brings Waxing American Subversion

Just like a waning American influence in the Middle East has triggered regional attempts by Washington to destabilize, divide, and destroy what it cannot influence and exploit, a similar campaign is underway in Asia Pacific. US meddling extends from the Korean Peninsula, to the South China Sea, across Southeast Asia, and even beyond to the mountains of Afghanistan and the western-most borders of China. The common denominator is conflict – either threatened or incrementally unfolding – either between states the US attempts to pit against one another, or internally between indigenous political institutions and those sponsored by and for Washington.

Understanding and exposing Washington’s use of terrorism as a means of geopolitical coercion and expediency is the first step in removing this abhorrent tool from Washington’s bag of geopolitical tricks. If each and every time ISIS or an associated terrorist organization carries out an attack, it only further implicates Washington and its counterproductive role in the region, it will only make America’s retreat from Asia Pacific that much faster and absolute.

What will be left for Washington is a quickly closing window of opportunity to reestablish its ties with Asian states on equitable terms respecting national sovereignty and ending the concept of “American primacy” anywhere but within America’s own borders.

Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

Featured image from New Eastern Outlook

The original source of this article is New Eastern Outlook
Copyright © Tony Cartalucci, New Eastern Outlook, 2017

File photos of communist leader Jose Maria Sison (from josemariasison.org)
and President Rodrigo Duterte (from Malacanang)

By InterAksyon
July 20, 2017

MANILA, Philippines – Back to being enemies of the state.

This is where leftist groups appear to be heading to as their political alliance with President Rodrigo Duterte, which appeared to be robust just a year ago, further weakened with the chief executive’s decision against resuming both the government’s peace negotiations and backchannel talks with communist rebels as well as his refusal to heed the call of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) to end martial law in Mindanao.

Minutes after Secretary Jesus Dureza on Wednesday said that the decision was not to continue the formal talks supposedly scheduled next month and that only the backchannel talks would resume, the presidential adviser on the peace process backpedalled and said via his Facebook page that Duterte had instructed government negotiators to also cancel informal talks with the Reds.

“I am announcing the cancellation of backchannel talks wit the CPP/NPA/NDF (Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army/National Democratic Front) originally set within the next few days in Europe due to recent developments involving attacks done by the NPAs,” said Dureza.

“The situation on the ground necessary to provide the desired enabling environment for the conduct of peace negotiations are still not present up to this time,” he added.

The NPA is being blamed for the alleged ambush in Brgy. Katipunan, Arakan, North Cotabato early Wednesday killing a militiaman and wounding four members of the President’s security personnel.

But the communist rebels later the same day denied the allegation. “There was no encounter between the PSG (Presidential Security Group) and NPA units. Also, the NPA fighters did not report any encounter with the responding AFP/PNP.”

Also, the government-run Philippine News Agency reported Wednesday afternoon that according to PSG spokesperson Lt. Col. Mike Aquino, the incident was not an NPA ambush as it was their personnel who had fired first at the suspicious-looking band who were clad in military uniforms.

Two more offensives reported the same day were blamed on the NPA — the attack on DOLE Philippines’ banana plantation in Sitio Ibo, Brgy. Anahao Daan, Tago, Surigao del Sur and the assault in Roxas, Palawan that killed two Marines.

On Duterte’s decision to decline Bayan’s plea for him to end military rule in the South, the NDF’s Reciprocal Working Committee on Social and Economic Reforms said on Wednesday that the President’s push for the extension of martial law and relatedly the government’s insistence for a “prolonged ceasefire” as a precondition for the continuation of the peace talks “do not at all bide well for the peace negotiations.”

“All these indicate that the GPH (government of the Philippines) is just looking at the military angle of the crisis in Marawi and of the problems of the whole country, and that the GPH lacks interest to work out with the NDFP fundamental agreements towards solving the socio-economic and also the political-cultural root causes of the armed conflict with the objective of achieving real and lasting peace in the country,” it said in a statement.

According to the NDF, “Duterte’s supposed openness to other reform measures would eventually all be rendered meaningless, as he tends to scuttle the peace talks and gives in more and more to the interests of and pressures from the military fascists in government and from the US imperialists behind these fascists.”

“He had earlier said that he would also like to terminate labor contractualizaton, push for free school tuition and for more practical reform measures. None of these would find reality any longer, if the GPH keeps on insisting only at the military aspects of and apparent solutions to the country’s problems, and does not even look at the abuses made by the GPH’s military and at the intrusions of the US troops that have exaggerated and even further worsened the Marawi crisis,” it said.

ZEA IO MING C. CAPISTRANO – Davao Today
Jul. 14, 2017

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — The National Democratic Front of the Philippines reiterated its position that the most conducive environment for the peace negotiations with the government will be provided by discussing social and economic reforms. The NDFP also reiterated its call for the release of political prisoner.

“We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. The enabling environment most conducive to the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations is the buckling down to work in crafting a comprehensive agreement on substantial socioeconomic reforms that will benefit the Filipino people,” ​said Alan Jazmines, vice chairperson of the NDFP Reciprocal Working Committee for Social-Economic Reforms in a statement on Friday, July 14.
​
​He said another conducive environment would be government’s adherence to human rights and international humanitarian laws “including the release of all political prisoners, as promised by the Duterte government”. ​

The Philippine government and the NDFP are scheduled to hold an informal meeting of the third week of this month in preparation for the possible resumption of the fifth round of formal talks in August. GRP chief negotiator Silvestre Bello III previously announced that the formal talks would probably resume on the second or third week of the next month.

Jazmines said they are looking forward to the bilateral teams’ meeting which aims to come up with a tentative common draft of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) in order to accelerate negotiations and complete the latter by the first quarter of 2018.

The bilateral teams were set up to accelerate the negotiations on social and economic reforms in between the formal talks. CASER is the second substantive agenda on the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations. The remaining two agendas are the political and constitutional reforms and the end of hostilities and disposition of forces.

During the previous round of talks, the parties have agreed in principle for free land distribution.

Jazmines said there is urgency to discuss and come up with an agreement on agrarian reform and rural development. He said that in Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac, Hacienda Roxas in Batangas, Central Luzon, Negros, the Cordillera, and Mindanao, farmers continue to engage in land struggles to defend their right to the land they are tilling.

“The achievement of the third round of the peace talks, the agreement on the principle of free land distribution by the NDFP and the GPH, will amount to nothing unless it is followed up by more concrete and substantive agreements,” he said.

Jazmines added that the Parties have “already wasted so much time.”

“We expect that there will be no more delays. We have done our assignment and will bring to the table concrete proposals on agrarian reform and rural development, national industrialization, protection of the environment. This is a clear path to take for a just and lasting peace,” Jazmines said.

The fifth round of talks was suspended after the government refused to participate, citing lack of conducive environment for the talks to proceed. The government pointed out a statement of the Communist Party of the Philippines that it accelerate and intensify its attacks against the government amid the declaration of Martial Law.

In a press briefing in Malacanang on July 11, Presidential Adviser Jesus Dureza said back channel talks will happen, although the date and venue are still undetermined. (davaotoday.com)

By: Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Repost from Telsur > Opinion > Articles
26 June 2017

Members of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force ride on a truck in Iligan, as government forces continue their assault against insurgents from the
Maute group, who have taken over large parts of Marawi City, Philippines. | Photo: Reuters

By all major indications, the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) headed by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and the revolutionary forces represented by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) are heading for the rocks, despite the strong clamor for these negotiations by the public and a broad range of peace advocates and despite the patient and efficient third party role of the Royal Norwegian Government (RNG) as facilitator.

For more than a year, since May 16, 2016, Duterte has not fulfilled his promise to release more than 400 NDFP-listed political prisoners through general amnesty or the prosecutors’ withdrawal of the false charges of common crimes against them. The promise to release all political prisoners encouraged the NDFP to agree to an acceleration of the peace negotiations on social, economic, political and constitutional reforms in order to address the roots of the now 48 years of civil war between the GRP and NDFP.

But after four rounds of formal talks (two in Oslo in 2016, one in Rome in January 2017 and one in Noordwijk, Netherlands in April 2017), the GRP has steadily backed out of its promise to release all political prisoners and Duterte himself has publicly expressed regrets for having released from prison a mere 19 of them in August last year. These are NDFP political consultants who are protected by the GRP-NDFP Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and should never have been arrested and imprisoned at all. Worst, President Duterte has twice threatened (in February and May 2017) these consultants with rearrest and shoot-to-kill orders while they were engaged in the peace negotiations abroad.

In the course of the four rounds of formal talks, the GRP negotiating panel has given the highest priority to discussions on a prolonged and indefinite bilateral ceasefire in a vain effort to obtain quickly the capitulation and pacification of the revolutionary forces and the people. The GRP has blatantly shown diminishing interest in the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and in the sequenced forging of comprehensive agreements on social and economic reforms, political and constitutional reforms and on the end of hostilities and disposition of forces.

Duterte retains in his cabinet rabid exponents of U.S.-instigated neoliberal economic policy, like Director General Ernesto Pernia of the National Economic Development Authority, Secretary Carlos Dominguez III of the Finance Department and Secretary Benjamin Diokno of the Department of Budget and Management. He has allowed his “supermajority” in Congress to remove Gina Lopez from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources because of her opposition to the plundering and polluting operations of mining companies.

Duterte has shown a lack of sustained interest in genuine land reform and national industrialization proposed by the NDFP. He has demagogically used the slogan of change only to stick to the status quo and further entrench the interests of the United States and other foreign monopolies and the oligarchy of big compradors and landlords. He prefers continuing the export of raw materials, semi-manufactures, and cheap labor and taking onerous foreign loans to sustain import-dependent consumption and infrastructure building and to cover the ever growing chronic trade deficit and balance of payments.

The NDFP has offered to co-found the Federal Republic of the Philippines with the GRP, provided there are guarantees for political and economic sovereignty, people’s democracy, respect for human rights, development, social justice, patriotic culture and independent foreign policy against foreign dominance, dynasticism, warlordism and other forms of local reaction. But the Duterte regime appears convinced that it alone can proceed to establish an authoritarian regime or even a fascist rule by capitalizing on its supposed “iron hand” success against illegal drugs and by shifting now to an “anti-terrorist” campaign that paves the way for a Marcos-type nationwide martial law, adoption of a new constitution and its ratification by local assemblies run by barangay captains to be appointed by Duterte and controlled by his Kilusang Pagbabago (Movement for Change).

Despite Duterte’s avowal of trying to develop an independent foreign policy in a multipolar world, by approaching China and Russia and reducing the overwhelming U.S. hegemony over the Philippines, pro-U.S. and reactionary die-hards like defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana, national security adviser Hermogenes Esperon and armed forces chief of staff Eduardo Año have their way in perpetuating U.S. dominance over the Philippine military and in sabotaging GRP-NDFP peace negotiations by waging an all-out war policy under Oplan Kapayapaan against the revolutionary forces and people since February 2017 after deviously continuing Aquino’s Oplan Bayanihan.

Lorenzana, Esperon and Año are hell-bent on escalating offensive campaigns against the New People’s Army and other revolutionary forces and using the peace negotiations to obtain the capitulation and pacification of these forces under the guise of a prolonged and indefinite bilateral ceasefire agreement, which puts aside substantive negotiations and comprehensive agreements on social, economic and constitutional reforms. Such ceasefire agreement is supposed to be coupled with socio-economic dole outs from the GRP and foreign entities and prevent the basic socio-economic reforms demanded by the people.

The so-called security cluster in the Duterte cabinet has Duterte practically on the cusp of its hands on national security issues. Longtime Washington resident Defense Secretary Lorenzana has been able to put U.S. military forces at play in the air and ground surveillance and bombing of Marawi City, resulting in indiscriminate mass destruction of civilian lives and property and the displacement of more than 300,000 people in Marawi and nearby areas. The irony in the Marawi tragedy is that U.S. military intervention has been justified at the highest level of the Duterte regime by the special operations of the CIA-directed and Islamic state (Daesh)-affiliated Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups.

Duterte himself has become insecure, despite his current obeisance to the United States and his own security cluster. He himself has acknowledged that he faces threats of assassination or coup. It seems to be beneficial to Duterte that the United States and his own security cluster are egging him on to include the revolutionary forces led by the Communist Party of the Philippines as among the “terrorist” targets of the reactionary state to rationalize a Mindanao-wide and then nationwide proclamation of martial law. But this will make Duterte even more vulnerable to a “soft” coup by the pro-U.S. retired and active generals around him or to a popular broad united front against his regime. When he becomes more of a liability than an asset to the United States, even the pro-U.S. officials around him are likely to turn against him and cooperate with anti-Duterte forces within and outside of the reactionary armed forces and police.

A newly-elected president in the Philippines usually obtains in his first year of office a high popularity and trust rating from the mercenary opinion poll survey firms. Subsequently, his reputation deteriorates as his promises remain unfulfilled, problems are aggravated and projects fall short of targets and are afflicted by corruption, The Duterte regime is already reeking with corruption even before it can fulfill its promise of punishing the big crooks in the previous Aquino regime. However, Duterte is now most liable for gross human rights violations for the thousands of extra-judicial killings in his Oplan Tokhang against illegal drugs and for the indiscriminate bombings and artillery fire on communities in his all-out war policy against the revolutionary forces and in his campaign against the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups in Marawi and other Bangsamoro groups elsewhere.

The socio-economic and political conditions in the Philippines and in the world are not favorable for the Duterte regime to abandon peace negotiations with the NDFP and to pursue authoritarian ambitions. Having a growth rate of the gross domestic product at around 7 per cent or even higher is not a true measure economic and social development. It merely obscures in vain how the exploiting classes appropriate for themselves the social wealth created by the working people. Poverty is widespread because of extreme forms of exploitation in an underdeveloped economy. Mass unemployment is actually rising, incomes of the working people are plunging and taxes and prices of basic commodities are soaring. The use of authoritarianism and state terrorism will only serve to inflame further the Filipino people’s resistance.

The Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines 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 rouse and rally the people along the patriotic and progressive line, explore further how to serve the interest of the people and 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.

Prof. Jose Maria Sison is Chief Political Consultants for the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and Founding Chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Kodao Productions / News
June 18, 2017

Stalled formal peace negotiations between the Duterte government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) may resume in August, sources told Kodao Productions.

Following exchanges of “friendly” statements after Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) negotiators backed off from the scheduled fifth round of talks in The Netherlands last month, back-channel talks are reportedly ongoing in a bid to resume the talks in about two months.

“There is a possibility that the talks will be held in August,” a source involved in the negotiations said.

In his weekly Philippine Star column yesterday, NDFP independent observer and former chief negotiator Satur Ocampo wrote that both parties have agreed to resume the talks, adding the panels may issue their respective statements soon.

“A few days ago, it was learned that, through back channel talks, members of the two panels had resolved certain actual or perceived hindrances and agreed to continue the disrupted fifth round of negotiations within two months,” Ocampo reported.

He added that NDFP Chief Political Consultant Jose Maria Sison already broke the “good news” in an interview with ANC Wednesday morning.

“He (Sison) said statements on the points of agreement arrived at during the back-channel talks can be expected to be officially issued separately by the panels,” Ocampo added.

No offensive operations

In a statement today, GRP chief negotiator Silvestre Bello III declared that the Philippine government will not launch offensive operations against the New People’s Army (NPA) in response to the NDFP’s recommendation to the Communist Party of the Philippines to refrain from attacking the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police while the battle in Marawi City is ongoing.

“The Philippine government hereby correspondingly reciprocates with the same declaration of not undertaking offensive operations against the New People’s Army to pave way for the eventual signing of a mutually agreed bilateral ceasefire agreement and agreements on social and economic reforms, political and constitutional reforms and end of hostilities and disposition of forces towards a just and lasting peace,” Bello said.

Yesterday, the NDFP said it has already instructed its allied organization, the Moro Resistance and Liberation Organization (MRLO), inside Marawi City to assume home defense tasks against the Maute, Abu Sayyaf and AKP groups.

It added the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has also directed units of the New People’s Army (NPA) close to Marawi City to redeploy for the purpose of mopping up, holding and blocking operations, if necessary.

“For all forces to be able to concentrate against Maute, Abu Sayyaf and AKP groups, the NDFP has recommended to the CPP to order all other NPA units in Mindanao to refrain from carrying out offensive operations against the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP), provided that the GRP order the AFP and PNP likewise to refrain from carrying out offensive operations against the NPA and people’s militia,” the NDFP said.

Bello said the GRP welcomes NDFP’s support to the fight against the Maute, Abu Sayyaf and Ansar al-Khalifah groups and other terrorist organizations wreaking havoc in Marawi City and other parts of the country.

“These voluntary gestures and expressions from the NDF in solidarity with government against acts of terrorism augur well for the desired continuation of the stalled 5th round of peace talks as they provide, if sustained, the needed enabling environment favorable to moving the peace negotiations forward,” Bello said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

UNITY STATEMENT
June 12, 2017

No to Terrorism!
Lift Martial Law!
Stop Aerial Bombings of Communities!
Stop Extrajudicial Killings!
Defend Human Rights!
Pursue the Peace Talks!

On June 12, Independence Day, we, concerned Filipinos from various faiths, sectors and political affiliations, will come together in a day of prayer and action to renew the call for peace and respect for human rights amidst the rising tide of terrorism, martial rule and impunity that threatens to rip the nation apart.

We extend our solidarity to the victims of the Marawi siege. We condemn the deliberate acts of terror by the ISIS-inspired Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups. We call on all people to come to the aid of thousands of internally displaced persons in Lanao del Sur and nearby areas.

Likewise, we gather to show our opposition to martial law in Mindanao and possibly other parts of the country. We call for an end to the aerial bombardment of Marawi and other conflict areas.

As the Marcos dictatorship showed, martial law is not the answer to the complex problems of Mindanao. A regime that trades Filipinos’ human rights for vague, ever moving law and order goals can only add fuel to armed rebellions and set back efforts to address the roots of the conflict. Martial law will further embolden law enforcers and state-sponsored vigilante and para-military groups to commit even more extrajudicial killings and curtail civil and political rights.

In the last year, atrocities have mounted nationwide. Filipinos are right to protest the murders of thousands in the drug war, as well as the extrajudicial killing of suspected rebels, ordinary farmers, indigenous peoples and Moro people in the counterinsurgency war. It is the poor that bear the brunt of these wars. It is the poor that are killed. It is their rights that are violated. It is their communities that are subject to aerial bombings and abuses during military and police operations.

As the poor suffer, the drug lords, the landgrabbers, big mining corporations, and their protectors in government, continue to get away with their crimes.

We likewise unite against the dangers of reimposing the death penalty and lowering of the age of criminal responsibility. Given the weaknesses and failures of our justice system, such measures will most likely further victimize the poor, weak and powerless.

Drug abuse, criminality, social unrest and rebellion are but symptoms of deep-seated, historical problems that cannot be solved by wars against the poor or the imposition of martial law. We need to address the roots of the problems – massive poverty, social injustice, corruption, and failure to assert national sovereignty and genuine independence.

In this light, we also call for the continuation of the peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). Only by mutually addressing the roots of the armed conflicts can all parties hope to forge a just and lasting peace for our people.

We shall continue to pursue various paths to peace based on justice and the full respect for human rights. It is our hope and prayer that President Duterte and all government officials can still listen and change.

Initial signatories:

Current and Former Members of Congress:

Former Sen. Rene Saguisag                                 Former Sen. Wigberto Tañada
Former Sen. Nene Pimentel                                Former Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III
Rep. Carlos Zarate (PL- Bayan Muna)                Rep. Emmi de Jesus (PL – Gabriela)
Rep. Arlene Brosas (PL – Gabriela)                     Rep. Antonio Tino (PL – ACT Teachers)
Rep. Sarah Elago (PL – Kabataan)                       Former Rep. Neri Colmenares
Former Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III                         Former Rep. Teddy Casiño

Religious:

Bp. Broderick Pabillo, D.D.                                  Bp. Godofredo David, IFI
Bp. Joel Tendero, UCCP                                        Bp. Elorde Sambat, UCCP
Bp. Rodolfo Juan, UMC                                         Bp. Ciriaco Francisco, UMC
Bp. Alexander Wandag, ECP                                BP. Redeemer Yanez, IFI
Bp. Ernesto Tadly, IFI                                            Bp. Rudy Juliada, IFI
Bp. Melzar Labuntog, UCCP                                Bp. Antonio Ablon, IFI
Bp. Modesto Villasanta, UCCP                            Bp. Alger Loyao, IFI
Bp. Ronelio Fabriquier, IFI                                   Bp. Manuel Buenaventura, Jr., UMC
Sr. Mary John Mananzan, OSB                            Sr. Maureen Catabian, RGS
Rev. Mary Grace Masegman, IFI                         Rev. Irma Balaba, PCPR
Fr. Ben Alforque, MSC                                          Br. Jun Santiago III, CSsR
Fr. Gilbert Billena, Ocarm                                    Fr. Rolly de Leon, PCPR
Fr. Arvin Bellen, CMF Rev.                                    Fr. Jonash Joyohoy, IFI
Rt. Rev. Jonathan Casimina                                 Rev. Igmedio Domingo, UMC
Rev. Israel Painit, UMC

Lawyers:

Atty. Edre Olalia                                                     Atty. Ephraim Cortez

Artists:

Maria Isabel Lopez                                                Maria Carmen Sarmiento
Gabriela Lluch Dalena                                           Mae Paner

Human Rights Advocates and Sectoral leaders:

Cristina Palabay, Karapatan                                Dr. Carol Araullo, BAYAN
Renato Reyes, Jr., BAYAN                                     Mark Vincent Lim, CEGP

#StopTheKillings

#EndStateFascism

#PeaceTalksItuloy

National Day of Prayer and Action for Peace and Human Rights. Bonifacio Shrine. June 12, 2017

Davao Today
May 31, 2017

Please watch the video clip below:

https://philpeacecenter.net/Peace%20Negotiations/20170531%20dt%20-%20fa%20jms%20lj.htm

Kodao Philippines
May 31, 2017

PRESS RELEASE, 27 May 2017
Noordwijk aan Zee, The Netherlands

The NDFP and its delegation came to The Netherlands ready and willing to proceed with the fifth round of talks to work on the draft of CASER (Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms). Once more, the GRP succeeded in sidelining the substantive agenda on social and economic reforms by raising unreasonable demands.

Even before the fifth round could start, Jesus Dureza told the NDFP panel that the GRP panel would not “participate in the scheduled fifth round of talks unless there were clear indications that an enabling environment conducive to achieving just and sustainable peace in the land through peace negotiations across this table shall prevail.”

This seemingly vague statement was actually an ultimatum served on the NDFP to collapse the talks unless it submitted to the following demands: 1) that the CPP rescind its order to the NPA that was in the main responding to the intensified AFP military operations nation-wide before and after Duterte’s declaration of martial law in Mindanao and, 2) that the NDFP immediately sign a joint ceasefire agreement even without the necessary agreements on social, economic and political reforms in place. These unreasonable demands have disrupted the fifth round of formal talks.

The CPP order was in response to the intensified AFP operations and widespread human rights violations preceding and following the declaration of Martial Law in the whole of Mindanao. Duterte justified his action by citing as reason the terrorist actions of the Maute Group in Marawi City. But Lorenzana declared that the NPA was also a target of AFP military operations. Silvestre Bello made a subsequent clarification that Duterte had said that the Mindanao martial law was not aimed against the NPA.

However, the facts on the ground belie the clarification made by Bello. We quote from the NPA report sent to the NDFP panel:

The second demand for an immediate ceasefire is unreasonable because there are no agreements on reforms in place but also because it one-sidedly demands from the NPA to stop fighting while the AFP continues its all-out war against the NPA and the people. There is impunity in carrying out atrocities against the masses in the rural areas and the ensuing widespread human rights violations under martial law. The GRP also has to comply with long standing agreements on release of political prisoners.

What is even more objectionable to the GRP demand to rush the NDFP into signing an immediate ceasefire agreement is the fact that it is imposed as a precondition to moving ahead with negotiations on CASER the main item scheduled for the fifth round and considered as the meat of the whole peace negotiations. This, in effect, delays the forging of urgently needed social, economic and political reforms which could provide the most enduring basis for peace and social justice.

The NDFP is ready to resume the fifth round of formal talks on the substantive agenda of social and economic reforms when the other side is willing to do so. #

Reference:
Fidel V. Agcaoili
Chairperson
NDFP Negotiating Panel

Ambush interview with Luis Jalandoni on the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) and the GRP Negotiating Panel’s cancellation of the fifth round of talks with the NDFP.

Video from Kodao Philippines
May 27, 2017