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The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) condemns in the strongest terms the illegal arrest of NDFP Consultant Maria Concepcion “Concha” Araneta-Bocala.

She is a peace consultant of the NDFP for the Visayas. She has been issued Document of Identification No. ND978245 under assumed name Remi Estrella. Her illegal arrest is another flagrant violation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG). The Aquino regime is answerable for this shameful disrespect for its solemn obligation to abide by a binding peace agreement. Therefore, the NDFP demands the immediate release of NDFP Consultant Concha Araneta Bocala.

We likewise vigorously condemn the awarding of a bounty of P 7.8 Million based on the DND/DILG Joint Order No. 14-2012 of November 12, 2012 listing alleged “235 wanted communists” with an updated bounty on their heads of P 466.88 Million. DILG Secretary Mar Roxas and DND Secretary Voltaire Gazmin must be held accountable for this, together with President Aquino. This Joint Order is a veritable Order of Battle, a gross violation of the JASIG, the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and International Law.

As past experience has shown, the revolutionary movement is able to replace arrested leaders and comrades, and continue the revolutionary struggle. Those arrested have trained many others to take up the responsibilities of carrying forward the struggle for national and social revolution.

Qualified lawyers and others (doctors, etc.) will surely offer their assistance to NDFP Consultant Maria Concepcion “Concha” Araneta-Bocala and whoever may have been arrestesd with her.

She had been already involved in peace talks way back in 1986/87 during the Corazon Aquino regime. She is truly a highly valued peace consultant of the NDFP.

LUIS G. JALANDONI
Chairperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel

Press Statement by Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chief Political Consultant of the NDFP Negotiating Panel
June 3, 2015

Since the 1990s, Luis Jalandoni the chairperson of the Negotiating Panel of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines has visited the Philippines a number of times for peace consultations and family visits under the protection of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) . He met and conversed with Presidents Ramos, Estrada and Arroyo.

Also since the 1990s, Jalandoni has acted as the Chairperson of the NDFP Negotiating Panel and as authorized representative of the NDFP, including the CPP and NPA, in facilitating the safe and orderly release of personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) in the custody of the NPA as prisoners of war.

In sharp contrast to previous regimes, the Aquino regime has emerged as the worst violator of the JASIG by harassing Jalandoni with an invalid and improperly served subpoena and threatening to arrest and imprison him on trumped up charges of nonbailable common crimes, such as “kidnapping and serious illegal detention of four named policemen (captured by the NPA on July 10, 2014 in Surigao del Norte and released on July 29, 2014) and violation of R.A. No. 9851 (Crime against Humanitarian Law and other Crimes against Humanity”.

The Aquino regime is the most malicious of all regimes by using its representatives (like DILG Secretary Mar Roxas and Nani Braganza) to seek the release of the aforesaid policemen with the help of Jalandoni on humanitarian grounds and now hurling against him false charges of common crimes as aforementioned. Defense Secretary Gazmin and OPAPP Secretary Deles were with Secretary Mar Roxas during the safe and orderly release of the aforesaid policemen.

It is reprehensible that the Aquino regime is acting viciously and maliciously by violating the safety and immunity guarantees that protect Luis Jalandoni and by misrepresenting as a crime the facilitation done by Jalandoni to help realize the humanitarian act and goodwill measure of the NDFP in causing the release of the four policemen and seeking to improve the atmosphere for the resumption of formal talks in the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations.

It is unfortunate that the Aquino regime is making a vicious and malicious attack on the NDFP and the person of Jalandoni exactly at a time that he and I have just recommended to the NDFP Executive Committee to give permission to the NDFP Negotiating Panel to undertake exploratory talks prior to formal talks, despite the recent outburst of Aquino against the NDFP and the undersigned.

In order for the GPH and NDFP to engage in exploratory talks, as urged by the Royal Norwegian Government as third party facilitator and the many peace advocates, the Aquino regime should respect the JASIG and allow the safe passage of Jalandoni to his negotiating post and office in The Netherlands. Thus, the exploratory talks will proceed and not be disrupted by petty-minded and malicious obstructions.

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By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
NDFP Chief Political Consultant
in Peace Negotiations with the GPH/GRP
May 15, 2015

The recent statement of B. S. Aquino III to Radyo Bombo and published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer attacking the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and seeking to impose on the NDFP his one-sided views has upset efforts to pave the way for the resumption of the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations.

It is Aquino who lacks sincerity in peace negotiations between the GPH and NDFP. He has wantonly violated the existing agreements, especially The Hague Joint Declaration, the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CAHRIHL), the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and the Joint Agreement on the Formation, Sequence and Operationalization of the Reciprocal Working Committees.

He is out of his mind if he thinks that he can get an agreement on indefinite ceasefire without complying with the aforesaid existing agreements and without a Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms at the same time.
He shows his bad faith, selfishness and incorrigible penchant for cruelty by putting in advance of fornal talks his precondition that he will continue to violate JASIG and CAHRIHL and further on issue warrants of arrest against NDFP consultants in connection with the baseless and false Hilongos charge.

He seems to be obsessed with going down in history with a legacy of cruelty comparable to that of Marcos and Arroyo in collecting political prisoners and allowing the military, police and paramilitary in perpetrating forced disappearances, torture, mass dislocation, demolition of homes and landgrabbing under Oplan Bayanihan.

Aquino has allowed OPAPP secretary Deles to sabotage every step in the so-called special track from the time of Ronald Llamas to that of Hernani Braganza (who was brusquely laid aside by Deles only recently). Now, Deles wants to humiliate and insult the NDFP by putting forward the self-proclaimed designer of Oplan Bayanihan as the chief negotiator of the GPH.

By his callous and malicious statement, probably advised by Deles, Aquino has made it necessary for the NDFP to consider again whether or not it is useful at all to negotiate with a lameduck regime which is obsessed with violating existing agreements and which is predetermined to leave a legacy of ruining the peace negotiations with the NDFP and even messing up those with MILF by committing the Mamasapano fiasco.

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Rotary InternationaI District 3800, District Training Assembly (DISTAS)
April 25, 2015, Saturday, 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

On behalf of Prof. Jose Ma. Sison and the entire NDFP Negotiating Panel, I would like to thank the organizers and participants of this Rotary International District 3800 District Training Assembly for this opportunity to share with you some updates on the GPH-NDFP negotiations, our view of the present political situation and its implications on the peace process with both the MILF and the NDFP.

The NDFP entered into peace negotiations with the GRP (now GPH) in 1992 when we signed the Hague Joint Declaration as the framework and foundation agreement for negotiations. Twenty-three years of talks with four administrations have resulted in ten major agreements, mostly under Ramos’ term, and seven? other agreements under subsequent regimes.

The NDFP is willing and ready to negotiate peace with any GPH administration that respects and complies with the 1992 The Hague Joint Declaration and all other previous bilateral agreements which the GRP/GPH has signed with us. We are willing to resume negotiations with this Aquino administration if it has the political will to abide by the Hague Joint Declaration, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).

Unfortunately, under the Aquino administration OPAPP Secretary Deles and GPH Panel Chair Padilla had called The Hague Joint Declaration a “document of perpetual division”, refused to honor the JASIG or reconstitute it as provided for in the Agreement, and refused to convene the Joint Monitoring Committee to review the thousands of formally filed complaints of HR and IHL violations. In mid-2013, they declared that they were no longer willing to return to the negotiating table.

Despite these and in the absence of a formal notice of termination from the GPH, the NDFP remained open to resumption of talks if the GPH showed a willingness to comply with its obligations under the agreements. Contrary to the GPH claims, we did not withdraw our proposal for an alliance and truce which we offered the GPH in January 2011. This “special track” would have ran parallel to the “regular track”, or simultaneous to continuing discussions until successive agreements are reached on social economic reforms, political and constitutional reforms. These agreements would in turn pave the way to the cessation of hostilities and disposition of forces.

Informal talks on the “special track” began in late 2012 but collapsed in February 2013. These later resumed in September 2014 through a new special team from the GPH (supposedly mandated by Aquino) to explore with us how to resume the formal talks. By December last year, we had agreed on the timetable for the discussions and agreements on both the special and regular tracks, as well as for the implementation of CARHRIHL (eg , the reconvening of the JMC and the release of falsely charged and illegally detained political prisoners). The draft tentative agreement also included the reconstitution of JASIG and the release of illegally detained consultants and other JASIG-protected persons.

Unfortunately, the Mamasapano fiasco and the resultant backlash against the GPH-MILF peace process in general and the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law in particular have also adversely affected the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations. In the first place, Aquino administration officials themselves admit that they could not handle two peace talks at the same time, what with their hands full saving the BBL and preventing the collapse of the entire GPH-MILF peace process. In the second place, the attempts by Aquino and his allies in Congress to cover up the truth, point the blame on Napeñas and the MILF and shield the President from any responsibility and accountability for the fiasco blocks any serious effort to identify what caused the fiasco, repair the damage done, draw lessons to prevent renewed eruption of armed hostilities and to ensure that the peace talks are back on their proper tracks.

We deem the following points useful and important for understanding the situation and direction of both the GPH-MILF and GPH-NDFP peace processes:

(1) Peace agreements – big or small — need to be honored and complied with, lest they lead to the loss of confidence between the Parties, which is essential to any negotiation. Treaties between states, business contracts, marriages and engagement, and even compacts among “Bff’s” (best friends forever) are bound by this same principle. For the GPH, this means that any administration must commit itself to the agreements signed by its predecessors, otherwise negotiations will revert to square one with each new administration.

(2) Interim peace agreements such as ceasefires are fragile and cannot be trifled with or treated in a cavalier fashion. Once broken, they may create problems worse than if there had been no ceasefire at all. They may serve as goodwill and confidence-building measures if properly used to pave the way to substantial agreements that address the reasons for the armed conflict. But they can also serve to provide a semblance of peace and turn into a disinsentive for pursuing agreements on reforms that would address the roots of the conflict.

(3) Peace agreements are not the end-all of the peace process. The 1976 and 1996 GRP-MNLF Tripoli peace agreements clearly demonstrate that a Peace Agreement per se cannot guarantee a just and lasting peace. The peace agreement first of all must be one that addresses the root causes of the armed conflict. Peace agreements that do not identify and address the roots of armed conflict will only serve counterproductively to obscure, perpetuate and aggravate these root causes, thus laying the ground more fertile for the resumption or continuation of armed conflict. It is by this yardstick that the prospective BBL, for example, must be evaluated.

(4) The Bangsamoro are fighting for their right to self determination. We in the NDFP are fighting for national freedom and genuine democracy against imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism. In both cases, we have risen up in arms to end the oppression and exploitation of our peoples. In both cases, the GRP/GPH have agreed with us on the substantial agenda of reforms that would address the roots of the armed conflict.

(5) Such reforms are likely to involve Constitutional amendments, since the Constitution is the basis for the laws and norms which govern the current social, economic and political system—the ruling status quo. At the outset, GRP/GPH had agreed in principle to accommodate such amendments, even including it as one of the substantive agenda in the GPH-NDFP talks. The GRP has in fact stipulated in its Executive Orders (#125 under Ramos, #3 under Arroyo) that its comprehensive peace process may include amending the constitution.

(6) A firm political will especially on the part of the principals of the Parties, is essential to persevere and overcome difficulties in order to forge peace agreements that will truly address the roots of the armed conflict. This is a difficult, tedious, protracted and complicated task, especially in the face of spoilers and saboteurs — those who deliberately aim to derail the process because they benefit from the status quo and wish to prerve it.

(7) The GPH-MILF and the GPH-NDFP peace processes, are both now floundering because of Aquino’s lack of political will to negotiate agreements that will alter the status quo to the peoples’ advantage and benefit. Instead of pursuing the GPH’s avowed comprehensive peace program, it is carrying out an internal security plan called Oplan Bayanihan. This is basically a pacification campaign patterned after the US Counterinsurgency Guide of 2009, that includes using the peace process to either coopt the revolutionary armed movements or force them into a negotiated capitulation.

We reiterate that under this situation, the NDFP is nonetheless open and ready to negotiate peace with the GPH having all the above considerations in mind, even as it continues to pursue all other forms of struggle to bring about freedom, justice and genuine democracy in our land.

14/07/2015/in News /
July 12, 2015 7:45pm
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/520854/news/nation/palace-hopes-for-resumption-of-peace-talks-with-reds-after-amsterdam-meet

Malacañang on Sunday said it hopes that the recent meeting between House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison will lead to a resumption of peace talks with the Communist rebels.

“Sana po mula doon sa inisyal na pakikipag-usap ni Speaker Belmonte sa mga lider ng CPP-NPA-NDF sa the Netherlands ay magkaroon po ng progreso hinggil sa muling pagbubukas ng diyalogo o usapan sa pagitan ng dalawang panig,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in an interview over state-run dzRB radio.

But while the government is hopeful about the resumption of peace talks with the CPP-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF), Coloma said the timing of the two parties’ return to the negotiating table will depend on the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.

“Depende po ‘yan sa magiging ugnayan ng ating Office of the Presidential [Adviser] on the Peace Process, sina Secretary Teresita ‘Ging’ Deles. Sila po ay mayroong aktibong desk na para po diyan sa usaping pangkapayapaan sa pagitan ng pamahalaan at ng CPP-NPA-NDF,” he said.

Formal peace talks between the government and the CPP-NPA-NDF bogged down in April 2013, with the government saying the negotiations were “going nowhere” after a 22-month.

Belmonte and three other House leaders met with Sison, NDF peace negotiating panel chair Luis Jalandoni and NDF secretariat chair Ruth de Leon Zumel in a restaurant in Amsterdam on July 9 (July 10 in Manila), a move that the House speaker described as a way to build confidence between the two parties.

Accompanying Belmonte during the meeting were Majority Floor Leader Neptali Gonzales II, Appropriations panel chair Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, and Accounts committee chair Romblon Rep. Eleandro Jesus Madrona.

The House speaker is in the Netherlands to observe the oral arguments before the United Nations arbitral tribunal on the Philippines’ protest against China’s territorial claim over a large part of the South China Sea.

In a text message sent from the Netherlands, Belmonte echoed Coloma’s desire for the peace talks with the Communist rebels to resume soon.

“If successful, [that] will be a great legacy for PNoy. It would mean that any remaining [revolutionary] forces are just bandits,” he said.

In April, Jalandoni said that peace talks could resume before the end of President Benigno Aquino III’s term.

He said, however, that that cannot happen unless the government releases 16 NDF peace consultants, including Benito and Wilma Tiamzon whom the government says are top officials of the CPP-NPA.

Jalandoni said, however, that the peace process cannot lead to the surrender of the CPP-NPA-NDF.

Last December, Sison said that a resumption of formal peace talks is possible in 2015.

“Kung mapakatino ang rehimeng Aquino at OPAPP, posible pang matapos ang Comprehensive Agreement on Economic Reforms at Agreement on Truce and Cooperation bago matapos ang term ni Aquino,” he said.

In 2014, the government signed a peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and is now pushing for passage of legislation that will operationalize the deal.

Philippine Peace Center
4/F Kaija Bldg. 7836 Makati Ave cor Valdez St.,Makati City, MM
Tel-(632) 8993439; Fax-(632) 8993416

Press Statement
28 April 2015

Once again, a young Filipina is about to lose her life by execution in a foreign land. Twenty years after Flor Contemplacion was hung in the gallows in Singapore, another innocent Overseas Filipina Worker, Mary Jane Veloso, is condemned to die by firing squad in Indonesia. More than a hundred have gone in between. Names and faces that had briefly flashed on our TV screens and newspapers, then fade away to oblivion. How many more shall follow?

Like millions of our countrymen, Mary Jane’s travails were born out of sheer desperation coupled with a burning desire to earn more for her loved ones, even if it meant long lonely periods of separation , physical hardships, and the all too real risk of being duped by their recruiters and maltreated by their foreign employers. Mary Jane’s only mistake, if it can be called one, was for being too trusting of her fellowmen, especially her own “kinakapatid” while being too daring and self-sacrificing to face unknown consequences . Like tens of millions of our OFWs, she was ready to pay any price to lift her family from the depths of poverty and misery.

Even with death squarely staring at her face, Mary Jane shows her fortitude and paramount concern for her family’s wellbeing above her own as she comforts her children, parents and siblings from their anguish, calmly and courageously accepting whatever fate should befall her.

We cannot in conscience merely sit back and watch while someone with the tender heart and iron will as Mary Jane is unjustly tried and condemned to die. If she dies, the hopes and future of her loved ones, nay, of millions of other Filipinos, could die with her.

We deplore the Philippine government’s long-standing policy and practice of intervening into our OFWs’ cases in foreign courts only after a conviction has been passed upon them, and doing so only perfunctorily in most cases. Under President Aquino’s term alone, seven OFWs have been convicted and exectuted in foreign lands. Mary Jane was convicted five years ago, in 2010 after what even the UN has labelled an unfair trial, as she was not provided a competent interpreter. And it was only two weeks ago, pressed by the progressive organizations assisting the family spearheaded by Migrante International and the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, that the Philippine government belatedly filed the appeal for a second judicial review.

The case of Mary Jane clearly exposes this official and institutionalized indifference, negligence, callousness and shameless hypocrisy at its worst. The OFWs, in the first place, were forced to seek greener pastures abroad because they could find no hope here at home to alleviate their families’ condition. Landless peasants and other jobless Filipinos migrate in droves from the countryside to the cities seeking employment and a decent livelihood, but there are no industries to provide jobs for them. In a cruel twist of irony, it is the OFWs’ remittances, squeezed out of their blood, sweat and tears, that keep our economy afloat and our people more tolerant of the entire social and economic system. There is no excuse for not providing legal protection and assistance, at the outset, to those who government lionizes as “Bayani ng Bayan”.

In this connection, we reiterate our call for the immediate resumption of the GPH-NDFP peace talks as the worsening social and economic crisis relentlessly victimizes Mary Jane Veloso and tens of millions of our countrymen. We call on the two Parties to muster the political will to negotiate the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) especially in the light of the continuing global and domestic economic crisis that threatens to wreak more hardships and misery for our people.

Time is fast running out. Gone is the faint glimmer of hope for staying the execution by appealing for a second judicial review on the grounds that she is a victim of human trafficking, not the drug trafficker she had been convicted for. There are moral and legal arguments for this on the basis of international law. But time—or the lack of it – stood as the most formidable obstacle to attaining justice for Mary Jane and saving her life. Yesterday, the Indonesian courts rejected this second appeal on technical grounds. She has been moved to the island where she could be executed anytime after 72 hours.

Mary Jane’s only hope now lies in the Indonesian authorities’ heeding the resounding cry here and abroad for clemency and justice. We call on everyone to add our voices to this cry.

Save Mary Jane Veloso!

Protect and care for all our Bayani ng Bayan OFWs!

Carry out genuine land reform and national industrialization to provide jobs and decent livelihood here at home for our people!

Reference: Rey Claro Casambre, Executive Director; Mobile # 09436861956

April 27-30, 2001 – Resumption of formal peace talks in Oslo, Norway, with official hosting and facilitation by the Royal Norwegian Government (RNG); the following agenda is adopted:
1. Exchange of official credentials between the two panels; NDFP presents list of DI Holders in accordance with JASIG
2. Confidence-building and goodwill measures
3. Implementation of CARHRIHL
4. Activation of RWCs on Socio-Economic Reforms and formation of subcommittees under the RWCs
5. Signing of the Oslo Joint Communique (April 30, 2001)