Press Statement by Jose Maria Sison
NDFP Chief Political Consultant
July 20, 2021

The ATC Resolution No. 21 designating the NDFP as a terrorist organization is clearly intended to achieve the following:

1.  to close further every possibility of resuming the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations at least for the duration that Duterte is in power,
2.  to harass, silence, arrest or even kill the NDFP consultants and resource persons and others involved in the peace negotiations and target even the broad range of peace advocates, critics and oppositionists,
3.  to allow Duterte to control and rig the 2022 elections, stay in power together with Sara and prevent his arrest for crimes against humanity on the prospective warrant that may be issued by the International Criminal Court,
4.  to pave a wider path for the Duterte regime to declare martial law and impose a fascist dictatorship on the people either before the anticipated 2022 elections or after this is rigged in order to preempt the 1986 type of people’s uprising.

The diabolical purpose of the Duterte regime in designating the NDFP as terrorist cannot be understated because this has been preceded by the murder of NDFP consultants committed so flagrantly by Duterte death squads.
The NDFP consultants who have been murdered by this evil regime include : Randy Malayao, Randall Echanis, the Topacio couple, the Cabanatan couple, Reynaldo Bocala and Rustico Tan.

Others have been arrested and imprisoned on trumped up charges by planting firearms and explosives. The victims include Adelberto Silva, Rey Casambre, Vicente Ladlad, Renante Gamara, Ferdinand Castillo and others.

The tyrant Duterte is clearly on the path of undertaking a series of foul actions to defeat extrajudicially the petitions before the Supreme Court against the unconstitutional and antidemocratic provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act. The designation itself is at war with basic principles of international humanitarian law on the legitimate status, rights and character of national liberation movements.

The holding and rigging of the 2022 elections do not necessarily prevent the Dutertes from the use of martial law to preempt the highly probable people’s uprising similar to that which overthrew Marcos in 1986.

In any case, the armed revolution will benefit greatly from the people’s opprobrium of the fraudulent elections and the rapidly worsening socio-economic crisis and pandemic. Duterte will be swallowed by his own crimes.

*****

By Julieta Lima
Interim Chairperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel
July 19, 2021 Press Statement

The Anti-Terrorism Council Resolution No. 21 designating the NDFP as a terrorist organization, is an anti-peace act. The Duterte regime is once again demonstrating its penchant for state terrorism and its abject stupidity and delusion that it can stop the people’s aspiration for a just and lasting peace.

Consequent to Proclamations 360 and 374, and Executive Order No. 70 and the Anti-Terror Act of 2020, ATC Resolution No. 21 seeks further to ensure that no peace negotiations would take place for the duration of the Duterte presidency and to give Duterte all the advantages of staying in power with his daughter Sara as his stooge.

Duterte pretended to be for peace negotiations for a short while in 2016 and early 2017 while he was maliciously on the way of launching an all-out war and sabotaging the peace negotiations.

ATC Resolution No. 21 is calculated to arrest and kill those tagged as beng associated with the NDFP and also targets all dissenters whom the regime accuse as belonging to the NDFP.

It is a big waste for Duterte to throw away all that have been achieved in the prolonged and arduous peace negotiations, which has run on and off through the administrations of Presidents Fidel Ramos, Joseph, Estrada, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Benigno Aquino, Jr.

These negotiations have forged the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and have done substantial work on the most important parts of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economomic Reforms, i.e., Agraian Reform and Rural Development and National Industrialization and Economic Development.

But I am optimistic that the people will prevail and will eventually put Duterte out of power as they did with Marcos and that they would put to power a president who would be willing to resume the peace negotiations for a just and lasting peace.

As I write this statement I am also finalizing my speech for a webinar in Australia on The Quest for Just Peace in the Philippines in the Midst of Raging Civil War where I shall be discussing the NDFP Draft Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms. The NDFP version of CASER is a clear and shining proof against the allegations of the real terrorists, Duterte and his ilk.

People’s interest and support for the Filipino people’s achievement of a just and lasting peace is so high that there is hardly a week that we in the negotiating panel do not receive invitations to speak on the subject. This has kept us busier than when there were ongoing peace negotiations.
 

*****

Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform
September 19, 2021

Peace as a Sacred Right of People

On September 21, the whole world will observe the annual International Day of Peace. Forty years ago, in 1981, the United Nations issued the “declaration on the right to peace” which affirmed peace as a sacred right of all people and a primary prerequisite for the material wellbeing, development and the progress of countries. The UN also underscores that the preservation of the right of peoples to peace and the promotion of its implementation constitute a fundamental obligation of each state.

In the Philippines, September 21 is also the anniversary of the imposition of Martial Law during the time of the late dictator, Ferdinand Marcos. Human rights were trampled on during this time were many were victimized and killed and the armed conflict between the government and the New People’s Army (NPA) also heightened.

In 2001, the UN General Assembly has declared September 21 as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, through observing 24 hours of non-violence and cease-fire.

Recovering Better for an Equitable and Sustainable World

This year, the theme for the International Day of Peace is “Recovering Better for an Equitable and Sustainable World” . The theme underscores the need for the global community to heal from the COVID-19 pandemic, “to think creatively and collectively about how to help everyone recover better, how to build resilience, and how to transform our world into one that is more equal, more just, equitable, inclusive, sustainable, and healthier”. It also calls for all people to make peace with nature especially at this time of worsening impacts of climate change.

According to the UN, by April 2021, over 687 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered globally, but over 100 countries have not received a single dose. The Philippines is one of the countries that are hardest hit by the pandemic, and the underprivileged and marginalized groups are the most that suffer. The vaccine rollout in the country is also quite slow.

For the International Day of Peace this year, the UN also wants us to direct our attention to people who are caught in conflict because they are especially vulnerable in terms of lack of access to healthcare. In February 2021 the Security Council unanimously passed a resolution calling for Member States to support a “sustained humanitarian pause” to local conflicts, to ensure people caught in conflict have access to lifesaving vaccinations and treatments. This is in line with the urgent appeal for a global ceasefire by Secretary-General António Guterres issued last March 23rd 2020, so that the world can focus together on defeating COVID-19 .

The Call for Resumption of the GRP-NDFP Peace Negotiations is a Call for Healing

Today, the quest for peace in relation to the decades-old armed conflict between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) has become elusive again. Since last year, the government of President Rodrigo Duterte has closed its door to principled peace negotiations with the NDFP. The government first rejected the results of the backchannel talks that Sec. Silvestre Bello had commenced with his NDFP counterparts in December 2019 to restart the peace negotiations after unilaterally terminating the peace talks in 2017. Then, the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 became a law which led to the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) lately designating the NDFP as a terrorist group. This effectively buried years of laborious and painstaking agreements and gradual steps toward peace. This is really sad since September 1, is also the 29th anniversary of the Hague Joint Declaration which is the foundational document and framework that paved the way for the peace talks between the said parties.

With the breakdown of the peace negotiations, significant increases in armed encounters between the AFP and the NPA have been recorded and there were many recorded violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. Even in the midst of a debilitating health crisis.

Various sectors, even lawmakers are calling on the government to focus its attention and resources on the fight against COVID-19 instead of further intensifying its counter-insurgency campaign. These calls came on the heels of the proposed 2022 budget. The government proposed a budget of Php5.024 trillion for 2022, higher by 11.5% than the 2021 budget. However, only 4% or Php 240 billion will be allotted for pandemic response . Meanwhile the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) will getting an Php 11.36 billion increase to its budget for total of Php 30.46 billion. While the education budget was slashed including the budget of the University of the Philippines and consequently that of the Philippine General Hospital. Such actions of the government go against the calls of the International Day of Peace.

It is in this spirit that the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) enjoins our people to celebrate the International Day of Peace and let us call on the government to prioritize the country’s healing. Let us also call on the GRP and the NDFP to join the whole world in this historic occasion by returning to the negotiating table and together put an end to further human rights violations and the loss of life as a result of the conflict.

WE encourage all churches to consider adopting the attached liturgy in celebration of the Day of Peace for Sunday, September 19, 2021.

Press Statement
11 September 2021

As peace advocates, we in Pilgrims for Peace are deeply concerned by the decision of the Kalinga State University (KSU) administration to withdraw from its library books authored and/or published by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and related literature. It reinforces the malicious narrative peddled by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, military and police that schools in the country are “hotbeds of communist insurgents” simply because they promote human rights and international humanitarian law and uphold democratic principles inherent in educational institutions such as critical thinking and freedom of inquiry and speech, all embodied in the sacred principle of academic freedom.

As reported in the Manila Times on 9 September 2021, Kalinga State University (KSU) Bulanao Campus in Tabuk City school officials withdraw from its library books authored and/or published by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and related literature and turned these materials over to the military and police. In doing so, the university administration has practically surrendered its academic freedom to the state security agencies that have constantly undermined our people’s quest for a just and lasting peace.

Since the inception of Executive Order No. 70 and the eventual creation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, students, teachers, schools and universities have been a constant subject of intimidation and attacks by this entity. And the withdrawal of these books by the KSU administration only proves the breadth and depth of the reign of terror in every part of the country.

The recent decision of the KSU is a dismaying act of blind allegiance to the myopic anti-insurgency campaign of the current Rodrigo Duterte administration. As a result, these university officials are now instrumentalized in the state’s efforts to vilify not only the NDFP but also those who fight for academic freedom, human rights, and just peace, at the very least. Consequently, they have also become complicit in the vicious red-tagging/red-baiting campaigns against individuals and organizations branded “terrorist” as orchestrated by the (NTF-ELCAC). As is well documented, such red-tagging sprees lead to subsequent extra-judicial killings, unjust searches and illegal arrests, and a host of other human rights violations.

This line of thinking, time and time again but more so under the current administration, has been used to justify the political persecution of those who are simply expressing legitimate criticism up to dissenting against wrongful government policies and various injustices plaguing Philippine society.

As peace advocates, we appeal to the KSU’s officials to rethink their decision. We urge them to study the contents of the books, especially the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHIHL), which the European Parliament hailed as a “landmark” agreement and an outstanding achievement of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations, along with the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG). These materials are readily available online, with different sites hosting them, including the International Committee Of The Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations Peacemaker website.

The NDFP has been engaged in peace talks with the government of the Republic of the Philippines, with the Royal Norwegian Government as third-party facilitator. These talks have resulted in agreements that not only uphold human rights and international humanitarian law but are aimed at resolving the roots of armed conflict — actions that certainly cannot be classified as terrorist.

We call on the members of the KSU BoR to contribute to efforts to resolve the half-century-old armed conflict between the Philippine government and the forces of the NDFP by invigorating academic freedom in their own university, as enshrined in the Philippine Constitution itself. We encourage them to study the peace negotiations between the GRP and the NDFP. Furthermore, study the roots of poverty and political unrest in the country.

In an atmosphere sans the fear of harassment, intimidation or punishment, students, teachers, administrators, and other stakeholders can freely discuss the reasons why fellow Filipinos resort to taking up arms in order to bring about a more just and equitable society. In so doing they may be able to discern that state repression can never be a solution; rather, that addressing the root causes of armed conflict is.

#Signed:

Fr. Ritchie Masegman, Convenor, Pilgrims for Peace

Prof. Michael Pante, ACT for Peace

Kjerrimyr Rodrigo Andrés, Student Christian Movement

By RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – In 2002, the Supreme Court found power company Meralco guilty of overcharging electricity rates. It was ordered to refund around P30 billion to its consumers.

Unknown to many, Engr. Ramon Ramirez or MonRam played a big role in achieving that victory.

In a tribute Sept. 5 at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani, AGHAM Chairperson Giovanni Tapang recalled that MonRam showed them spreadsheets proving the excessive charges imposed by Meralco. Tapang said that they used this as basis for the campaign launched by consumer group People Opposed to Warrantless Electricity Rates (POWER) and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) against high electricity rates.

Throughout the hearings on the petition against Meralco, MonRam would face Meralco’s former president Jesus Francisco, his college classmate. Monram was never antagonistic toward his opponents, according to Bayan Secretary General Renato Reyes Jr. “He was very principled, and he could see the political aspect in many issues,” Reyes said.

Years later, when Francisco was invited as guest speaker for a college’s graduation ceremonies in UP Diliman, the former Meralco president acknowledged the presence of MonRam, who was then standing in the aisle taking pictures.

Rhod Gonzales, a UP professor, vividly remembered that moment. “I saw clearly Mon’s wide grin and the surprise on his face. For me, that was a recognition of the nobleness of the path chosen by Mon,” Gonzales said in Filipino.

As topnotcher of the 1967 board exams for electric engineering, MonRam could have enriched himself by making a career in the corporate world. He chose a life serving the poor instead.

‘Red and expert’

He said that MonRam was AGHAM’s public utilities person who studied not only Meralco’s excesses but also the Electricity Power Industry Act (EPIRA), LRT-MRT contracts, automated elections system, among others. AGHAM took on MonRam’s initial studies and exposed how the consumers were being duped by big corporations in collusion with the government.

In a video message, Jose Maria Sison, founding chair of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), said that MonRam performed anonymous and vital important tasks in the revolutionary movement, as well as in the legal mass movement related to science and technology.

Sison and Juliet de Lima had known MonRam as a student activist. He joined the Samahan ng Makabayang Siyentipiko during the First Quarter Storm of 1970 and then became a “CPP cadre tasked with military research and the application of the science and technology in the people’s democratic revolution with a socialist perspective.”

Rey Claro Casambre and Patricia Corazon Casambre, in a message read by their daughter Xandra Casambre Bisenio, said that MonRam contributed so much to the people’s movement in the last 50 years.The Casambre couple said that MonRam used his knowledge in radio communication and radio broadcasting to set up Radyo Sierra Madre, the defunct mobile radio program of the late CPP Spokesperson “Ka Roger” Roger Rosal. MonRam also taught their comrades to use personal computers, helped develop portable acupuncture stimulators, and studied cryptography for secure communications.

“In all of these, Ka Mon demonstrated extraordinary intelligence, diligence, dedication, determination and optimism, no matter how complicated and difficult the tasks assigned to him,” the Casambres said in Filipino.

For his involvement in the people’s movement, MonRam was imprisoned twice. The first was during the Marcos dictatorship, and the second during the administration of Fidel V. Ramos.

Danilo dela Fuente, spokesperson of SELDA, a group of former political prisoners, said that MonRam never wavered in his commitment even after the two incidents of detention.

Archivist, documentary photographer

In 1997, MonRam put up the website Arkibong Bayan, a repository of pictures of protest actions. Long before Facebook, MonRam uploaded albums of photos, often with statements released by people’s organizations about various issues.

Engr. Efren Ricalde labeled MonRam as a documentary photographer who chronicled the people’s movement for many years. Arkibong Bayan became the go-to site of progressive Filipinos in other countries to keep themselves abreast of events here in the Philippines.

He was among the founding members of Altermidya, the national network of alternative media outfits, as representative of Arkibong Bayan.

His son Karl described his father as “forward-looking.” He always made it a point to learn the new technology and use this to serve the people.

Karl said his father was looking forward to the day when the pandemic would be over. Last July 26, MonRam went to UP Diliman. He did not get out of the vehicle and only wanted to take a glimpse of the people’s march.

“Gustong-gusto niyang makapiling ang kilusang lumalaban,” (He always wanted to be with the people’s movement) Karl said.

In the hearts of many, MonRam’s legacy would live forever. (DAA)

Statement of the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP)
Posted July 21, 2021

Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform Statement on the Designation of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines as a Terrorist Group.

The Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) joins all peace advocates in sounding the alarm over the designation of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) as a terrorist group by the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC).

This designation tragically closes the door to what is truly called for: a peaceful resolution of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and NDFP conflict.

Sadly, with this action the ATC buried 29 years of laborious and painstaking agreements and gradual steps toward peace. The government seems to be ignoring that peace is a sacred right of all people and guaranteed as a fundamental duty of the state.

It also confirms that the Anti-Terrorism Law (ATL) is a huge hurdle to the promise of peace for everyone as it is being used as a weapon in a total war against so-called terrorists.

The case against two Aetas, which thankfully was dismissed, shows that the terror law can be used to fabricate charges and arbitrarily designate persons and groups.

The ATC designation demonstrates that the government is using its full resources to subdue the CPP/NPA/NDF. It does not fully recognize that violence will not resolve the conflict, that the most judicious way to address its roots – poverty, landlessness, inequitable access to resources – is to resume the formal peace talks.

The designation and the present course that relies on the use of violent means only increase the likelihood of more violations in human rights and international and humanitarian law.

We are therefore greatly concerned about the escalation of civilian populations being harmed as seen in the rising cases of killings, threats, harassment, and restriction of movements of farming and indigenous communities in remote rural areas.

This latest designation by the ATC also begs the question: Are groups supporting or calling for the resumption of the formal peace talks with “designated terrorists” next in the ATC’s crossfires as well?

It is not far-fetched since they unjustifiably froze the accounts and properties of church ministries like that of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) and the Haran Center of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) in Davao City, allegedly for supporting terrorist activities.

This also comes after the ATC designated 19 individuals, including peace consultants, as terrorists a few months ago. The list includes peace consultants Rey Claro Casambre of the Philippine Peace Center and Vicente Ladlad. Their assets were simultaneously frozen by the Anti-Money-Laundering Council (AMLC).

Mr. Ladlad’s bank account contains the funds awarded by the Human Rights Claims Board while Mr. Casambre’s were savings from his allowances as an NGO worker, various honoraria and gifts from family members. It is not enough that they, and other peace consultants, are languishing in jail right now after trusting the government that they were supposed to be covered by their mutual agreement, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), but their savings cannot be accessed by their families as well.

As church leaders, we are highly alarmed at these developments. However, we will not falter in our belief and call that the most viable option for a just and lasting peace is through a negotiated peace settlement coupled with meaningful social and economic reforms.

We affirm that a peace process that addresses social injustices is the will of God and we will not stop working for it.

We appeal to the government to rescind its designation of the NDFP as a terrorist organization and recognize the lasting devastation this will have on the Filipino people’s trust in the government’s competence to resolve internal conflicts through peaceful negotiations.

We continue to appeal to both parties to return to the negotiating table. We also call on our people to pray and work for peace and support prospective candidates in the coming elections who are committed to genuine peace.

Let us find inspiration in these words from the Bible: “Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.” (James 3:18, NIV)
Issued and signed this 21st day of July 2021.

Sgd.
Archbishop Antonio J. Ledesma, SJ
Co-chairperson, PEPP

Sgd.
The Rt. Revd. Rex B. Reyes, Jr.
Co-chairperson, PEPP

Sgd.
Bishop Reuel Norman O. Marigza
General Secretary, NCCP

Sgd.
Rev. Dr. Aldrin Penamora
Executive Director, JP-PARCOM-PCEC

Sgd.
Sr. Mary John D. Mananzan, OSB
Office of the Women and Gender Commission
Conference of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines (Men & Women)

Sgd.
Bishop Emeritus Degracias S. Iniguez, Jr.
Co-chairperson, EBF

Statement of the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP)
MAY 16, 2021

The Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) sounds its alarm over the inclusion of peace consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in the Resolution Number 17 (2021) by the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC). The said resolution designated the peace consultants as alleged Central Committee members of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army pursuant to the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020. This will have far reaching and adverse repercussions on the GRP-NDFP Peace Negotiations which the PEPP has faithfully supported and advocated for.

The list includes Rey Claro Casambre of the Philippine Peace Center among other consultants that were part of the GRP-NDFP Peace Negotiations. Mr. Casambre is a publicly known peace advocate and participant in the GRP-NDFP peace talks. His expertise in relation to the peace process has contributed to the ministry and advocacy of PEPP as a resource person for our various activities.

We wholeheartedly believe in the sincerity of both the GRP and NDFP peace panels in their efforts to reach a negotiated peace settlement. However, we are saddened that the termination of the formal peace talks led to the imprisonment of Mr. Casambre and his co-consultants – who participated in the talks in good faith – while others like Randy Malayao and Randall Echanis were even killed. Besides, according to the Public Interest Law Center, their clients, including Mr. Casambre, “already disclaimed to the court and the public ties to terrorist organizations and involvement in any terrorist activities[1]”.

Thus, we express our utter dismay over Resolution Number 17 (2021) and we reiterate our stand against the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 that it will not serve to end the conflicts of our land. The breakdown of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations along with the implementation of the Anti-Terrorism Law have contributed significantly to an increase in human rights violations and the worsening climate of impunity in the country.

As Christian leaders, our opposition to the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 “is based on our enduring call for broader peace. A peace that is not just silencing of the voices of dissent and the incarceration and destruction of lives that are defined as terrorists. But a peace that addresses the root causes of dissent and seeks resolution by negotiation”[2]. It is our unwavering belief that principled dialogue across the negotiating table is still the most viable way, and less costly in terms of lives and resources, to attain a just and lasting peace.

We call on the Filipino people to steadfastly pray and work for the resumption of the formal peace talks between the GRP and the NDFP. This call is based on our enduring faith in Jesus Christ, who is our love, our hope and our peace. “For to this end we toil and struggle, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.” (1 TIMOTHY 4:10, NRSV)

Issued and Signed on this day 15th day of May, 2021.

Sgd.
Abp. Emeritus Antonio J. Ledesma, SJ,
Co-chairperson, PEPP
Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro

Sgd.
Bishop Rex B. Reyes, Jr.
Co-chairperson, PEPP
Ecumenical Bishops Forum

Sgd.
Bishop Reuel Norman O. Marigz a
General Secretary, NCCP

Sgd.
Rev. Dr. Aldrin Penamora
Executive Director, PARC-PCEC

Sgd.
Sr. Mary John D. Manazan, OSB
OWGC – AMRSP

By Julieta Lima
Interim Chairperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel
July 19, 2021 Press Statement

The Anti-Terrorism Council Resolution No. 21 designating the NDFP as a terrorist organization, is an anti-peace act. The Duterte regime is once again demonstrating its penchant for state terrorism and its abject stupidity and delusion that it can stop the people’s aspiration for a just and lasting peace.

Consequent to Proclamations 360 and 374, and Executive Order No. 70 and the Anti-Terror Act of 2020, ATC Resolution No. 21 seeks further to ensure that no peace negotiations would take place for the duration of the Duterte presidency and to give Duterte all the advantages of staying in power with his daughter Sara as his stooge.

Duterte pretended to be for peace negotiations for a short while in 2016 and early 2017 while he was maliciously on the way of launching an all-out war and sabotaging the peace negotiations.

ATC Resolution No. 21 is calculated to arrest and kill those tagged as beng associated with the NDFP and also targets all dissenters whom the regime accuse as belonging to the NDFP.

It is a big waste for Duterte to throw away all that have been achieved in the prolonged and arduous peace negotiations, which has run on and off through the administrations of Presidents Fidel Ramos, Joseph, Estrada, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Benigno Aquino, Jr.

These negotiations have forged the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and have done substantial work on the most important parts of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economomic Reforms, i.e., Agraian Reform and Rural Development and National Industrialization and Economic Development.

But I am optimistic that the people will prevail and will eventually put Duterte out of power as they did with Marcos and that they would put to power a president who would be willing to resume the peace negotiations for a just and lasting peace.

As I write this statement I am also finalizing my speech for a webinar in Australia on The Quest for Just Peace in the Philippines in the Midst of Raging Civil War where I shall be discussing the NDFP Draft Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms. The NDFP version of CASER is a clear and shining proof against the allegations of the real terrorists, Duterte and his ilk.

People’s interest and support for the Filipino people’s achievement of a just and lasting peace is so high that there is hardly a week that we in the negotiating panel do not receive invitations to speak on the subject. This has kept us busier than when there were ongoing peace negotiations.

*****
 

Pilgrims For Peace  Press Statement
19 July 2021
 

The latest “terrorist” designation of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) by the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) bodes ill for human rights, democracy and the quest for peace under the Duterte administration. The warhawks are hell-bent on killing peace negotiations and instead pursuing all-out war in the government counterinsurgency program as well as casting a wide net of suppression against all opposition and dissent through state terror as embodied in the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.

We call attention to how this designation of the NDFP as a “terrorist” organization can only intensify the nefarious red-baiting/ terrorist-tagging by the National Task Force-End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) with dire implications on and further deterioration of the human rights situation and constriction of democratic space in the country.

Such designation directly contravenes a basic tenet of peace advocacy — to address the roots of the armed conflict through earnest peace negotiations. There is no doubt that the Philippines is a struggling democracy with brighter and dimmer eras of nurturing and upholding human rights, justice and peace by addressing the concerns of the toiling majority. The Duterte administration, however, has achieved a level of notoriety with regard to grievous and gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. The daily killings by state forces are indicative of policies of state terror. Whether through Duterte’s bloody “war on drugs,” the killings and arrests of activists under dubious and injudicious search warrants, the forcible closure of hundreds of lumad schools, or the regular threats of violence from a President who even threatens to jail those who hesitate to be vaccinated against Covid-19, the militarist Duterte administration disregards and opposes the basic principle that peace is built on justice for it to endure. Furthermore, by designating those who have stepped forward to engage in peace negotiations as “terrorist,” the Duterte administration is blatantly acting against the principle and practice of peacebuilding.

President Duterte, instead, announces a run for Vice-President under the false premise that he can keep at bay accountability for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court as well as through domestic judicial proceedings. It is clear that this government is not interested in building peace, but instead prefers to bloody the streets and fill the jails in a bid to cow the Filipino people and impose a dynastic, authoritarian rule.

The Anti-Terrorism Council may have managed to drive a final nail into the coffin of the GRP-NDFP Peace Talks by designating the NDFP as “terrorist,” but as peace advocates, we cannot give up. We look forward to the national elections in 2022 when this anti-peace administration can be terminated and replaced with new leaders who are committed to resolving the roots of the armed conflict through peace negotiations with the NDFP. The peace agenda will be among our top priorities as we campaign and cast our votes. A just peace in our nation depends on it; otherwise, the reign of state terror can only further stoke discontent and fuel dissent among our people.

Indeed, building a just peace is the only way forward!

Reference:
Rev. Ritchie Masegman, Convenor, Pilgrims for Peace
pilgrims.peace.phils@gmail.com 0928-385-4123

Statement by Rey Claro Casambre’s family
July 10, 2021

Our real assets, our most valued possessions, the source of our joy, security and peace of mind cannot be found in any bank or monetary institution. They lie in our lifetime commitment to serve the common good, in solidarity with the downtrodden who are the real giants and heroes in this world. Intangible yet real and vibrant, these treasures are inextricably embedded in our minds, beyond the reach of any state entity, and silently but fiercely ablaze in our hearts, which no statute can ever freeze.

After some effort, we managed to get last 16 June 2021, in behalf of Mr. Rey Claro Casambre, copies of official bank documents confirming that his accounts have all been frozen in accordance with Anti-Terror Council (ATC) Resolution 17 and Anti-Money-Laundering Council (AMLC) Resolution TF-40 (2021), the named account holder having been designated a “terrorist” under the Anti-Terrorist Act (ATA) of 2020.

We had felt the adverse impact of this action a month earlier, even before the announcement of the designation. We attempted, as was usual, to withdraw cash from Mr. Casambre’s ATM account to pay for some groceries, and got the message: “The account does not exist. “

We should have thought there was something sinister, perhaps products of the ATC’s and the NTF-ELCAC’s intent to deprive even the harmless and innocent of their daily sustenance. For all we know they couldn’t care less. We recall that my parents were one of the NTF’s first victims when they were both arrested and thrown into cramped jails a few days after the NTF-ELCAC was officially created by EO 70.

It is doubtful they had as much as lifted a finger to determine whether such “assets” were actually being used to finance or support terrorism, as they allege publicly while disclosing neither supposed evidence nor proof.

Any bank teller would wonder why Mr. Casambre’s modest accounts would merit even a microsecond of scrutiny, not to mention suspicion. His modest deposits are no more than

1) accumulated savings from allowances from the Phil Peace Center, an NGO of which Mr Casambre has been the Executive Director and Ms Casambre a researcher-translator for the past 3 decades

(2) various honoraria from occasional writing contracts and speaking engagements, and

3) accumulated cash gifts from relatives for Christmas, birthdays and similar occasions.

To be sure ATC Resolution 17 and the consequent AMLC Resolution TF40 Series 2021 freezing Mr. Casambre’s bank accounts were clothed with legalese, in a thinly veiled effort to conceal its glaring legal infirmities.

My parents have been unjustly haled to court and eventually proven innocent more times than one would wish (my mother was illegally arrested and detained 4x, my father thrice – Cora was acquitted by the military commission of subversion charges back in 1977), enough to be familiar with the following universal legal standards:

1. One cannot be legally penalized for an alleged crime without due process, which includes the accused being informed beforehand of the charges and the evidence on which the charges are based,
2. One is presumed innocent until proven otherwise by an independent, fair and competent court
3. One cannot be subjected to double jeopardy, or being charged, tried and penalized for an alleged offence of which one has been previously cleared,
4. One cannot be penalized by applying a law retroactively.

The circumstances narrated in detail in my father’s May 13 statement, “Nobody Believes I’m a Terrorist” illustrate how the recent ATC designation violates all the basic legal precepts enumerated above.

The designations have thus concretized and provided living proof of the theoretical legal arguments raised, including in the 39 Petitions, which includes my father’s, he is one of the petitioners, submitted to the Supreme Court to declare the ATA 2020 unconstitutional.

It is idle for the Department of Justice to crow that none of the designated individuals had appealed their designation by availing of the remedies under the ATA and its Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR), and under the Terrorist Financing Prevention Act and its IRR, as though silence were an indication of guilt.

The ATC designation is the fruit of the poisoned ATA tree. Why and how would one seek or expect relief from a toxic brew by consenting to drink more of it?

Yet the ATC designations and freezing of assets are a mere tip of the proverbial iceberg of tyranny and injustice wrought on our people for the past five years, paling in comparison, significance and horror to the EJKs, disappearances and other grave human rights violations by state forces. It is terrifying to see so much state power wielded with impunity against the powerless, defenseless and innocent. Yet it is also tragicomic that the high and mighty would plunge into such a squalid abyss for such puny gains, and ultimately counterproductive outcomes.

Freezing my father’s and others’ almost negligible accounts purportedly to cripple the communist movement is pathetic. Instead, it has deprived my elderly parents of their funds for essential needs, magnified the crisis of the pandemic, and is bringing anxiety to our family and friends.

Despite all this, we want the ATC to know that in our family’s case, our real assets, our most valued possessions, the source of our joy, security and peace of mind cannot be found in any bank or monetary institution. They lie in our lifetime commitment to serve the common good, in solidarity with the downtrodden who are the real giants and heroes in this world. Intangible yet real and vibrant, these treasures are inextricably embedded in our minds, beyond the reach of any state entity, and silently but fiercely ablaze in our hearts, which no statute can ever freeze.