Committed to the attainment of genuine peace based on justice, supports the people’s just struggle, publishes policy papers on the peace process, provides specialized services to the gph-ndfp peace negotiations
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:
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,
One is presumed innocent until proven otherwise by an independent, fair and competent court
One cannot be subjected to double jeopardy, or being charged, tried and penalized for an alleged offence of which one has been previously cleared,
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.
Ref: Archbishop Antonio J. Ledesma, DD Tel. # 09177110563 and/or Bishop Rex B. Reyes, Jr. Tel.# 09956395909
We will Serve the Lord and We Choose Peace!
A statement on the tragedy in Masbate
The Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) expresses its deep sorrow over the deaths of Nolven Absalon, the 40-year-old Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Masbate Electric Cooperative Employees Union and his 21-year-old cousin, Keith, a football player of the Far Eastern University. We offer our prayers and heartfelt sympathies to their families, friends and colleagues. May God be with them and provide them with comfort in their time of grief.
Various leaders, personalities and groups have condemned the actions of the New People’s Army (NPA) which led to this tragedy. While the tragic incident is truly condemnable, it is also a timely reminder for us to pause and reflect. The deaths of Nolven and Keith fully underscores the cost of the armed conflict in the country between the government and the NPA along with Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)/National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). This armed conflict, which has deep social, economic and political roots, has spanned more than five decades and led to the loss of thousands of lives, destruction of property and misery and hardship.
As such, what happened in Masbate puts into fore the complexity of the armed conflict in our country and the many nuances to the different aspects of the issue. There are calls for justice from the family and the public. There are mechanisms in place that can hopefully provide justice like the Comprehensive Agreement for Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and related agreements and we hope that it is not disregarded by both parties even though the peace negotiations are suspended. What is clear though is that the armed conflict will continue to generate violence on the ground and will definitely result in more loss of lives from both sides and among civilians. What is very fearsome is the call of some sectors to relentlessly pursue the NPA militarily in Masbate and throughout the country. There are already reports that the military allegedly killed three Masbate farmers accused as NPA. Such an all-out military offensive can turn that island into a howling wilderness and create more pain and suffering throughout the country. The drive to annihilate the CPP/NPA/NDF to resolve the armed conflict without addressing the roots – poverty, landlessness, inequitable access to resources – can just result in more violations to human rights and international and humanitarian law.
As church leaders, we will serve the Lord (cf. Joshua 24:15) and we choose peace and we choose life! We call on all Filipinos to not let the deaths of Nolven and Keith fan the flames of war but rather let their deaths implore us to further sow the seeds of peace that we badly need in our country. Thus, we call on the government and CPP/NPA/NDF to return to the negotiating table to address the roots of the armed conflict and respect all previous agreements.
The PEPP wholeheartedly believes that the most viable option to stop the violence on the ground and to resolve the conflict is through a negotiated peace settlement between the warring parties. We call on all peace advocates to work hand-in-hand in encouraging and accompanying both parties to once more engage in principled negotiations for a just and lasting peace.
Even as we wish that peace could be achieved with just a snap of a finger, we know that such a process is long and arduous but it can be accomplished in our lifetime, if it is approached deliberately. Therefore, let us not lose hope “…because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” (Luke 1: 78-79, NIV)
Issued and signed on this 12th day of June 2021.
Sgd. Archbishop Emeritus Antonio J. Ledesma, SJ Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro Co-chairperson, PEPP
Sgd. Bishop Rex B. Reyes, Jr. Episcopal Diocese of Central Philippines Co-chairperson, PEPP
Sgd. Rev. Dr. Aldrin M. Penamora Executive Director Commission on Justice Peace & Reconciliation Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches
Sgd. Bishop Reuel Norman O. Marigza General Secretary National Council of Churches in the Philippines
Sgd. Sr. Mary John D. Mananzan, OSB Office of Women & Gender Commission AMRSP-Women
Sgd. Bishop Emeritus Deogracias S. Iniguez, Jr. PEPP Head of the Secretariat Co-chairperson, EBF
*The PEPP is a platform for 5 church institutions/groups, namely, the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines (AMRSP) with organizations of Religious, Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC) and the Ecumenical Bishops’ Forum (EBF), in working for a just and enduring peace by supporting the peace process between the GRP-NDFP.
Once again the national security top honchos have placed me in their cross-hairs. This time, the Anti-Terrorism Council has designated me as, of all things, a terrorist, along with the NDFP Chief Political Consultant, two peace negotiators and ten other publicly known peace consultants.
The first time was in 2006, when I was charged with “continuing rebellion”, along with fifty others including progressive lawmakers known as the “Batasan Six”. The Supreme Court eventually ruled the case without merit and ordered it dismissed in 2007.
The second time was in early 2018 when my name was listed along with more than 650 others– many of these aliases and names of deceased persons– in a DOJ court petition to proscribe the CPP and NPA as terrorist organizations. My name was removed from the list after I questioned in court the basis for its inclusion.
In both instances not an iota of proof or evidence was presented by my accusers to support their claims and charges against me.
The third was on 21 Sept 2018 when, in a widely viewed TV program, then AFP COS Gen Galvez and Deputy for Operations Gen Parlade singled out Satur Ocampo and myself as orchestrating, in behalf of the CPP, a totally fictitious “Oplan Red October”, allegedly a broad united front campaign to oust Pres. Duterte. It was so ludicrous I actually laughed it off and jested to media that it was an “undeserved honor”, not even being a member of any of the allegedly conspiring organizations or coalitions.
In the same media interview, Generals Galvez and Parlade proudly announced the AFP’s proposal for a National Task Force to End the Communist Insurgency by mid-2019 employing a “whole of government” and/or “whole of nation approach”.
I had not imagined I would be the first real victim of Gen. Parlade’s red-tagging and terrorist branding under the EO 70 banner. Past midnight of Dec 7, two days after EO 70 creating the NTF-ELCAC was signed, I was arrested with my wife on the basis of totally fabricated charges alleging my participation in a Sept 13 early morning NPA ambush in a barrio I had never priorly been to nor heard of.
This is indeed military intelligence at its best! Why would I join an ambush 1500 kms from Manila a week before a crucial mammoth destabilizing rally I was supposedly coordinating? Did the state investigators miss the photos posted by the OPAPP on their FB page showing me with the HOR Peace Committee along with the OPAPP Secretary and GRP Peace Panel up to noontime of Sept 12? Was their surveillance team seated too far away from our dining table at a Chinese restaurant in Banawe, QC, to catch my animated conversation that late evening with a prominent political figure on the progress of the peace talks? How could I have flown to Davao City past midnight and made it to the hinterland ambush site before the break of dawn? Can an elderly civilian stranger casually walk in or gatecrash into a military operation without at least a getting-to-know-you and this-is-the-way-to-hold-and-fire-this-weapon briefing session, assuming one was strong and healthy enough to survive the rigorous trek?
Nobody, my accusers included, believes I am a terrorist.
The ATC’s terrorist designation is just another nefarious device concocted by those who reckon they can and must go around or against the Constitution and the rules of law, fair play and common decency to silence those who speak and clamor for change.
This is really not just about us peace consultants, negotiators and advocates. The real targets of EO 70 and the ATA are the vision and quest for fundamental reforms that could and would bring just and lasting peace and prosperity. The foremost and ultimate victims are the Filipino people themselves.
The relentless and remorseless deception and lies, bloody repression and coercion have only served to expose the bankruptcy of EO 70 and the ATA. Hypocrisy has struck rock bottom with the desperately crude and laughable relabelling of redtagging and terrorist-branding as “truth-tagging”.
Rather than rally and mobilize the entire nation and government, the horrendous, senseless and dreadful loss in lives and liberties coupled with the insulting underestimation of the public’s intelligence daily alienate the people. These further enlighten and motivate them to persist in struggle.
I remain confident the people’s will, truth and justice shall eventually prevail.
International League of Peoples Struggle – ILPS Commission 6 Posted May 16, 2021
This week’s violence in Gaza is the worst since 2014. Death toll in Gaza rises to more than 120 including at least 31 children. At least 600 people have been wounded as Israel boosts troops and tanks near the besieged Palestinian enclave. We strongly condemn these ensuing attacks.
Israel is again committing a bloodbath in violation of the international law on human rights and armed conflict. Israel is even more poised to commit far greater destruction of civilian lives, homes and other non-military structures through all-out military air strikes and ground attacks.
We must also condemn US imperialism, particularly the current and previous regimes, for supporting and emboldening the aggressive actions of Israel. Israel has long been able to inflict atrocities and humiliation on the Palestinian and Arab peoples and violate so many UN resolutions because of US military, economic and political support for Zionist Israel.
The Palestinian people are fighting for the just cause of national liberation.
We must oppose the US-Zionist combine and further strengthen international support for the Palestinian people.
(Artwork: Neil Doloricon, Malaya Business Insight, 13 May 2021)
By Public Interest Law Center – Philippines 13 May 2021
Listing of peace consultants already proven baseless
The inclusion of most peace consultants and advocates, who participated in negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP), in Resolution Number 17 (2021) by the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) is a perturbing development after quiet, insistent efforts to reopen talks. Resolution Number 17 designates 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.
Rehashing a list from 2018, the ATC’s enumeration of 19 personalities includes those who have already disclaimed to the court and the public ties to terrorist organizations and involvement in any terrorist activities.
In 2018, our clients Rafael Baylosis, Rey Claro Casambre, Vicente Ladlad, and Adelberto Silva submitted documents and proved to a Manila trial court that they were not connected to the Central Committee of the Communist Party or the New People’s Army. Not only had they shown long track records in the legal democratic movement, the court aptly dropped their names from the proscription petition under the Human Security Act because there was no evidence linking them to terrorist organizations or activities.
How can the ATC, three years hence, claim to have “verified and validated information” against these peace consultants when it has already been proven in court that there is none? The ATC regurgitating false assertions has been a most dangerous weapon especially in the heat of oral arguments on the terror law.
Casambre, a petitioner in one of the docketed petitions against the ATA, has correctly stated that he faces credible threat of prosecution under the new terror law. With Casambre designated and “injured” by the ATC, the terror law petitions now have a surer footing in court with his established legal standing to file suit.
Designation is a highly contentious provision in the terror law, and particularly for individuals, an immensely suspect mechanism for political persecution. The ATC’s move to implement a law void and unconstitutional is self-destructive; in the end, the unavailability of remedies, the grave violations of due process, and the ambiguity of the law will be brought to fore.
Peace consultants, selected and appointed for their expertise in the topics of the talks agenda, agreed to participate and contribute their knowledge in the peace negotiations, under protection of the Joint Agreement on Security and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) afforded for all consultants of both panels. With the breakdown of the talks, they have been politically persecuted, charged with trumped-up cases in court, illegally arrested and detained, and vilified in public.
The inclusion of peace consultants in the list, obviously, is a direct consequence of their role in the peace talks and a clear disincentive to participate. With this move by the GRP, it closes possibilities for a peaceful resolution of the root cause of the armed conflict.
As the constitutionality of the ATA is deliberated in the Supreme Court, the GRP in sheer folly has unsheathed its sword of tricks and manipulation using the dangerous provisions of the ATA. We must be prepared to resist further violations of civil and political rights. #
One year under the COVID-19 pandemic leaves the Philippines with both a health and human rights crisis. In fact, pandemic quarantines and health protocols have worsened militarization of poor and marginalized communities and emboldened militarists to pursue red-tagging, vilification campaigns and the filing of fabricated charges against farmers, indigenous peoples, trade unionists, social activists, and human rights defenders throughout the country.
With the passing of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 as well as reports of the police asking the courts for the names of lawyers representing clients of so-called “communist-terrorist groups” and the efforts to dig up old case files with the Department of Justice, peace advocates are alarmed. Rather than addressing the roots of the armed conflict through peace negotiations, militarists in the Philippine government are engaging “all-out war” tactics that impinge on civil liberties, fuel state violations of human rights, and result in a more authoritarian rule of the country.
The cruel, dangerous, and even ludicrous red-tagging operations of the National Task Force-End Local Armed Conflict(NTF-ELCAC) unmask that such operations violate civil liberties and often foreshadow extra-judicial killings and illegal arrests on trumped-up charges, as recently happened with the tokhang-styled killings of nine activists in different parts of the Southern Tagalog Region in the early morning of March 7, 2021. “Surrenderee” and ECLIP operations have given rise to corruption, threat/intimidation, and coerced/fabricated testimonies. The Whole of Nation Approach has aimed to put all government offices and local government units at its disposal; retired military generals in civilian posts have commandeered power and the purse. Even the Senate has called for the removal of Lt. General Antonio Parlade, Jr, from the post of NTF-ELCAC spokesperson, noting that an active military officer should not hold a post in a civilian task force.
Still, what will be the end of this militarism? These efforts will enrich the pockets of those in the military, but will fail in resolving the armed conflict, just as “all-out war” operations of past administrations have failed in their intention to annihilate the New People’s Army. Even more, with the widespread violations of human rights and the shrinking democratic space, the ordinary masses more acutely experience the oppression and exploitation that gave rise to the armed conflict in the first place. Advocates are firm in the call to overcome obstacles to peacebuilding and address the roots of the armed conflict between the GRP and the NDFP. In response to war-mongering, demagoguery (dehumanization/othering), and militarism prevalent in the Duterte administration, peace advocates and civil libertarians ask, WHY NOT PEACE?
We must address the human rights crisis and the health crisis in the Philippines. Working to overcome significant obstacles to peacebuilding, it may be an up-hill climb to the resumption of formal talks between the GRP and NDFP. Still, upholding human rights– as described in the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) mechanism–will help the two parties to create an atmosphere hospitable for negotiations. The anniversary of the signing of CARHRIHL is an auspicious moment to articulate again that upholding human rights is essential, especially as we press forward in the call to address the roots of the armed conflict to achieve a just and lasting peace for the Filipino people.
#WhyNotPeace? ##
References: Bishop Reuel Marigza, Pilgrims for Peace Mike Pante, Act for Peace Carol Araullo, Kapayapaan Campaign for a Just and Lasting Peace pilgrims.peace.phils@gmail.com
Like a poker game that he plays all by himself, whimsically rigging the rules, is how Rodrigo R. Duterte now apparently treats the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations. He has mindlessly cast aside all the hard work that both his government’s negotiating panel and that of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) have painstakingly undertaken.
Twice did Duterte arbitrarily cancel the fifth round of formal negotiations, in May and August 2017. But in both instances (as he had done earlier) he subsequently resorted to back-channel talks and agreed to continue the negotiations.
Up till the last minute, all looked rosy for the peace talks. In two discreet back-channel discussions in October and early November—to which Duterte had given explicit go-signal—the GRP and NDFP panels worked furiously to hammer out three draft documents. They had agreed, at the minimum, to refine and initial the documents at the fifth round and, at the maximum, to finalize and sign them at the sixth round in early 2018. The heads and members of both panels were already in Oslo, Norway, when Duterte’s order to cancel the talks came.
The three draft documents were: a draft agreement on agrarian reform and rural development and on national industrialization and economic development (the prime aspects of a Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms or CASER); a draft Coordinated Unilateral Ceasefire Agreement; and a draft General Amnesty for political prisoners.
Had the fifth round of formal negotiations proceeded and achieved its set objectives, 2017 would have ended with high hopes for continuing peace negotiations. And the Duterte government would have looked good in the eyes of the Filipino people.
Hundreds of hours of meetings cum negotiations by the Reciprocal Working Committees for Social and Economic Reforms (RWCs-SER) went into the drafting of the first document, which could have accelerated the entire peace process towards addressing the root causes of the nearly 50 years of armed conflict and attaining just and lasting peace in the country.
Common agrarian reform and national industrialization drafts
Over seven months of peace talks with four formal rounds of negotiations, the NDFP and the GRP panels were able to forge ahead in crafting common drafts for agrarian reform and rural development and for national industrialization and economic development. They held bilateral meetings during the second, third and fourth rounds—in Oslo, Norway (October 7-8, 2016); Rome, Italy (January 22-24, 2017); and Nordwijk an Zee, The Netherlands (April 4-5, 2017), respectively. In addition, there were no less than 10 bilateral meetings in the Philippines and abroad by the NDFP and GRP RWCs-SER between April 25 and November 17 last year.
On agrarian reform and national industrialization, there were nine sections in the common draft signed in Manila by the RWCs last November 20 and witnessed by the Royal Norwegian Government third party facilitator. These are:
– Free distribution of land to tillers, farmers, farmworkers and fisherfolks and writing off of the
arrears in amortization payments by earlier land reform beneficiaries;
– The agreement includes coverage of plantations and large-scale commercial farms with leasehold,
joint venture, non-land transfer schemes (e.g. stock distribution option);
– Immediate and expedited installation of farmer beneficiaries;
– Implementation of agrarian support services on production, harvest, post-harvest, insurance, credit
and free irrigation;
– Elimination of exploitative lending and trading practices;
– Fisheries and aquatic resources reforms;
– National land and water use policy aligned with agrarian reform;
– Develop rural industries and domestic science and technology; and
– Building of rural infrastructure, such as irrigation, post-harvest, transport, communication, power
facilities.
Signed on the same day, the NDFP and the GRP RWCs common draft on national industrialization listed 10 agreed-on sections, as follows
– Use of the term “national industrialization”; – Explicit mention of economic planning; – Development of specific industries, industrial sectors, and industrial projects; – Nationalization of public utilities and mining; – “Filipinization” of minerals processing and trade; – Regulation of foreign investment; – State intervention and regulation; – Creation of workers’ councils; – Breaking foreign monopoly control of industrial technologies; and – Financing through higher taxes on the rich and lower on poor, as well as revenues from gambling,
luxury goods, tobacco/alcohol, and tariffs. The parties also agreed to set up an industrial
investment fund.
The agrarian reform and rural development and the national industrialization and economic development accords, are parts of the prospective Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) Part III, under the title Developing the National Economy. These are mutually acknowledged by the NDFP and the GRP as the most important aspects of the peace negotiations. When finally approved by the principals and implemented, they are expected to alleviate poverty and inequality in the country—addressing the root causes of the armed conflict.
From both sub-agreements, the social and economic reform negotiations are expected to move on to the next issues, which are environmental protection, rehabilitation and compensation. The other parts of the CASER agenda include the following:
Part IV. Upholding people’s rights A. Rights of the working people B. Promoting patriotic, progressive and pro-people culture C. Recognition of ancestral lands and territories of national minorities
Part V. Economic sovereignty for national development A. Foreign economic & trade relations B. Financial, monetary & fiscal policies C. Social & economic planning
Part VI. Overall implementing mechanism
Part VII. Final provisions
Negotiations on the above issues are expected to be easier and faster, compared with those on agrarian reform and national industrialization which are deemed to be the hardest part of the entire negotiations.
Volatile GRP president
Apparently, all it took for Duterte to mindlessly cast aside these great achievements of the negotiations was his seeing on television militant activists protesting US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Philippines for the Asean summit last November. Were imagined personal slights arising from such protest action against one he probably considered a soul mate, more important to him than assiduously working to achieve peace?
Not long after seeing ASEAN protest videos on television, Duterte ordered his negotiators to cancel “all planned meetings with the CPP/NPA/NDFP.” Subsequently, he issued Proclamation 360 (November 23) terminating the GRP-NDFP peace talks. This was followed by Proclamation 374 (December 5) declaring the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) as “terrorist organizations” under both the Human Security Act of 2007 (RA 9373) and the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012 (RA 10168).
Under the law, the proscription of the CPP and NPA as terrorist organizations doesn’t instantly take effect. The government needs to first file a petition with a Regional Trial Court to proclaim the CPP and NPA as terrorist organizations, which petition will have to undergo hearings before the court can issue a ruling. Yet Duterte’s proclamation and his military minions’ relentless campaign to slander the revolutionary organizations have opened the gates to more human rights violations, as happened in his notorious Oplan Tokhang against suspected drug users and peddlers.
His ordering the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the reactionary government’s intelligence branches to arbitrarily list down suspected officers and members of underground revolutionary organizations and of their alleged aboveground “fronts” can only be interpreted as orders for increased intimidation, abduction, torture and murder of legal democratic activists and other civilians.
In the latter part of 2017, Duterte did these things that expose himself as a fraud and a liar disinterested in peace as well as a tyrant in the exact mold of his idol Ferdinand Marcos.
NDFP determined to fight for just peace
Duterte’s lies and slander against revolutionary organizations, however, failed to gain traction among the Filipino people. The people have become aware of and disgusted over Duterte’s mass murder of suspected drug users and peddlers. More and more have also wisened up to his obvious subservience to capitalist and foreign interests, plunder of the environment, attacks against peasant and national minority communities, and his own family’s connections with underworld groups. And his lies against the revolutionary forces are increasingly being dismissed as hot flashes of a drug-addled mind.
NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison has remarked that the US-directed Duterte regime is daydreaming that it can discredit and destroy the sovereign revolutionary will of the Filipino people by proscribing the revolutionary forces as terrorist organizations, by requiring them to submit themselves to the sham processes of the reactionary state, and by unleashing gross and systematic crimes of terrorism and human rights violations.
The Filipino people and the revolutionary forces, he said, are determined to fight for national and social liberation, people´s democracy, economic development, cultural progress and just peace.
While the Duterte fascist regime may have terminated the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations, Sison pointed out, “it cannot be too sure that it will last long [in power] because the Filipino people and even those in the GRP detest the monstrous crimes of the regime, especially mass murder, corruption and puppetry to the US.” The crisis of the ruling system continues to worsen and the resources of the regime for violence and deception are limited.
The spike in new Coronavirus-19 (Covid-19) cases in Europe late last year frustrated plans for back-channel talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison said a planned trip by GRP emissaries to The Netherlands last December did not push through as many countries in Europe implemented extended lockdowns.
“What (labor secretary) Bebot [Silvestre Bello] said that he and (former Pangasinan Representative and GRP Negotiating Panel member) Nani (Hernani Braganza) planned to come over was true,” Sison said.
Sison confirmed that the planned back-channel talks are with the permission of GRP President Rodrigo Duterte and with the mediation of Royal Norwegian Government Special Envoy to the Philippine Peace Process Idun Tvedt.
During the online Ninth Ecumenical Church Leaders’ Summit on Peace on Thursday Bello revealed that back-channel talks are ongoing between the parties.
Bello said that Duterte is again “very much inclined” to revive the negotiations he scuttled in June 2017.
The former GRP chief negotiator said he is confident formal negotiations can resume within Duterte’s last 16 months in office.
Interim NDFP chief negotiator Juliet de Lima for her part told the online forum that the planned back-channel talks would resume discussions on an interim peace agreement (IPA) that includes agreements on social and economic reforms.
IPA discussions shall also include possible coordinated unilateral ceasefire declarations as well as modes for their implementation, de Lima said.
From lows of 108,000 new daily cases last July, new Covid-19 cases spiked in Europe from November last year to January this year, peaking at upwards of two million new cases daily in mid-November.
European countries have since re-imposed strict lock downs and health protocols.
Sison said no new date has yet been set for Bello and Braganza’s possible trip.
Braganza also told Kodao that until vaccinated, it would be difficult for him and Bello to plan the trip.
“Mahirap umalis na walang vaccination. Iba-iba rin ang rules hinggil sa quarantine,” he said. (It is ill-advised without being vaccinated. Rules regarding quarantines are also different.) # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
Ref: Archbishop Antonio J. Ledesma, DD
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJYCGv2xaLI]
