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Philippines Talks With Communists ‘Hit A Snag’
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Jalandoni
accused the Arroyo regime of blackmail over the “terror label”
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By Rexcel Sorza, IOL Correspondent
ILOILO
CITY, Philippines, February 12 (IslamOnline.net) – The government
negotiations with the Communist Party’s National Democratic Front of
the Philippines (NDFP) in the Norwegian capital of Oslo hit an impasse
over the issue of the party’s removal from the list of international
terrorist organizations.
“I
wish to call attention to the fact that the current formal talks
between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and
the NDFP have hit a snag,” Luis Jalandoni, NDFP Negotiating Panel
chairperson, said in a statement e-mailed to IslamOnline.net Thursday,
February 12.
Both
panels have agreed to tackle a 20-point agenda in four days from
February 10 to 13 but Jalandoni said “the GRP Panel has used the
whole day of February 11 (Wednesday) to prevent full discussion of
agenda item No. 4 on effective measures against the ‘terrorist’
listing and thereby block the progress of the formal talks.”
He
said that “in view of the position and attitude of the Macapagal
Arroyo regime, the NDFP is inclined to wait for a change of regime
after the May 10 elections.” Jalandoni said the Philippine
government is trying to blackmail their organization.
“The
GRP Panel has brazenly told the NDFP Panel that it cannot make any
agreement on effective measures against the ‘terrorist’ listing
unless President Arroyo can make a judgment at the end of the current
round of formal talks that the GRP has gotten enough advantages.
“It
is clear now that the GRP is trying to blackmail the NDFP with the
‘terrorist’ listing. In the first place, the GRP connived with the
U.S. government in making the ‘terrorist’ listing in violation of
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).”
Jalandoni
added that the Arroyo regime “is not interested in serious peace
negotiations and is merely trying to cause the capitulation of the
NDFP through blackmail.
The
regime has already made public its intention to slow down peace
negotiations and prevent the prompt indemnification of the human
rights claimants who won the human rights litigation against Marcos in
the U.S.”
“Terror
Label”
The
government negotiators headed by Secretary Silvestre Bello III and the
NDF group chaired by Luis Jalandoni came to the negotiating table
Wednesday, February 11, with their respective draft proposals on the
terrorist listing of the CPP and its founding chairman Jose Maria
Sison.
The
terrorist-listing issue was a carryover of the unfinished agenda
Tuesday where the NDF proposed a joint statement or declaration in
keeping with the spirit of the two parties’ January 13 Joint
Statement to Resume Formal Talks.
The
two panels rationalized their respective drafts and agreed to delegate
a committee composed of three members from each panel to craft a
mutually-acceptable draft of the joint statement /declaration on the
terrorist-listing issue but as of 7 p.m. nothing concrete had been
achieved.
The
NDF wanted a separate declaration but the GRP suggested that it be
part only of the Joint Statement that will be issued at the end of the
four-day talks.
Likewise,
the NDF wanted the two parties to be more explicit in calling upon the
governments of the United States, Canada, Australia and the Council of
the European Union to delist the CPP, its armed wing the New
People’s Army and Sison. The government panel wanted legal and moral
justification.
"Mahirap
(Difficult), but we are confident we will overcome this," Bello
said in a separate statement emailed to IslamOnline.net from Oslo. He
added: "We will try to save the talks."
President
Gloria Arroyo has earlier expressed optimism that the talks with the
CPP would succeed.
In
the Jan. 13 Joint Statement to Resume Formal Talks, the two parties
agreed to undertake effective measures to resolve the issue in
consonance with the Hague Joint Declaration of 1992 and other
bilateral agreements.
The
CPP and NDFP reiterated their stand that the terrorist tag “is
baseless and malicious.”
The
Communist Party of the Philippines has been put on the list of foreign
terrorist organization by the United States State Department last
August 9, 2002. It was subsequently followed by the Dutch, Canadian
and Australian governments, and the Council of the European Union.
CPP
founding chairman, Jose Maria Sison, who is also the NDFP chief
political consultant, was likewise tagged as a terrorist.
The
CPP launched a revolutionary struggle in 1968 for national and social
liberation while upholding the principle of independence and utmost
self- reliance and remains a big threat to the Philippine government.
Thousands of civilians, soldiers and cadres have died in the
decades-long struggle.
CPP
claims to be followed by 35,000 Filipinos. It also claims to have
10,000 high-powered firearms, excluding 7,000 inferior firearms, and
units of its armed wing, the New People’s Army, operate in at least
60 guerrilla fronts covering 12,000 villages or significant portions
of 800 municipalities and 63 provinces of the Philippines.
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