DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Following the permanent termination of the peace negotiations with the Communist Party of the Philippines, Jose Maria Sison, Chief Political Consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines is seeing the full implementation of the government’s all-out war against the revolutionary forces.
He also urged the revolutionary forces and the people to wage and intensify the people’s war in the country.
“In the meantime, the revolutionary forces and the people need to defend themselves actively and advance their revolutionary cause by all possible forms of resistance. By terminating the peace negotiations and brutally carrying out an all-out war against the people, Duterte gives the revolutionary forces and the people no other choice but to wage and intensify the people’s war,” Sison stressed.
He added that the conditions for waging the armed revolution are favorable because the broad masses of the people detest and want to get rid of a regime of greed and terror that is generating an unprecedented economic and financial crisis.
Sison also likened President Duterte to an old broken record “repeating ad nauseam his termination of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations.”
For the NDFP, he said that Duterte formally killed the peace negotiations on November 23, 2017, with his Proclamation 360.
“Since then, what Duterte has been doing is merely driving more nails into the coffin of the peace negotiations under his regime. He needs the continuance of the armed conflict as the excuse to impose on the people a de facto martial law nationwide and eventually a full-blown fascist dictatorship through a charter change to a bogus kind of federalism,” he said.
Sison also criticized Duterte for insisting the conduct of localized peace talks that will be controlled by the military given that the Office of the Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process headed by former Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Gen. Carlito Galvez, Jr.
He also labeled localized peace talks as fake negotiations where people are gathered by local officials and misrepresent them as surrenderees.
“In these fake negotiations, people are gathered by local officials and misrepresented as surrenderers and the military officers collect the reward money for the fake surrenderers. This racket is the essence of the so-called whole-nation approach whereby the civilians are subjugated and humiliated by the military for purposes of psywar, mass intimidation, and the listing of prospective targets of the Duterte death squads,” Sison pointed out.
Duterte, in his speech during the Philippine Army’s 122nd Founding Anniversary rites officially announced the permanent termination of the talks with the CPP, adding that he will no longer entertain any interventions and persuasions and told the CPP to negotiate with the next president.
“I am officially announcing the permanent termination of our talks between the Government Panel and the Communist Party of the Philippines. I am no longer entertaining any interventions or persuasions in this democratic state of the Republic of the Philippines,” the President said.
Following Duterte’s declaration, OPAPP’s Galvez also told reporters that his office is proposing for a peace panel that will be composed of representatives from different sectoral groups, and local government units.
The military, Galvez added, will supervise localized peace engagements.
Sison, however, expressed optimism the peace negotiations between the government and the CPP can still be revived in the future by a new administration.
“The Duterte regime is not eternal. It can be finished with the success of the oust movement, with the end of his term in 2022 or with his certain overthrow as he forces his way to a fascist dictatorship” he added. (davaotoday.com)
