DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Maria Sison on Friday, called Vice President Leni Robredo “wise and sober” as she calls for the resumption of peace negotiation between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
“The Vice President is wise and sober and knows how to appreciate peace negotiations as the way to solve an armed conflict,” Sison said in a statement sent to media.
“She is probably aware that the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and NDFP negotiating panels last November were ready to finalize the agreements on general amnesty of political prisoners, major parts of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) and the coordinated unilateral ceasefire preparatory to the bilateral ceasefire supposedly desired by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP),” Sison added.
In a visit to a public school at Mulanay town in Quezon province on February 28, Robredo urged the president to leave the fate of the stalled peace talks to the government’s peace panel and not just to the military.
“It is right that the military should be on top of it, but the peace panel should also be involved because that’s the main reason why they were formed—to search ways and solutions for lasting peace,” Robredo said.
“All-out war do (sic) not always have a good result,” she added.
Sison described President Rodrigo Duterte as “obsessed” to go after members of the revolutionary movement.
“But Duterte is so obsessed with scapegoating the CPP and New People’s Army (NPA) and entrenching himself as a fascist dictator through Con-Ass and Cha-cha that he has lost any sense of arithmetic,” Sison said.
The president’s former professor refers to Duterte’s remark that it is cheaper to produce P100,000 for each CPP or NPA killed by the military.
“This brute and numbskull Duterte,” Sison added, “wants to engage in the mass murder of suspected revolutionaries under Oplan Kapayapaan, as in Oplan Tokhang, with so many innocents abducted, tortured and murder because of the inducements to police officers with cash reward, no need for judicial warrant, obliteration of evidence and promotions in rank.”
Oplan Kapayapaan or the Development Support and Security Plan Kapayapaan (Peace) is the current internal security plan of the AFP which replaced the Oplan Bayanihan of the previous administration.
Despite the unprecedented advances of the rounds of formal talks between the two parties in 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte cancelled the talks in November last year and in the following month, he declared the CPP-NPA as terror groups. Since then the talks remain at standstill. (davaotoday.com)
