Reds call off talks with Aquino administration
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) called off the peace negotiations with the government under the Aquino administration as the revolutionary movement celebrated its 45th founding anniversary on Thursday.
In a statement e-mailed to journalists, the CPP said the “proven unwillingness” of the Aquino administration to negotiate “just peace” leaves the group with no recourse but to wait for the next administration to engage in serious negotiations.
The Philippines has the longest-running communist insurgency in Asia, which has been blamed mostly on poverty and the ruling oligarchy.
Doubts on MILF
The CPP also raised doubts on whether the Aquino administration would be able to forge a peace deal with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a group established by supporters of the rebel Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), headed by founding chairman Nur Misuari, and the MILF-breakaway group, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).
“We are optimistic that the Bangsamoro will continue to struggle for self-determination and ancestral domain so long as these are not fulfilled,” the CPP said.
In September, the MNLF loyal to Misuari attacked Zamboanga City, alleging that the Aquino administration has abrogated the 1996 GPH-MNLF peace agreement.
KL talk
The government and MILF peace panels are expected to resume the formal talks in Kuala Lumpur after the New Year’s celebrations to negotiate the Normalization annex, the final yet thorny agreement that tackles the laying down of arms and transitional justice, among other things.
The CPP urged its followers to increase the number of party members to 25,000 “no matter how long it takes to do so.” It also wants to mobilize 25,000 Red fighters of the New People’s Army (NPA), the CPP’s armed wing, to continue fighting the military.
The CPP said it wanted to raise the number of guerrilla fonts to 200, from its 110 scattered in 71 of the 81 provinces of the country.
The CPP slammed the conditional cash transfer program and the Pamana livelihood projects of the government as plain bribery and intimidation in exchange for information against the NPAs.
It also called the military’s anti-insurgency campaign a failure and wanted the ouster or resignation of President Aquino for his supposed infractions against the country, the same list the communists had hurled against his predecessors.
“Let us do our best to cause the ouster of the Aquino regime or compel Aquino’s resignation from his office because of puppetry to US imperialism, corruption, electoral fraud, grave human rights violations, mismanagement of pre-disaster preparations and disaster aid, mendacity, unrestricted mining, logging, land grabbing and other forms of destroying the environment,” the CPP said.
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