Murder of peace consultant outrages NDFP

LUCENA CITY – The communist-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) has expressed outrage over  the murder of its peace consultant Randy Malayao.

“We, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Negotiating Panel express our outrage and strongest condemnation on the brutal murder of Felix Randy Malayao, a publicly known consultant of the NDFP on political and constitutional reforms,” Fidel Agcaoili, NDFP chairperson, said in a statement Wednesday.

The NDFP is the umbrella group of communist-led organizations that has been representing the insurgents in the on and off peace negotiations with the government since 1986.

Agcaoili said Malayao’s “brazen murder” indicates an escalation of attacks against their peace consultants.
He said the killing “serves as a further serious obstacle to the resumption of the peace negotiations with the Duterte government.”

He added that Malayao’s killing “may very well portent of worse moves against NDFP consultants for the peace talks,”
and noted that a number of NDFP peace consultants such as Vic Ladlad, Adel Silva and Rey Casambre, among others, “have already been arbitrarily arrested and slapped with trumped-up charges.”

READ: CHR to probe murder of NDFP consultant Randy Malayao

However, Agcaoili said the NDFP “remains committed to the attainment of a just and last peace in the Philippines through peace negotiations.”

Earlier, exiled Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison said the Maoist-inspired rebels were rethinking its stand to remain open to peace talks with the government with the killing of Malayao.

READ: Communist rebels rethinking stand on openness to peace talks with gov’t

“In view of the murder of NDFP consultant Randy Malayao, the NDFP and all revolutionary forces within its fold are now in the process of reconsidering its policy of being open to peace negotiations with the GRP (government) under the Duterte regime,” Sison said in a statement from Utrecht in the Netherlands.

In an online interview, Agcaoili maintained that there is no contradiction with the NDFP and Sison’s stand on the peace talks.

“Process of reconsidering at serious obstacle do not contradict each other,” he explained.

Agcaoili said President Duterte and the war hawks in his administration was “hell-bent in sabotaging the pursuit for a just peace as it intensifies attacks against the NDFP and enables brazen acts such as the murder of Ka Randy.”

He said the NDFP gives Malayao the “highest honor for his invaluable contributions to the revolutionary movement and the NDFP’s peace efforts.” /ee