Peace group tells US: Remove Reds’ terror tag
DAVAO CITY—The United States should remove its terror tag on the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) which a group advocating for a peaceful settlement of the nearly 50-year communist insurgency in the Philippines said could make it dangerous for CPP founder Jose Ma. Sison to come home to conclude peace talks with the incoming Duterte administration.
“If the United States cares, even an iota, for the peace of our nation and people, they will remove their ‘terrorist’ tagging,” said the group Pilgrims for Peace in a statement.
“Such can impede travel and make it dangerous for professor Jose Maria Sison, founding chair of the CPP, to attend any activity related to the talks in the Philippines,” the group said.
Reiteration
Sison, in an online chat with Inquirer, accused the US government of sabotaging talks between the incoming Duterte administration and communist rebels by reiterating the terror tag on CPP and other Leftist organizations.
In the Country Reports on Terrorism 2015 released by the US State Department on June 2, the CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army, were identified as “US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations” along with the local terror group Abu Sayyaf Group and its regional affiliate Jemaah Islamiyah.
The same report labeled the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) as a militant group. BIFF is a group of breakaway Moro guerrillas blamed for a series of attacks on civilian communities in the wake of disagreements with Moro Islamic Liberation Front over peace talks with the Aquino administration.
‘Sustained pressure’
The US State Department report said the only reason that these groups “were unable to conduct major attacks on civilian targets in metropolitan areas” is “sustained pressure” from Philippine law enforcers.
The report listed a series of attacks mostly in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, but mentioned nothing to support its tag on CPP.
Sison said it was ironic for the US government to label groups as terrorists when it is the “biggest terror force” in the world.
He said during American colonization of the Philippines, US military campaigns killed at least 1.5 million Filipinos from 1899 to 1913.
Since World War II, Sison said, the United States has caused the deaths of 35 million people worldwide as a result of its “wars of aggression.”
The United States, said Sison, is behind “state terrorism in the Philippines.”
Sison said the timing of the release of the US State Department report is suspicious because it came just as communist rebel leaders and the incoming Duterte administration prepared to resume formal negotiations for a peace pact.
He said there can be no other reason behind the terror tagging but to derail the talks.
Pilgrims for Peace, a group with ties to Protestant churches, said it protests the labeling of CPP and NPA as terrorist organizations. Karlos Manlupig, Inquirer Mindanao
