NDFP slams Aquino government for reneging on agreements

Jalandoni also criticized what he calls GPH’s attacks on previously signed agreements, including The Hague Joint Declaration.

“The Hague Joint Declaration is the foundation agreement for the peace talks. Attacking the framework document and now, the Jasig, poses great danger to the peace talks. The trend the GPH is taking is bad, it might mean they want to end the peace talks,” Jalandoni said.

Regarding the GPH’s statement that a common tentative draft Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms (Caser) must first be completed, Jalandoni said, their draft has been ready as early as May.

“We proposed an exchange of drafts, both digital and hard copies, but the GPH suggested we send it through email. Ednar [Dayanghirang] said they are ready but we have not received a copy of their draft,” Jalandoni said.

Dayanghirang is the chair of the GPH’s reciprocal working committee (RWC) on socio-economic reforms.

Jalandoni said their RWC-SER has come up with concrete proposals and that the working group on political and economic reforms is in making a draft proposal. “Our work is continuous. We are ready any time,” Jalandoni said.

In a phone interview, Dayanghirang said the GPH’s draft in Caser is ready. He said they were ready to present it until the NDFP postponed the talks in June and the bilateral meetings did not push through.

Asked about the GPH’s commitment to release NDFP consultants, Dayanghirang echoed Padilla’s statement, that the list of Jasig-protected individuals was not verified. He accused the NDFP as the one postponing the talks. He admitted, however, that the GPH did not agree on the NDFP’s proposed schedule of resumption of talks this September.

Military’s influence

Jalandoni said “the influence and intervention of the military in the peace talks is very strong and so is the 2009 United States Counterinsurgency (COIN) Guide to which Oplan Bayanihan was patterned.”

Jalandoni noted that the objective of Oplan Bayanihan is to render the NDFP, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) inconsequential. He added that the triad operations of Oplan Bayanihan – combat, intelligence and civil military operations – reflect that there was a “cosmetic change” from Arroyo’s counterinsurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya 1 and 2.

“With the framework of defeating the NPA through military might, it would not lead to any kind of peace talks addressing the roots of the armed conflict,” Jalandoni said.

“It should not be the military making the decisions. The Aquino administration must assert civilian supremacy, must show that peace talks is a priority,” Jalandoni said.

The NDFP official also noted that President Benigno S. Aquino III did not mention the peace talks in his State of the Nation Address (Sona) speeches.

“If the GPH does not want [to proceed with the talks], the revolutionary struggle is there. We will not abandon our instrument for national and social liberation,” Jalandoni said.

“The CPP-NPA-NDFP is sincere in addressing the roots of the armed conflict.

“It is becoming clear that the Aquino regime lacks the political will to continue with the peace negotiations. The regime does not have the integrity and word of honor to comply with signed agreements. It is hopelessly servile to US dictates, so manifest in its pursuit of the US-designed Oplan Bayanihan. The Aquino regime has no use for the peace negotiations except for psywar for a while but to scuttle these ultimately in order to further escalate military campaigns of suppression and the most brazen human rights violations against the people,” Agcaoili said in a statement sent through email.