“I would like to think that the real reason I am being detained – indefinitely if the kingpins of national security have their way – is that somehow I am contributing my share to the people’s struggles to overhaul this unjust and undemocratic system. Only diehard reactionaries would condemn this as a criminal act.”
“The release of Baylosis is a victory, but hundreds more remain languishing in jails across the country. Along with the kin of political prisoners, other human rights advocates, and human rights lawyers, we will continue to work for the dismissal of charges against trumped-up charges against political prisoners.”
When he returns from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Meeting in Papua New Guinea (Nov. 17-18), President Duterte said he would announce if he would meet with Fidel V. Agcaoili and Luis Jalandoni, head and former head now adviser, respectively, of the negotiating panel for the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF) in…
After local National Democratic Front formations have rejected peace negotiations with local government officials, the CPP itself strongly spurned the offer, saying President Duterte will only use these to “pretend to want peace while actually waging total war against the people.”
Regular readers of the Philippine STAR have surely taken note of this paper’s series of editorials this week (the first week of President Duterte’s third year in office) dwelling on impunity and the rising cycle of violence in the country. Let’s review the key points raised by two of the editorials. On July 2 the…
Fidel Agcaoili said the GRP officials are falsely blaming the wrong person for the impasse, adding it is Duterte who should be blamed for the problems faced by the negotiations.
In his strongest statement condemning Duterte’s repeated cancellation of formal talks yet, Sison said the Filipino people, especially the oppressed and exploited, cannot expect any benefit from negotiating with Duterte’s government, adding the president has broken so many promises related to the peace process.
For now it looks like the fifth formal round of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations under the current administration – bilaterally set for June 28-30 but unilaterally postponed indefinitely by President Duterte on June 14 – may be resumed after three months. That is, in the last quarter of this year. In the meantime, the two…
In April, President Duterte called for resuming the GRP-NDFP peace talks he had arbitrarily “terminated” in November. Saying it’s the “last chance” for achieving peace with the Left revolutionary movement, he gave the two sides 60 days to undertake informal/backchannel discussions to pave the ground for the fifth round of formal negotiations, which he had…
By RAYMUND B. VILLANUEVA Kodao Productions MANILA — While National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili was diplomatic in expressing his disappointment, Jose Maria Sison expressed outright frustration over President Rodrigo Duterte’s postponement of the resumption of formal talks. In a statement after the Government of the Republic of the Philippines’s…
“Official unemployment figures do not reflect the discouraged workers or those who have dropped out of the labor force after failing to find work after six months.”