CPP: CPP calls on NPA to gear up against AFP offensive

From the CPP Website (Jan 15): CPP calls on NPA to gear up against AFP offensive

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today called on the New People’s Army (NPA) to immediately assume an offensive posture, seize the initiative and gear up against the anticipated military offensives to be carried out by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) against the NPA and the revolutionary masses as the temporary synchronized ceasefire agreement expires by the end of the day.

At the same time, the CPP announced that over the past 27 days, the New People’s Army has strictly abided by the ceasefire declaration issued by the CPP Central Committee that covered the period December 20 to January 15.

The CPP also denounced the Aquino regime and its Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP) for continuing to heighten offensive operations during the agreed upon ceasefire period and committing grave abuses of human rights. (See updated ceasefire report.)
“Over the past 27 days, the AFP carried out widespread deployment of forces and offensive operations from Luzon to Mindanao, taking advantage of the goodwill of the revolutionary forces,” said the CPP. “The most recent incident involved a raid last January 10 by elements of the AFP’s 10th Special Forces augmented by local CAFGU forces on a platoon of the NPA Herminio Alfonso Command in Upper Tiwayan, Barangay Badyangun, Arakan, North Cotabato.”

According to the NDF-Southern Mindanao, the NPA unit was preparing to conduct a meeting with the local peasant masses to discuss the land problem in the area. Strictly abiding by the terms of the CPP ceasefire declaration, the NPA unit defended itself, prevailed over the AFP offensive and safely evaded the enemy.

“In declaring the December 20 to January 15 ceasefire in synchrony with a similar ceasefire declaration by the GPH, the CPP aimed to generate goodwill in order to boost the NDFP-GPH peace negotiations,” added the CPP.

“Unfortunately, the GPH attempted to mock the December 18 statement attested to by the Royal Norwegian Government (RNG) Ambassador Ture Lundh in not issuing a reciprocal declaration until late afternoon of January 2, fifteen days after the agreement, which prompted the CPP to momentarily rescind the ceasefire order,” pointed out the CPP. The CPP ceasefire declaration was reinstated the following day, upon the recommendation of the NDFP Negotiating Panel, after the NDFP was formally informed of Aquino’s order to the AFP.

“Despite the Aquino regime’s affronts against the December 18 agreement in belatedly issuing a reciprocal ceasefire declaration and persisting with its offensive military operations, the revolutionary forces are willing to bend back a little and continue efforts to engage in peace negotiations with the Philippine government.”

“The revolutionary forces await the next round of formal talks between the NDFP and the GPH and hope that it will produce definitive and more concrete agreements to resolve the outstanding issues of the continued incarceration of 14 NDFP consultants and the detention of at least 400 political prisoners in violation of such standing agreements as the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).”

“Furthermore, the revolutionary forces hope that the NDFP-GPH peace negotiations will be able to progress to the next round of substantive talks in order to tackle pressing socio-economic issues such as landlessness, unemployment, low wages, high prices, hunger, poverty and overall economic stagnation, that are among the root causes of the raging civil war in the country,” said the CPP.

http://www.philippinerevolution.net/statements/cpp-calls-on-npa-to-gear-up-against-afp-offensive