CPP: CPP denounces Aquino failure to reciprocate temporary ceasefire

Posted to the PRWC Blog (Jan 2): CPP denounces Aquino failure to reciprocate temporary ceasefire

Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) announced today that its Central Committee has informed all units of the New People's Army and the people's militia that its earlier declaration issued last December 20 for a ceasefire to take effect until January 15 has been rescinded. The ceasefire has been cut short and will end today at 2359H.

The CPP said that the shorter ceasefire period is due to the Aquino government's failure to extend its ceasefire order to January 15 in sync with the CPP ceasefire declaration and in compliance with an agreement arrived at by special representatives of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GPH) and those of the NDFP.

Over the past few days, the NDFP has sent letters to the GPH's negotiating panel and special representatives to remind them of the synchronized ceasefire agreement.

The CPP earlier issued the ceasefire declaration to help create favorable conditions for another round of talks between the NDFP and the GPH. "In failing to reciprocate the ceasefire declaration of the revolutionary forces, the sincerity of the Aquino regime to pursue and boost NDFP-GPH peace negotiations has been put under serious question."

The CPP scored the "duplicity" of Atty. Alex Padilla, head of the GPH's negotiating panel, who in his new year message claimed that a ceasefire is in place "when he knows fully well that his boss had yet to issue any ceasefire order in accordance with the agreement with the NDFP."

"The Aquino regime has long been demanding the NDFP to engage in a ceasefire with the GPH," the CPP said. "After Aquino's noncompliance with the synchronized ceasefire agreement, similar temporary truces in the future have become infeasible except perhaps under some extraordinary circumstance."

"The Aquino regime's nonadherence to the temporary ceasefire agreement is a serious act of contempt against the peace negotiations supported and facilitated by the Royal Norwegian Government (RNG)," said the CPP. The RNG hosted the December 17-18 meeting between the GPH and NDFP special representatives at the Norwegian Embassy in The Hague.

"Furthermore, Benigno Aquino III's failure to comply with the synchronized ceasefire agreement casts doubt on the authority and status of his special representatives and negotiating panel led by Sec. Ronald Llamas and Atty. Alexander Padilla," said the CPP. "Aquino will have to make clear whether his special representatives and negotiating panel actually had any authority at all to negotiate and sign agreements that Aquino would comply with."

"Indeed, Aquino's noncompliance raises the question of whether he is at all serious in engaging the NDFP in peace negotiations," said the CPP. "For two years now, Aquino has consistently refused to comply with agreements with the NDFP, especially long-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)."

"In the face of the Aquino regime's impending failure to meet the objectives of Oplan Bayanihan to decimate the armed revolution by 2013 and transfer 'counter-insurgency' responsibilities to the Philippine National Police, it would appear that Aquino is interested only in going through the motions of peace negotiations as a camouflage to hide the brutalities committed by the AFP in carrying out his heightened war of suppression against the Filipino people," added the CPP.

"In continuing to detain at least 14 peace consultants of the NDFP in violation of the JASIG, the GPH has prevented peace negotiations from moving forward since the start of 2011."

The CPP also pointed out that the AFP has continued to carry out offensive operations and acts of suppression despite the Aquino regime's suspension of military operations since December 16. "Over the past two weeks, there has been practically no ceasefire on the part of the AFP as it continued to carry out military operations against suspected revolutionaries and communities suspected of being active in the revolutionary struggle.

"Despite its own ceasefire, the AFP did not order the removal of so-called "peace and development teams" deployed in rural communities, daily suppressing the people's civil and political rights," added the CPP. "The AFP set up military checkpoints to restrict people's movements, especially before and after the CPP's 44th anniversary last December 26 to prevent people from attending assemblies and surveilling those coming from the activites."

The AFP has arrested at least seven people during its own ceasefire period, including five farmers last December 21 in Mulanay, Quezon. On December 25, the AFP arrested Filemon Mendrez in Manjuyod, Negros Oriental. The military likewise arrested last December 28 Rene Esmondo Abiva in Bagumbayan, Tuguegarao City. The AFP claims that Mendez and Abiva are leaders of the revolutionary movement.

http://theprwcblogs.blogspot.com/2013/01/cpp-denounces-aquino-failure-to.html