GPH peace panel accuses CPP/NPA/NDF of making excuses to end self-imposed ceasefire this X'mas season

From the Philippine News Agency (Jan 2): GPH peace panel accuses CPP/NPA/NDF of making excuses to end self-imposed ceasefire this X'mas season

The government peace panel on Wednesday accused the Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army/National Democratic Front (CPP/NPA/NDF) of looking for excuses to resume violence rather than seek peace after the insurgents abruptly declared to end its self-imposed ceasefire for the Christmas holiday. “It is unfortunate that the CPP/NPA/NDF is interested in looking for excuses to resume violence than to seek peace,” the GPH said in a press statement.

 The statement came less than 24 hours after the Government of the Philippines (GPH) peace panel expressed hope that peace talks with the communist rebels would resume this year after negotiation bogged down for many years. The GPH statement said “the CPP today (Jan. 2) upon recommendation of the Negotiating Panel of the NDFP, the CPP declared an end to its self-imposed ceasefire on January 2 and cited as an excuse the ‘failure of the GPH to comply with the agreement last December 17-18 to extend its own ceasefire order to January 15.’” “This is a false claim as shown by the explicit provision of the Press Communique issued by the Norwegian Facilitator, the statement of Secretary (Teresita-Quintos) Deles issued on December 20 affirming the extended ceasefire declaration, and the procedural processes undertaken by the security forces to officially affirm the extension of the SOMO (suspension of military operations) and SOPO (suspension of police operations) that led to its formal announcement by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police Wednesday afternoon, January 2,” the GPH statement pointed out.

 It said the “announcement was in keeping with the official communication of the GPH to the Norwegian Facilitator sent during the holiday break that reiterated our assurances of the announcement of the extension of the SOMO and SOPO before the original unilateral declaration lapses.”  At the same time, the GPH peace panel also expressed dismay when the communist rebels made another excuse, saying that they did not want “to be placed in an unduly disadvantaged position when the AFP ends its suspension of military offensives by midnight Wednesday.”

“Since the time that Government made the ceasefire declaration, there have been no recorded violations by the military and police, which is a clear manifestation of our commitment to honor the ceasefire agreement,” the GPH panel added.  It said the “government stands firm to the nationwide ceasefire agreed upon with the NDF which commenced on December 20, 2012 and will remain effective until January 15, 2013. Our security forces will maintain its unilateral declaration of SOMO and SOPO, despite the CPP’s termination, and will stand ready to defend and protect our people,” it said.

On New Year’s day, the GPH was confident that the peace talks with the CPP/NPA/NDF would jumpstart anew this year and break the long-drawn impasse.’ of its peace talks with communist rebels. “The New Year is a time for new beginnings. It also allows us to build on modest gains of the year soon to end - 2012 - which has brought both impasse and advance,” the GPH panel said. “The peace talks with the CPP/NPA/NDF have been most challenging since these began over two decades ago,” it added.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=&sid=&nid=&rid=484070