CPP sees eventual breakdown of GPH-MILF peace talks

From GMA News (Mar 30): CPP sees eventual breakdown of GPH-MILF peace talks

Peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front may appear to go smoothly now, but may not lead to final agreement, the Communist Party of the Philippines claimed Friday.

In a statement marking the 44th anniversary of the New People's Army, the CPP central committee said the MILF may not accept a demand by the government for it to dismantle its army.

"While the (Aquino) regime keeps on blaring to the press that the final peace agreement shall be signed before 2016, it demands something that the MILF might not be able to accept, the dismantling of its army prior to any significant social and economic benefits to the Bangsamoro," it said.

It added that so long as the Bangsamoro right to self-determination and ancestral domain is not respected, "armed resistance will arise again and again."

Thus, it said the Aquino administration "cannot be too sure that it will be able to rule the Bangsamoro and plunder their resources; and that it will have more armed forces available to fight the armed revolutionary movement of the Filipino people."

As for the talks between the CPP, NPA and National Democratic Front with the government, the CPP said the negotiations "have been paralyzed by Aquino and his minions."

It accused the Aquino administration of assailing the Hague Joint Declaration as a “document of perpetual division,” and "declared the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) as inoperative."

"They have refused to release from prison the JASIG-protected NDFP consultants and personnel and blocked the NDFP reconstruction of its list of JASIG-protected consultants, security officers and staff," it added.

"At every turn in every meeting of the negotiating panels and special delegations, they have demanded directly and in effect the capitulation and pacification of the people’s revolutionary movement. At all times, the NDFP have rebuffed them. Aquino has practically killed the peace negotiations," the CPP claimed.

It said that since the Aquino administration "is not interested" in peace negotiations, the CPP and NPA are "alerted and compelled to intensify the tactical offensives nationwide and carry out the plan to advance from the strategic defensive to the strategic stalemate."

Tactical alliance

The NPA and the MILF had been linked to reports of having a tactical alliance dating back to 1999, an earlier report quoting Col. Daniel Lucero, then commander of the Army's Civil Military Operations, as saying.

Lucero claimed a written agreement in 1999 "covers, among others, exchange of information, sharing of training, manufacture of arms and ammunition - particularly rocket-propelled grenades."

He said this could be why why the Mindanao-based NPAs were reported to have used anti-tank rockets, supposedly loaned by the MILF, against government troops.

Lucero also noted government troops had monitored instances when MILF forces were used as blocking forces of the NPA in Sultan Kudarat, North Cotabato and South Cotabato.

But a separate report in December 2008 also said the MILF refused to join the NPA in toppling the Arroyo administration.

GPH-MILF peace efforts

Last Monday, government and MILF peace negotiators issued a statement they will hold the 37th round of formal peace talks in April 2013.

Peace efforts between the government and the MILF appeared to go one major step further last year, when both sides signed a framework agreement that will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with a Bangsamoro political entity.

Earlier this year, President Benigno Aquino III launched a socio-economic initiative in an MILF community.

Meanwhile, the CPP instructed the NPA to intensify tactical offensives against the government.

It said the NPA has more than 110 guerrilla fronts nationwide, including "commando teams and armed city partisans" in urban areas.

"The New People’s Army must continuously seize the initiative and intensify the tactical offensives in order to defeat Oplan Bayanihan of the US-Aquino regime and to realize the revolutionary plan to advance from the strategic defensive to the strategic stalemate. The various levels of command must have strike forces for wiping out enemy units, seizing arms and inspiring the Filipino people to fight against the rotten ruling system," it said.

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/301626/news/nation/cpp-sees-eventual-breakdown-of-gph-milf-peace-talks