CPP/Ang Bayan: CASER should come before ceasefire-Sison

Propaganda article from the English language edition of Ang Bayan posted to the Communist Party of the Philippines Website (May 21): CASER should come before ceasefire-Sison

The NDFP cannot agree to any prolonged or indefinite ceasefire before the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-economic Reforms and the amnesty and release of the political prisoners.

Jose Maria Sison, Chief Political Consultant of the NDFP for the peace talks, reiterated this stand which he had already explained in the fourth round of the peace talks last April.

At the last round of talks, the NDFP and the GRP signed an agreement to agree on a ceasefire as soon as the guidelines and ground rules are agreed upon. The GRP will no longer be interested in the accelerated negotiation of CASER after getting first a prolonged and indefinite kind of ceasefire, he added. Sison also stressed that socio-economic reforms include agrarian reform, national industrialization, wise utilization of the environment, and people’s rights to free social services, among others.

NDFP and GRP teams held bilateral meetings on the CASER and the ceasefire in the Philippines during the last week of April until the first week of May. This was held to sort out and arrange the contentious issues between the respective drafts to accelerate the coming talks.

In this connection, Fidel Agcaoili, NDFP chief negotiator, slammed the illegal arrest of NDFP consultant Rommel Salinas in Gango, Ozamis City, Misamis Occidental. This is a clear violation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees. Salinas was arrested on May 11 despite showing his ID as NDFP consultant number #ND978453.

 With Salinas were Bishop Carlo Morales of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, the latter’s wife, teacher Ma. Teofilina Morales, and driver Isadome Dalid. Salinas and Morales were charged with illegal possession of explosives based on planted evidence.

Rev. Jonash Joyohoy, General Governor of the National Priest Organization, condemned the arrest as harassment and persecution of churchpeople who are working for the liberation of the people and he called on his congregation to take all opportunities to expose and denounce the evils unleashed by PNP and AFP. In whatever forms imaginable, these evils must be stopped, he said.

Salinas is the third consultant to be arrested since the start of the peace talks. Still imprisoned are Promencio Cortez, who was arrested on February 9, in Baguio City, and Ferdinand Castillo who was arrested February 12 in Caloocan City.

There are also several cases of harassment against other consultants. On May 9, obvious military agents on motorcycles tailed Benito and Wilma Tiamzon after they visited the peasant campout in Mendiola. They noticed the surveillance for the third time since January when they arrived from The Netherlands. Last April 24, Cordillera Day, soldiers at a checkpoint on a Balbalan highway were looking for Kennedy Bangibang, another consultant. It has also been reported that the AFP Eastern Mindanao has released a shoot-to-kill order against Pedro Codaste, and there are also plans to abduct Porferio Tuna Jr.

On the other hand, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana again showed his interference when he spoke at the Regional Peace and Order Council meeting in Davao City that if he were to decide, he would rather stop the peace negotiations with the communist rebels, since the NPA is not stopping its offensives. It is clear to the revolutionary movement that the NPA has the right to engage in active self-defense and defend the people in the face of brutal AFP and NPA attacks even as the peace talks continue.

 The fourth round of the series of peace talks will resume on May 27 to June 22 in Noordwijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands.

[Ang Bayan is the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Philippines. Ang Bayan is published in Pilipino, Bisaya, Hiligaynon, Waray and English. Download Ang Bayan from the Philippine Revolution Web Central at www.philippinerevolution.info.  Ang Bayan is published fortnightly by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines.]
https://www.philippinerevolution.info/ang_bayan/2017may21-caser-should-come-before-ceasefire-sison/