Resumption of CPP peace talks 'betrayal' to Filipinos: ex-rebels

From the Philippine News Agency (Jul 20, 2022): Resumption of CPP peace talks 'betrayal' to Filipinos: ex-rebels (By Che Palicte)

Arian Jane Ramos alias Ka Marikit, the former secretary of the New People's Army Guerrilla Front 55 in Southern Mindanao. She is also former chairperson of Gabriela Youth at the University of the Philippines-Mindanao. (Screengrab)

Resuming peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) is a betrayal to the Filipino people and a disgrace to the government's success in dismantling the group, an ex-NPA cadre said Wednesday.

“The goal of 'negotiation' is to buy time to buttress a position—military, political, social, or economic—and to wear down, frustrate, and harass the state and its security forces,” Arian Jane Ramos, known as Ka Marikit, when she was secretary of the Guerrilla Front 55 under the NPA's Southern Mindanao Regional Command.

Ramos’s reaction came following a statement issued by CPP founding chairman Jose Maria “Joma” Sison that he was always open to peace negotiations with the Government of the Philippines (GPH), whoever the president is.

Ramos, also former chairperson of Gabriela Youth–University of the Philippines Mindanao, said such negotiations served only the rebels' propaganda objectives and are not to reach peaceful agreements.

“The CPP-NPA-NDF will never compromise, concessions are only made to advance its strategic plan,” she said in an interview.

If the CPP-NPA-NDF is successful in capitalizing on the momentum in their favor, Ramos said the rebel group will continue to “commit acts of terror across the entire nation.”

Recently, National Security Adviser Clarita Carlos, who also serves as the vice chairperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), said the future of the stalled peace negotiations between the GPH and the CPP lies in the hands of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

“That is a decision that the President of the Republic will make,” Carlos said.

The peace talks between the national government and the NDF have been intermittent since 1986.

Former President Rodrigo Duterte on Nov. 23, 2017 signed Proclamation 360, terminating the national government's peace negotiations with the CPP-NDF following a series of attacks waged by the CPP's armed wing, the NPA, against state forces and civilians.

The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

The NDF has been formally designated as a terrorist organization by the ATC on June 23, 2021, citing it as “an integral and inseparable part” of the CPP-NPA created in April 1973.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1179331