By Professor JOSE MARIA SISON
NDFP Chief Political Consultant
It is a good thing that a prominent peace advocate like Senator Jamby Madrigal has visited the NDFP Negotiating Panel and the NDFP chief political consultant in order to explore the possibility of resuming the formal talks in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations before and after Gloria M. Arroyo exits from Malacanang palace.
By Professor JOSE MARIA SISON
NDFP Chief Political Consultant
It is a good thing that a prominent peace advocate like Senator Jamby Madrigal has visited the NDFP Negotiating Panel and the NDFP chief political consultant in order to explore the possibility of resuming the formal talks in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations before and after Gloria M. Arroyo exits from Malacanang palace.
The broad masses of the Filipino people are desirous of peace negotiations to address the roots of the armed conflict, forge agreements on social, economic and political reforms and lay the basis for a just and lasting peace. They are therefore happy to know that Senator Madrigal has visited us to advocate the resumption of the peace negotiations.
By unleashing some of her fiercest attack dogs against Senator Madrigal, Gloria M. Arroyo exposes herself as someone extremely malicious and bellicose. The attack dogs include her chief of staff Mike Defensor, her secretary of justice Raul Gonzalez and her national security adviser Norberto Gonzales.
In the attempt to misrepresent Senator Madrigal as having done something wrong, they harp on the line that everyone must support the all-out war policy of the regime and oppose peace negotiations.
Mike Defensor says that the Arroyo regime would never allow the GRP negotiating panel to meet the NDFP negotiating panel duly-authorized by the national council of the NDFP but would engage only in sham localized peace talks arranged by the bureaucrats and military agents of the regime.
Raul Gonzalez says that it is illegal for any official of the GRP to meet with the NDFP negotiating panel and that he is thinking of filing criminal charges against Senator Madrigal. In effect, he likewise accuses of wrongdoing all the officials of the regime who have met the NDFP negotiating panel and the NDFP chief political consultant.
Norberto Gonzales also seeks to criminalize any meeting with the NDFP negotiating panel and interprets the conversation about peace negotiations between Senator Madrigal and the NDFP negotiating panel as stooping so low, sleeping with the enemy, breaching national security and conspiring against the regime. He cannot tolerate any diversion from the all-out war policy.
From the public statements of the aforesaid running dogs, it is absolutely clear that the Arroyo regime is hell-bent on killing the peace negotiations. It becomes more necessary than ever for the people and broad united front of forces against the regime to seek the soonest possible end of the Arroyo regime and prepare for the resumption of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations.