The Arroyo regime has scuttled the peace talks

By LUIS G. JALANDONI
Chairperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel

The Arroyo regime has scuttled the peace talks. It has declared its militarist plan to destroy the revolutionary movement before 2010. It has flagrantly violated the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) by committing crimes against humanity, perpetrating extrajudicial killings of more than 830 unarmed civilians, enforced disappearances on about 200 persons and frustrated killings on more than 350 persons, among other gross human rights violations. 

By LUIS G. JALANDONI
Chairperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel

Avoiding answering the question whether the Arroyo regime agrees with the report of United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston that the military is principally responsible for political killings, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo makes the false statement that the regime has a standing invitation to the National Democratic Front of the Philippines for peace talks.

The Arroyo regime has scuttled the peace talks. It has declared its militarist plan to destroy the revolutionary movement before 2010. It has flagrantly violated the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) by committing crimes against humanity, perpetrating extrajudicial killings of more than 830 unarmed civilians, enforced disappearances on about 200 persons and frustrated killings on more than 350 persons, among other gross human rights violations.

The Arroyo regime has also charged those involved in the peace negotiations on the side of the NDFP with rebellion, thereby violating the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG). Also in flagrant violation of the JASIG, it has summarily executed Sotero Llamas, Political Consultant of the NDFP, and caused the involuntary disappearance of NDFP Consultants and their immediate families and staff, namely, Rogelio Calubad and his son Gabriel; Prudencio Calubid, his wife Celine Palma and two companions, Leopoldo Ancheta and Philip Limjoco.

The Hague Joint Declaration of 1992 stipulates that national sovereignty is a guiding principle of the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). But the Arroyo regime has also trampled on the national sovereignty of the country by colluding with the US, the European Union and other foreign governments in the baseless and unjust “terrorist” listing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army, and the NDFP Chief Political Consultant Professor Jose Maria Sison.

If the Arroyo regime really wants to resume formal peace talks with the NDFP, as demanded by so many peace and human rights advocates, it must follow the urgent demands of the UN, Amnesty International, the US Senate, and so many other international bodies to immediately stop the extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations. It must take serious steps to comply with its obligations according to the CARHRIHL, the JASIG, and international human rights conventions.