Reply to Questions from a Representative of a Liberation Movement in Latin America

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1. Context of peace negotiations between National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Philippines (GPH)

There is an ongoing civil war in the Philippines between the the NDFP and the GPH. The NDFP represents the forces of workers, peasants, the poor, and the patriotic and progressive elements fighting for national and social liberation. The GPH represents the forces of the local ruling classes of big landlords and compradors supported by foreign monopoly capitalists. The civil war has been going on for the last 46 years, and is a continuation of the first democratic revolution against Spain in 1896 and the Philippine-American war in 1898.

In effect, two states exist in the Philippines: the revolutionary one, representing the people’s democratic government that has effective control over an extensive portion of the population and territory with democratic organs of political power in 71 out of 81 provinces in the country; the other, the counterrevolutionary Manila government, representing the foreign and domestic oppressors and exploiters.

To attain a just and lasting peace in the country, it is necessary to transform the semi-feudal and semi-colonial Philippine social system into a sovereign, democratic and just society through the implementation of, among others, genuine land reform; a program of national industrialization that is free from the dictates of neo-liberal globalization; an enlightened social policy that provides just wages, better living conditions, free education, health care and housing to the people; and an independent foreign policy that relates on sovereign equal terms and mutual respect with all states and nations and is in solidarity with the oppressed and exploited. Without these changes, the Philippines will remain poor, backward, agrarian, dependent and undeveloped – where abject poverty, unemployment and gross inequality rule, where there is widespread hunger, disease and malnutrition, and where illiteracy and homelessness prevail. These very conditions are the roots of the armed conflict.

2. Description of the peace negotiations: participants, length, reaction of society, agreement achieved and signed and if there is a ceasefire during the talks

The peace negotiations between the NDFP and the GPH is governed by the framework agreement called the The Hague Joint Declaration which was signed on 1 September 1992 in The Hague, The Netherlands. The Hague Joint Declaration provides for the following: that the peace negotiations shall be held to resolve the armed conflict; that the objective of the negotiations shall be the attainment of a just and lasting peace; that the peace negotiations must be in accordance with mutually acceptable principles of national sovereignty, democracy and social justice and that no precondition shall be made to negate the inherent character and purpose of peace negotiations; that the agenda of the peace negotiations shall be human rights and international humanitarian law, socio-economic reforms, political and constitutional reforms, and end of hostilities and disposition of forces; and that the peace negotiations shall be carried out through the reciprocal working committees to be created by the Parties that would meet, negotiate and work in sequence on the drafts of the four items of the agenda under the guidance of their respective Negotiating Panels. The two Parties have already signed and approved the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) in 1998, the first item in the agenda.

After The Hague Joint Declaration in 1992, other important agreements have been signed, such as the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG, February 1995) and its amendment agreements, which provide for the safety and immunity guarantees of the negotiators, consultants, staffers, security and other personnel in the peace negotiations; Agreement on the Ground Rules of the Formal Meetings of the Negotiating Panels (February 1995); and the Joint Agreement on the Formation, Sequence and Operationalization of the Reciprocal Working Committees (RWCs) of the Negotiating Panels (June 1995) and its amendment agreement.

The formal participants in the peace negotiations include the negotiating panels of both sides, their respective consultants and staff, as well as their respective reciprocal working committees and their consultants and staff. The negotiations have been held in mutually acceptable foreign neutral venues abroad (Belgium, The Netherlands and Norway) and have been going on since 1 September 1992 with long periods of impasse, suspension and one formal termination (in 1999), all done by the GPH.

There is no ceasefire between the parties while the peace negotiations are ongoing. The ceasefire will be discussed and settled in the last item of the agenda on the end of hostilities and disposition of forces. But there have been short-duration unilaterally-declared or coordinated ceasefires by the Parties during the Christmas season, Holy Week, periods of disasters (typhoons, earthquakes, etc.) and releases of prisoners of war.

The peace negotiations have been welcomed by the people at large and are supported by people’s organizations of workers, peasants, women, youth and students, urban poor indigenous peoples, civil-society groups, human rights institutions, religious and lawyers’ groups, academe, and patriotic and progressive groups and personalities.

3. What is the agenda of the peace negotiations? How was the agenda established? What were the difficulties? What effects did it have internally in the group, on the society, the political elite in the country?

As mentioned in paragraph 1 of number 2 above, the agenda of the peace negotiations have been established in the framework agreement called The Hague Joint Declaration. These are: human rights and international humanitarian law; socio-economic reforms; political and constitutional reforms; and end of hostilities and disposition of forces. These four items in the agenda are to be discussed, agreed upon, signed and approved in sequential order.

As previously mentioned, the first item has already been signed and approved in 1998. The CARHRIHL is guided by, among others, the UN Declaration on Human Rights, the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This Agreement is important in ensuring that while the armed conflict is going on, the two parties are bound to respect human rights and international humanitarian law in the conduct of war.

The agenda on socio-economic reforms is the meat of the peace negotiations because it addresses the roots of the armed conflict. To be taken up in this agenda are the longstanding issues of landlessness of the majority of the people (land reform and rural development), poverty and unemployment (national industrialization), national sovereignty and independence (against the policy of neo-liberal globalization, foreign interference and domination, etc.), enlightened social policy (free health, education, housing, etc.), and an independent foreign policy, among others.

The third item on political and constitutional reforms shall be the consequence of the agreement on socio-economic reforms. It shall define the political and constitutional structure and arrangement in accordance with the agreements reached on socio-economic reforms, for instance, the adequate and full representation of the workers and peasants who compose the majority of the Filipino people in decision and policy-making and governance.

The fourth item on the end of hostilities and disposition of forces shall define the agreement on the process of ending of the armed conflict and delineate the disposition of the armed forces of both parties.

Since 1998, the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations have been bogged down on the second item of the agenda. The ruling classes (economic and political elite) have shown great resistance in continuing and finishing the negotiations to address the roots of armed conflict, despite the general consensus and clamor by the people for basic reforms in the social system to end massive poverty, inequality and corruption in government.

The two Parties have already submitted their respective drafts on a comprehensive agreement on social and economic reforms and have formed their respective Reciprocal Working Committees (RWCs) to negotiate and work on the tentative draft of the agreement. The RWCs have already succeeded in forging a common draft on the Declaration of Principles. The GPH has adamantly refused to talk about land reform and national industrialization. It considers these matters as “loaded” categories, even though these are undoubtedly bourgeois democratic – and not socialist – demands that were carried out in countries that managed to industrialize in the post World war II period such as South Korea and Taiwan, as well as in England and other countries of Europe before the so-called Industrial Revolution and the US in the aftermath of the American civil war.

4. How has been the participation? Direct or Indirect? How was the participation of the different groups of the society? What about the participation of the popular classes?

These questions have partly been answered in the last paragraph of number 2 above. At any rate, there have been direct and indirect participation by the people in the peace negotiations. For instance, the CAHRIRHL has been disseminated, discussed and studied by the revolutionary movement both in the cities and countryside through the movement’s organs of political power, mass organizations, committees, and the guerrilla fronts and units of the people’s army. Even the mercenary reactionary army has purportedly used the CARHRIHL to educate its troops and security forces on human rights and international humanitarian law.

In urban centers, people’s organizations and civil society groups engaged in human rights and peace advocacy have regularly been holding seminars, forums, mass actions (pickets, rallies, demonstrations) in support of the peace negotiations and the need to address the roots of the armed conflict while pushing for the thorough implementation of the CARHRIHL.

There are still many things to be done to rally full support from the people for the struggle to attain a just and lasting peace in the Philippines. The NDFP is committed to pursue the peace negotiations in order to fulfil the national and democratic aspirations of the Filipino people.

Thank you.

NDFP Condemns Arrest of NDFP Consultant Adelberto Silva and Companions

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June 3, 2015
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) vigorously condemns the illegal arrest of NDFP Consultant Adelberto Silva on June 1, 2015 in Molino, Bacoor, Cavite. His wife, Rosanna Cabusao, and another companion, Isidro de Lima were also arrested.
Adelberto Silva is a holder of NDFP Document of Identification ND978229 with the assumed name Percival Rojo, which contains his photo. Under the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), he is guaranteed immunity from arrest, detention, surveillance, harassment, search and other punitive actions.
Following the illegal arrest of NDFP Consultant Ruben Saluta last March and earlier arrests of other NDFP consultants, there is a clear pattern of gross violations of the JASIG and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL). Trumped-up charges of common crimes are filed by the police and military in violation of JASIG and CARHRIHL. These are proof of the Aquino government’s utter lack of respect for peace agreements signed with the NDFP and its continuing lack of sincerity in peace negotiations with the NDFP.
The NDFP likewise condemns the arrest and filing of fabricated charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives not only against Adelberto Silva but also against his wife, Rosanna Cabusao, and Isidro de Lima. Cabusao is a research consultant of the Crispin Beltran Resource Center and a founding member of GABRIELA.
In accordance with the JASIG and CARHRIHL, Adelberto Silva and the other 16 detained NDFP consultants and political prisoners must be released.
Luis G. Jalandoni
Chairperson, Negotiating Panel
National Democratic Front of the Philippines

Stop Harassing and Threatening Luis Jalandoni, Chairperson of the NDFP Negotiating Panel

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Press Statement by Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chief Political Consultant of the NDFP Negotiating Panel
June 3, 2015
Since the 1990s, Luis Jalandoni the chairperson of the Negotiating Panel  of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines has visited the Philippines a number of times for peace consultations and family visits  under the protection of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) . He  met and conversed with Presidents Ramos, Estrada and Arroyo.
Also since the 1990s, Jalandoni has acted as the Chairperson of the NDFP Negotiating Panel and as authorized representative of the NDFP, including the CPP and NPA, in facilitating the safe and orderly release of personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) in the custody of the NPA as prisoners of war.
In sharp contrast to previous regimes, the Aquino regime has emerged as the worst violator of the JASIG by harassing Jalandoni with an invalid  and improperly served subpoena and threatening to arrest and imprison him  on trumped up charges of nonbailable common crimes, such as “kidnapping and serious illegal detention of four named policemen (captured by the NPA on July 10, 2014 in Surigao del Norte and released on July 29, 2014) and violation of R.A. No. 9851 (Crime against Humanitarian Law and other Crimes against Humanity”.
The Aquino regime is the most malicious of all regimes by using its representatives (like DILG Secretary Mar Roxas and Nani Braganza) to seek the release of the aforesaid policemen with the help of Jalandoni on humanitarian grounds and now hurling against him false charges of common crimes as aforementioned.  Defense Secretary Gazmin and OPAPP Secretary Deles were with Secretary Mar Roxas during  the safe and orderly release of the aforesaid policemen.
It is reprehensible that the Aquino regime is acting viciously and maliciously by violating the safety and immunity guarantees that protect Luis Jalandoni and by misrepresenting  as a crime the facilitation done by Jalandoni to help realize the humanitarian act and goodwill measure of the NDFP in causing the release of the four policemen and seeking to improve the atmosphere for the resumption of formal talks in the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations.
It is unfortunate that the Aquino regime is making a vicious and malicious attack on the NDFP and the person of Jalandoni exactly at a time that he and I have  just recommended to the  NDFP Executive Committee to give permission to the NDFP Negotiating Panel to undertake exploratory talks prior to formal talks, despite the recent outburst of Aquino against the NDFP and the undersigned.
In order for the GPH and NDFP to engage in exploratory talks, as urged by the Royal Norwegian Government as third party facilitator and the many peace advocates,  the Aquino regime should respect the JASIG and allow the safe passage of Jalandoni to his negotiating post and office in The Netherlands.  Thus, the exploratory talks will proceed and not be disrupted by petty-minded and malicious obstructions. ###

Aquino Lacks Sincerity in Peace Negotiations and has Wantonly Violated Existing Agreements

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By Prof. JOSE MARIA SISON
NDFP Chief Political Consultant in Peace Negotiations with the GPH/GRP
The recent statement of BS Aquino III to Radyo Bombo and published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer attacking the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and seeking to impose on the NDFP his one-sided views has upset efforts to pave the way for the resumption of the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations.
It is Aquino who lacks sincerity in peace negotiations between the GPH* and NDFP.
He has wantonly violated the existing agreements, especially The Hague Joint Declaration, the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), and the Joint Agreement on the Formation, Sequence and Operationalization of the Reciprocal Working Committees.
He is out of his mind if he thinks that he can get an agreement on indefinite ceasefire without complying with the aforesaid existing agreements and without a Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms at the same time.
He shows his bad faith, selfishness and incorrigible penchant for cruelty by putting in advance of formal talks his precondition that he will continue to violate JASIG and CARHRIHL, and further on by allowing the issuance of warrants of arrest against NDFP consultants in connection with the baseless and false Hilongos charge.
He seems to be obsessed with going down in history with a legacy of cruelty comparable to that of Marcos and Arroyo in collecting political prisoners and allowing the military, police and paramilitary in perpetrating forced disappearances, torture, mass dislocation, demolition of homes, and landgrabbing under Oplan Bayanihan.
Aquino has allowed OPAPP secretary Deles to sabotage every step in the so-called special track, from the time of Ronald Llamas to that of Hernani Braganza (who was brusquely laid aside by Deles only recently).
Now, Deles wants to humiliate and insult the NDFP by putting forward the self-proclaimed designer of Oplan Bayanihan as the chief negotiator of the GPH.
By his callous and malicious statement, probably advised by Deles, Aquino has made it necessary for the NDFP to consider again whether or not it is useful at all to negotiate with a lameduck regime which is obsessed with violating existing agreements and which is predetermined to leave a legacy of ruining the peace negotiations with the NDFP, and even messing up those with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front by committing the Mamasapano fiasco.

Aquino Lacks Sincerity in Peace Negotiations and has Wantonly Violated Existing Agreements

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MEDIA RELEASE
By Prof. JOSE MARIA SISON
NDFP Chief Political Consultant in Peace Negotiations with the GPH/GRP
15 May 2015
The recent statement of BS Aquino III to Radyo Bombo and published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer attacking the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and seeking to impose on the NDFP his one-sided views has upset efforts to pave the way for the resumption of the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations.
It is Aquino who lacks sincerity in peace negotiations between the GPH* and NDFP.
He has wantonly violated the existing agreements, especially The Hague Joint Declaration, the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), and the Joint Agreement on the Formation, Sequence and Operationalization of the Reciprocal Working Committees.
He is out of his mind if he thinks that he can get an agreement on indefinite ceasefire without complying with the aforesaid existing agreements and without a Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms at the same time.
He shows his bad faith, selfishness and incorrigible penchant for cruelty by putting in advance of formal talks his precondition that he will continue to violate JASIG and CARHRIHL, and further on by allowing the issuance of warrants of arrest against NDFP consultants in connection with the baseless and false Hilongos charge.
He seems to be obsessed with going down in history with a legacy of cruelty comparable to that of Marcos and Arroyo in collecting political prisoners and allowing the military, police and paramilitary in perpetrating forced disappearances, torture, mass dislocation, demolition of homes, and landgrabbing under Oplan Bayanihan.
Aquino has allowed OPAPP secretary Deles to sabotage every step in the so-called special track, from the time of Ronald Llamas to that of Hernani Braganza (who was brusquely laid aside by Deles only recently).
Now, Deles wants to humiliate and insult the NDFP by putting forward the self-proclaimed designer of Oplan Bayanihan as the chief negotiator of the GPH.
By his callous and malicious statement, probably advised by Deles, Aquino has made it necessary for the NDFP to consider again whether or not it is useful at all to negotiate with a lameduck regime which is obsessed with violating existing agreements and which is predetermined to leave a legacy of ruining the peace negotiations with the NDFP, and even messing up those with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front by committing the Mamasapano fiasco.

“Double Food Budget” Schemes of Top BJMP Officials, Just the Tip of the Iceberg

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We, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF) peace consultants and other political prisoners detained at the Special Intensive Care Area 1 (SICA 1) Jail in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City salute Jail Inspector Angelina Lumba Bautista, Warden of the Bataan District Jail (earlier called “Bataan Provincial Jail”).
We, who are being detained because of our fight against the sufferings of the mass of our people in the hands of the abusive and oppressive powers that be in the ruling government and state, are highly in praise of J/Insp. Bautista for her very courageous filing (last March 20, before the Ombudsman) of a plunder case against top officials of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP). She has charged them of pocketting of scores of millions of pesos supposedly to be used for the detainees’ subsistence allowance (food rations, medicines and the like), but have instead been used only to fill the pockets of those top BJMP officials.
We could see her real concern and sincerity in her exposure of the plunderous anomalies by top BJMP officials at the expense of the victimized detainees in BJMP jails (more than 84,000 in 462 BJMP jails throughout the country), as,  in a TV interview last May 5, she called on other wardens in other jails, and others with information about the BJMP top officials’ plunderous anomalies, to expose similar anomalies victimizing detainees in BJMP jails.
Armed with budget and appropriations documents both from the Bataan provincial government and from the Bataan District Jail, after the latter was transferred from the jurisdiction of the provincial government to that of the BJMP, she exposed the anomalous “double budgetting” supposedly for the BJMP detainees’ subsistence allowance.
She revealed that, while the Bataan provincial government was still appropriating budget for such during the August 2010 to August 2013 transistion period for the transfer of administration of the jail from the provincial government to the BJMP, the latter was already also reflecting supposedly the same allocations as supposedly coming from the BJMP’s funds.
With further investigations, J/Insp. Bautista also gathered data about similar “double budgeting” anomalies by the BJMP national leadership supposed for detainees’ subsistence allowances in jails also being transferred from the custody of other provincial governments — in Bohol, Iloilo, Albay and Quezon — to that of the BJMP. She estimated that the accumulated amount in the “double budgeting” could reach up to Php 50 million.
That, however, is just the tip of the iceberg…
J/Insp. Bautista also blared out the even more greedy and wicked continuing plunder by BJMP top officials long after provincial jails have been fully turned over to the BJMP. In the case of the Bataan District Jail, she revealed that long after it was already fully turned over to the BJMP and the earlier  “double budgeting” had stopped, the actual worth in kind of the detainees’ subsistence allowance being delivered by the top leadership of  BJMP  to the Bataan District Jail was, in practice, reduced to a mere P15 per detainee per day — 33% of what the detainees should be receiving in kind, as per the BJMP’s budget. The top BJMP leadership centralizes and tightly controls the purchase and delivery of food rations to local jails, and can thus, in actual practice unilaterally greatly reduce the actual expenditures and divert the larger part of the detainees’ subsistence allowance.
The government’s General Appropriations Act allocates for each inmate under the custody of the BJMP and the Bureau of Corrections, P50.00 for food subsistence and P3.00 for medicine allowance daily. Practically all cities in Metro Manila and in many provinces also allocate P20 per detainee for additional food subsistence in jails within their area, even if the administration of those jails have already been transferred to the BJMP.
The SICA 1 Jail and SICA 2 Jail are exceptions and are the only BJMP jails in Metro Manila, that do not receive any additonal food subsistence from city governments, aside from the P50 supposedly allocated daily for each BJMP detainee.
Even then, as we have for several years been observing and meticulously recording daily, we are not being given the equivalent of P50 per detainee per day for our food subsistence. In our daily observations and computations, the cooked food rations being given us are in reality worth just a little more than P15 per detainee per day — practically the same worth presently being delivered to the Bataan District Jail, as J/Insp. Bautista is complaining about.
We had actually earlier raised this matter before the present SICA 1 Warden, J/Insp. Michelle Ng Bonto. But her answer was: “Local jail authorities have practically no say in regard to food rations for detainees. The top leadership of the BJMP centralizes and controls practically everything in regard to the food rations — from the menu to the budgetting and purchase of all food materials — in practically all BJMP jails, including SICA 1 Jail.”
The whole set up has been “perfected” by the top BJMP leadership for plunder — made all the more easier as the victims are held in their hands, and are very vulnerable to reprisals.
The revalations before the public and charges in court made by J/Insp. Bautista would, however, be of very great help.
We hope she would survive and we would see her succeed.
NDF peace consultants
and other political prisoners
detained at SICA 1 Jail,
Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City
Alan Jazmines
Emeterio Antalan
Leopoldo Caloza
Tirso Alcantara
(9 May 2015)

ITANONG MO KAY PROF: Podcast on Peace Talks – GPH and NDFP & GPH and MILF

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Panayam ni Ms. Sonia Capio ng Kodao Productions kay Prof. Jose Maria Sison, NDFP Chief Political Consultant hinggil sa kalagayan ng usapang pangkapayapaan sa pagitan ng GPH at NDFP at GPH at MILF.
April 9, 2015
Mga Tanong para sa peace talks sa pagitan ng GPH at NDFP at GPH at MILF
1. Ano po ang update sa usapang pangkapayapaan sa pagitan ng GPH at NDFP? Matutuloy pa rin po ba ito bago pa matapos ang termino ni Pangulong Noynoy Aquino?
JMS: Patuloy na handang makipag-usap ang NDFP. Pero ang GPH ang hindi handa. Kung gayon, nagiging malabo na ang resumption ng formal talks ng GPH  at NDFP.  Sabi ng Malakanyang na nakabuhos ang atensyon nila sa pagtutulak ng BBL at paghahabol ng peace with  MILF.
Hanggang ngayon walang maliwanag na negotiating panel at chairman ng GPH para makipag-usap sa NDFP.  Lumilitaw na sa buong panahon  ng rehimeng Aquino wala talagang interes sa peace talks kundi paggamit ng dahas laban sa kilusang rebolusyonaryo.
2. Ano po ang inyong masasabi sa usapang pangkapayapaan sa pagitan naman ng GPH at MILF? Tila nagkahati-hati po ang mga pananaw ng mga nasa pamahalaan at matindi ang mga banggaan sa usapin ng Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) at ang kawastuhan kung dapat pa bang ituloy ang pakikipag-usap nila sa MILF o hindi na.
JMS: Sa loob at labas ng GPH, lumakas ang sumasalungat sa BBL dahil sa Mamasapano at constitutional issues. Tiyak na maraming susog ang gagawin sa Kongreso, laluna sa Senado, hanggang sa posibleng ayaw na ng MILF ang lalabas na final draft ng BBL.
Kahit tanggapin ng MILF ang anumang BBL na aprubahan ng Kongreso, may mga magdadala pa rin ng constitutional issues sa Korte Suprema. Baka mauuntol ang BBL hanggang maubos na ang termino o buhok ni Penoy Bugok.
3. Ano po ang inyong pagtingin sa Bangsamoro Basic Law o BBL?
JMS: May constitutional issues na nakasalang sa  Kongreso ng GPH. Hanggang ngayon, walang pinal na anyo ng BBL dahil susugan nang susugan pa yan sa Kongreso. Habang wala pang pinal na anyo ng BBL, mahirap mangahas ng opinion ng pagkatig o pagtuligsa sa kabuuan ng BBL.

NDFP Condemns Arrest of NDFP Consultant Ruben A. Saluta

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By LUIS G. JALANDONI

Chairperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) strongly condemns the arrest of NDFP Consultant Ruben A. Saluta on 4 March 2015 by combined Philippine Army and Philippine National Police forces of the Aquino regime. His arrest and continued detention are a gross violation of the GRP-NDFP Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).

NDFP Consultant Ruben A. Saluta has been issued NDFP Document of Identification ND978240 under the assumed name Lirio Magtibay, which he presented to the arresting officers. The Aquino regime again shows its obstinate refusal to comply with its obligation to respect the reciprocal binding peace agreement JASIG signed in 1995 and approved by the Principals of both Parties.

The NDFP demands the release of NDFP Consultant Ruben A. Saluta and 15 other NDFP consultants. Their illegal arrest and detention in violation of the JASIG seriously prejudices the resumption of formal peace negotiations between the Aquino government and the NDFP.

Currently held at the Philippine National Police (PNP) Criminal Investigation and Detention Group (CIDG) detention in Camp Crame, Quezon City, NDFP Consultant Saluta needs urgent medical care for hypertension, allergic rhinitis and scoliosis. He also has cataract. He suffers from recurring pneumonia and needs to maintain his cholesterol level. All the more, that he should be released immediately and unconditionally

Aquino Sabotages and Destroys Preparations for Resumption of Formal Talks in GPH-NDFP Peace Negotiations

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GPH President Aquino destroys the chances for resumption of peace negotiations between his lame-duck administration and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. Aquino’s act of sabotage comes at a time when the NDFP was undertaking steps towards a possible resumption of formal peace tealks.
The NDFP was doing so in response to calls of peasants and workers to work for genuine land reform and national industrialization in the face of massive poverty, landlessness and spiralling prices of basic commondities. The NDFP  was also responding to the efforts of peace advocates and the Royal Norwegian Government striving for serious peace negotiations between the Aquino administration and the NDFP.
However, in an interview with Bombo Radyo published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on May 15, 2015, GPH President Benigno S. Aquino III declared his intention not to comply with existing peace agreements with the NDFP and avoid substantive negotiations.
Furthermore, he wilfully violates the existing agreements, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL). About five hundred political prisoners are charged with common crimes in violation of the Hernandez political offense doctrine and the CARHRIHL Sixteen NDFP Consultants are detained in gross violation of the JASIG.
The Aquino regime further threatens to arrest NDFP Consultants in relation to the false and ridiculous multiple murder charges in the Hilongos case.
The NDFP vigorously condemns all these acts of Benigno S. Aquino III inimical to serious peace negotiations, just as the NDFP  joins the broad masses in holding him accountable for massive corruption, utter insensitivity to the people’s suffering, servility to the US and other anti-people actions.
LUIS G. JALANDONI
Chairperson, Negotiating Panel

Intensified Fascist Reprisals, Restrictions Versus Peace Consultants, Political Detainees

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By ALAN JAZMINES
NDFP Consultant

We, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultants and other political prisoners detained here at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology — Special Intensive Care Area 1 (BJMP-SICA1) Jail in Camp Bagong Diwa, protest the intensifying fascist reprisals and restrictions being inflicted against us by BJMP-SICA1 Jail authorities.

Such fascist reprisals and restrictions qualitatively started to intensify when we waged a 10-day fasting and hunger strike, five days before and five days during the visit of Pope Francis to our country. We waged such acts of self-sacrifice to amplify our calls for our freedom, for justice, for real solutions to social ills, for serious efforts towards peace in our country.

Since the start of our 10-day fasting and hunger strike, and even afterwards, not even once were our doctors allowed to see us and check us up. There were times when even our lawyers and some of our loved ones were also barred. Many, many visitors from human rights organizations, and many more supporters were also cruelly barred from visiting us.

Worse, jail authorities even worked up vicious schemes to induce from other inmates, particularly from their lumpen prison gang lapdogs, vicious antagonisms and threats against our lives and limbs, by also barring their visitors a couple of times and blaming for such our “kalokohan” (“foolishness”) of a hunger strike.

The jail authorities have further escalated their fascist reprisals and restrictions after we, political prisoners, filed court charges against them, especially against the SICA1 jail warden.

Last February 26, four human rights workers, led by KARAPATAN Deputy Secretary General Roneo Clamor, wanted to visit us and look into our conditions. But the SICA1 Jail authorities barred them on the pretext that they were not able to request “clearance” from the higher jail authorities, i.e., from the level of National Capitol Region Director and the National Headquarters Director of the BJMP.

KARAPATAN human rights workers have regularly been visiting us for years already, and this is the first time that they have suddenly been required to obtain “clearance” first from the jail authorities’ higher-ups for every time they (the KARAPATAN human rights workers) want to visit political prisoners at the SICA1 Jail.

It is quite ironic that such further intensification of fascist reprisals and restrictions have taken place on the 29th anniversary of People Power Uprising that overthrew the Marcos Fascist Dictatorship in 1986.

We call for the real replacement of fascism and its fake garb of democratic pretense, by the institition in their place, of real people’s democracy.

We call for the immediate release of all political prisoners, including detained peace talks consultants, and the immediate, serious resumption of the long-stalled peace talks between the NDFP and the prevailing Government of the Republic of the Philippines.

Detained NDFP peace consultants:
ALAN JAZMINES
EMETERIO ANTALAN
LEOPOLDO CALOZA
TIRSO ALCANTARA
and other political prisoners at Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City
27 February 2015