The Section nominated by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in the Joint Monitoring Committee, which has been created under the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), performs an important public service by putting together in this book all the major written agreements made by the NDFP with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) prior to and during the formal stage of the peace negotiations and other documents which define outstanding issues.
By presenting the agreements, the book proves that the GRP and NDFP are capable of making them within the framework established by The Hague Joint Declaration in 1992. So far, the most important agreement made by the negotiating parties is CARHRIHL, which accomplishes the first item in the substantive agenda of the peace negotiations. By presenting the documents on outstanding issues, the book makes clear what are the problems to solve in order to allow the resumption of formal talks. The chronology of the course of the peace negotiations prepared by the Philippine Peace Center further identifies the specific events that have caused delays in the progress of the talks. The book stands as a repository of knowledge no matter how long the GRP-NDFP negotiations remain stalled.
By all signs, the GRP under the Arroyo regime is hell-bent on killing the peace negotiations. Already thoroughly bankrupted by the US-dictated policy of “free market” globalization, the Arroyo regime is banking on US military assistance and intervention under the so- called policy of “permanent war on terror” in order to destroy the people’s democratic government and the revolutionary forces or compel them to yield to surrender and pacification, outrightly or under the guise of an indefinite ceasefire.