Posts

Celebrate the release of NDFP peace consultants

Revolutionary forces across the country celebrate the successive release from unjust detention of the first batch of peace consultants of the NDFP since yesterday. The CPP anticipates the release of the rest of the 22 NDFP consultants by today or tomorrow so that they can participate in the scheduled resumption of peace talks in Oslo, Norway on August 22-27.

The CPP deeply appreciates efforts of the GRP President Duterte to comply with the obligations of the GRP under outstanding agreements with the NDFP in order to bolster the NDFP-GRP peace negotiations. The release of all NDFP peace consultants is a reaffirmation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and other NDFP-GRP agreements.

Even as the CPP welcomes the release of all NDFP consultants, it urges the Duterte regime to empty the GRP’s prisons of all political prisoners which number almost 550 nationwide, most of whom are peasants and workers. It can proclaim a policy of ending the dirty legal tactic of slapping trumped up criminal charges against activists which subject them to unjust and prolonged detention.

The release of all NDFP peace consultants will boost several-fold the confidence of the revolutionary forces in GRP President Duterte’s determination to work with the NDFP in peace negotiations.

The CPP considers the release of all NDFP consultants as an act of goodwill by GRP President Duterte. In appreciation, the CPP reiterates its full support for the NDFP-GRP peace negotiations as a venue to discuss the roots of the armed conflict and forge agreements to resolve the urgent as well as strategic problems of the people in the socio-economic, political and cultural fields.

The CPP extends its full support to the NDFP Negotiating Panel ably chaired by Luis Jalandoni and advised by CPP founding chairman and NDFP senior political consultant Prof. Jose Ma. Sison.

To further boost peace negotiations, the CPP is set to issue over the next few days a unilateral declaration of ceasefire to the New People’s Army and the people’s militias.

The CPP foresees continuing struggle and alliance with the Duterte regime as the Filipino people are confronted daily with problems of joblessness, landlessness, rising costs of living, low wages and income, militarization and so on.

The CPP hopes that mutual efforts by the NDFP and the GRP under Duterte will accelerate peace talks with unprecedented speed and surpass the amount of issues that will be covered and resolved.

(L-R) NDFP consultants Kennedy Bangibang, Ruben Saluta, Tirso Alcantara, Alan Jazmines, Renante Gamara, Ernesto Lorenzo and Jaime Soledad raise their clenched fists as they are welcomed by supporters, Aug. 17. (Photo by Ronalyn V. Olea / Bulatlat)

(L-R) NDFP consultants Kennedy Bangibang, Ruben Saluta, Tirso Alcantara, Alan Jazmines, Renante Gamara, Ernesto Lorenzo and Jaime Soledad raise their clenched fists as they are welcomed by supporters, Aug. 17. (Photo by Ronalyn V. Olea / Bulatlat.com)