2018

During the stretch between March and June this year, four backchannel talks were held in Utrecht, The Netherlands to pave way for the signing of a peace accord between the government of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

It is not true that the CPP has a three-year plan to oust Duterte by October 2018 since 2016. The militarists Lorenzana, Año and Esperon are obviously misrepresenting the 3-year plan of the CPP Central Committee to strengthen the CPP ideologically, politically and organizationally.

In the Forum on Peace Under Siege, I made a critical review of the behavior of Duterte in relation to the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations. And I deplored among other things his failure to fulfill his promise to amnesty and release all political prisoners and his repeated whimsical termination of the negotiations as many as three times.

Based on the implications drawn from the current impasse, the NDFP can no longer negotiate with a GRP that is headed by Duterte. So long as he heads the GRP, the Filipino people, especially the oppressed and exploited, cannot expect any benefit from negotiating with the Duterte regime. — JMS

Duterte leads and orchestrates his political followers, military, police and paramilitary agents, electronic broadcasters and troll armies in using abusive and violent language against his critics and opponents to create a climate of mass intimidation.

He has no economic program different from that of his reactionary predecessors: retention of the semifeudal character of the economy along the neoliberal line.

However, the founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) is adamant that he will not come back to the Philippines for the talks, contrary to reports that he has agreed to return to the country sometime in August this year.

“I will not return to the Philippines earlier than the completion and signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms by the negotiating panels in a foreign neutral venue,” Sison said.

The guerrillas accused the government of holding the talks hostage as Duterte consolidated his power amid increasing opposition to his administration that has overseen police-sanctioned killings in the name of a brutal anti-drugs campaign.

Sison accused the government of being “inconsistent and self-contradictory” even after the meeting between the government and NDFP panels early this week in Utrecht.