Category: news reports

Sison lamented that before Duterte’s diatribe, the government and the rebel negotiating panels had already spent several months of hard work in unilateral and bilateral meetings and were “ready to do a little polishing of common drafts” on Nov. 22 and 23 in Utretch for finalization in the slated fifth round of formal talks in Oslo, Norway on Nov. 25 to 27.

The GRP AND NDFP negotiating panels were so happy and confident that they would be able to initial the CASER and the agreements on the general amnesty and release of all political prisoners and the coordinated unilateral ceasefires at the closing session of the fifth round of formal talks and formally sign all these at the closing ceremony of the sixth round in January 2018,” Sison said.

Sison, in a statement on Thursday, lashed out at Duterte, calling him the “No.1 terrorist in the Philippines” who is “culpable for the abduction, torture and mass murder.”

“We, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), hereby declare that we await receipt of the written notice of termination of the peace negotiations by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) as a consequence of the reported signing of Proclamation No. 360 by GRP President Duterte declaring such termination,” Agcaoili said.

According to Sison in his statement entitled, “How Duterte Sabotaged the GRP-NDFP Peace Process,” the negotiating panels were looking forward to initializing the drafts, including the comprehensive agreement on social economic reforms, when Duterte started on November 18 to criticize the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), the New People’s Army (NPA), and the NDF.

“He also ranted against the entire peace process until November 23, when he made his Proclamation No. 360, terminating the peace negotiations,” Sison noted.

The GRP AND NDFP Negotiating Panels were so happy and confident that they would be able to initial the CASER and the agreements on the general amnesty and release of all political prisoners and the coordinated unilateral ceasefires at the closing session of the fifth round of formal talks and formally sign all of these at the closing ceremony of the sixth round in January 2018.

“There are symptoms that Duterte is mentally unfit to handle the complexities of the affairs of his state and the peace process between the [government and NDF],” Sison said.

“As a President in a rush to become a fascist dictator, he expects to have limitless opportunities for bureaucratic corruption like his idol Marcos, especially in overprice infrastructure projects, government purchases and cheap sale of raw materials,” Sison said in statement released by the National Democratic Front (NDF).

“Now, he is being carried away by his obsession to establish a fascist dictatorship through charter change under the pretext of adopting a pseudo-federal system under his overcentralized despotism and terrorism,” he added.

After pronouncing the CPP-NPA-NDFP as terrorist organizations, GRP president Rodrigo Duterte subsequently fulfils the US imperialist’s objective to ruin the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations. In doing so, Duterte guarantees the escalation of US military intervention and stiffening of the US extensive domination over the Philippines.

“He is culpable for the abduction, torture and mass murder of an increasing large number of poor people suspected drug users and pushers, peasants and indigenous people in suspected guerrilla fronts and Moro people suspected of aiding the Dawlah Islamiyah from the time of the indiscriminate bombing of Marawi City to the present in several Bangsamoro areas,” Sison said in a statement.