Topic: amnesty

AMSTERDAM—Exiled communist leader Jose Maria Sison on Friday said he was willing to meet with President Rodrigo Duterte either in Oslo, Norway or Hanoi, Vietnam—not in the Philippines—for the signing of an interim peace agreement, which both sides are still trying to hammer out for next month.

For my soonest possible interface with Duterte, the NDFP has considered my meeting at the signing of the Interim Peace Agreement, packaging the ceasefire agreement, amnesty proclamation and the ARRD and NIED sections of CASER either in Oslo or Hanoi. But Duterte has insisted that the meeting be in the Philippines.

From this working-class neighborhood by the Old Rhine river, thousands of kilometers away from home, Sison leads a revolutionary movement he began nearly half a century ago when he established the Communist Party of the Philippines

Reports coming from various sources have cast doubts on the official version issued by the Indian authorities on the said incident.
The Indian government has often been guilty in the past of announcing “fake encounters” misrepresenting the massacre of civilians as armed encounters between government security forces and Maoist fighters.

President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday rejected the suggestion of his daughter Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte to reconsider peace negotiations with communist rebels

In response, I declare that I will certainly return home when a significant advance in the peace negotiations has been achieved within the framework of The Hague Joint Declaration and when my comrades and lawyers are satisfied with legal and security precautions.

For the first time in the history of the NDFP, we refrained for about a year (2016-17) from denouncing the Duterte regime as a puppet reactionary regime to give it a chance to prove what Duterte meant by proclaiming himself to being ¨Left¨ and ¨socialist¨; being against the US and the oligarchy; and being for reforms and for an independent foreign policy.

“I have long wished that we could meet again and cooperate closely in enabling the peace process to advance from one item to another in the substantive agenda,” Sison said

I declare that I will certainly return home when a significant advance in the peace negotiations has been achieved within the framework of The Hague Joint Declaration and when my comrades and lawyers are satisfied with legal and security precautions

OPENING GATES OF PEACE — The Philippine Government (GRP) and National Democratic Front (NDF) formally opens the Fourth Round of Peace Talks in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, Monday. Shown in photo are (from left) NDF Peace Panel members Asterio Palima, Connie Ledesma, Benny Tiamzon, Panel Chairman Fidel Agcaoili, NDF Senior Adviser Luis Jalandoni, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman and NDF Chief Political Consultant Jose Maria Sison, Royal Norwegian Government (RNG) Third Party Facilitator Ambassador Elisabeth Slattum, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza, GRP Peace Panel Chairman Silvestre Bello III, House Special Committee on Peace Chairperson Rep. Ruby Sahali, GRP Peace Panel members Hernani Braganza, Angela Trinidad and Rene Sarmiento. At the back are (from left) NDF resource person Francisco ‘Isko Moreno’ Domagoso and RNG official Mirjam Ehl. (Rocky Nazareno)