Joma Sison accuses Duterte of sabotaging peace talks

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison accused President Rodrigo Duterte of sabotaging the peace talks between the government and the rebels.

In a statement Friday, Sison said since November 18 Duterte ranted everyday against the CPP, New People’s Army, and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in connection with recent incidents in the armed conflict.

He said the President also ranted against the entire peace process until November 23 when Proclamation No. 360 terminating the peace negotiations was made public.

“In the course of his rants, Duterte unwittingly exposed his scarce, shallow and defective knowledge of the peace process,” Sison, NDF chief political consultant, said in his post entitled “How Duterte sabotaged the GRP-NDF peace process.”

He said the President cited alleged recent incidents in the armed conflict which the latter allegedly used “as false basis for  slandering the revolutionary forces and threatening the termination of the peace negotiations and the outlawing of the revolutionary forces and legal democratic forces as terrorists.”

He said in the absence of ceasefire between the government and NDF, Duterte, through his negotiating panel, should have submitted his complaints to the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) under CARHRIHL (Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law).

He said the NDFP has always submitted to the JMC its complaints of human rights and international humanitarian law violations committed by police and military.

“These violations are far worse in scale and severity than those alleged by Duterte against the NPA. And yet NDFP never threatened to terminate the peace negotiations,” he said.

He further said Duterte lied when he said NDFP ignored the government proposal for a stand down agreement prior to the adoption and implementation of the coordinated unilateral ceasefire.

“Showing gross ignorance of the peace process, he even referred to The Netherlands as the facilitator rather than the Royal Norwegian Government,” he added.

Sison said there are symptoms that Duterte was “mentally unfit to handle the complexities of the affairs of his state and the peace process.”

Because of this, he raised the possibility of replacing Duterte.

“Government officials in his Cabinet and the reactionary armed forces should consider whether he is mentally fit for his office or needs to be replaced in accordance with their 1987 Constitution,” he said.

Sison said after several months of unilateral and bilateral meetings, the government and NDFP negotiating panels were ready to do a little polishing of common drafts on November 22 and 23 in Utrecht, The Netherlands for finalization in the slated fifth round of formal talks in Oslo on November 25 to 27, 2017.

He said government and NDFP panels were also confident that they would be able to initial the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (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.

He said both panels expected to formally sign all of the agreements  at the closing ceremony of the sixth round in January 2018.

“It was also expected that the negotiations on the Comprehensive Agreement on Political and Constitutional Reforms (CAPCR) would begin in the sixth round and be completed anytime between March and May of 2018 on time for possible revisions of the 1987 Constitution,” he added. — BAP, GMA News