Joma: EO 70 institutionalizing localized peace talks will weaponize civilians vs. communists

President Rodrigo Duterte's Executive 70 institutionalizing localized peace talks or peace talks between the national and local government will weaponize the civilian populations against the communist rebels, Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairman Jose Maria Sison said Wednesday.

“The EO limits the Philippine government to the framework of military suppression and psywar use of fake surrenders and fake encounters, misrepresented as localized peace talks. EO 70 seeks to weaponize the civil bureaucracy for the armed counterrevolution or military suppression of the revolutionary government and movement of the people,” Sison said in a statement.

Sison also said that EO 70 paves the way for more arrests of NDFP peace consultants, and deployment of Duterte death squads in both urban and rural areas against suspected revolutionaries and critics of and opposition to the ‘tyrannical and corrupt’ Duterte regime.

Likewise, Sison said that as it is, the administration is already sabotaging the peace process with the appointment of former Armed Forces chief Carlito Galvez Jr. as Presidential Peace Adviser.

“The OPAPP is now emphatically militarized with the appointment of a rabid anti-communist general as secretary. EO 70 is one more presidential issuance to terminate and prevent the resumption of peace talks at the appropriate national level between authorized representatives of the Philippine government and NDFP. It is in furtherance of the de facto martial rule and the scheme of imposition a full-blown fascist dictatorship on the people,” Sison pointed out.

President Duterte already terminated the peace talks with the communist rebels in November 2017 by issuing Proclamation 360.

Proclamation 360 states that the peace negotiations have been terminated because “despite the best efforts of the administration, the communists failed to show sincerity and commitment in pursuing genuine and meaningful peace negotiations as it engaged in acts of violence and hostilities, endangering the lives and properties of innocent people.”

Since Proclamation 360 was issued, at least three NDFP consultants have been arrested on charges of illegal possession of firearms — Rafael Baylosis in January, Adel Silva in October and Vicente Ladlad in November. — RSJ, GMA News