NDF to Arroyo: Remove precondition, we talk

If it wants to resume peace talks with communist rebels, the government must stop demanding that the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) stop its armed revolution. NDF chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison said the biggest of these impediments is the precondition that the NDFP stop the armed revolution waged by the New People’s Army. “It is obvious that the Arroyo regime is not at all interested in serious negotiations to address the roots of the civil war and produce agreements on social, economic and political reforms. The regime is obsessed with the so-called military solution, augmented by demands for the pacification and surrender of the revolutionary forces, by sham localized talks with ready made stooges and by pretended amnesty and rehabilitation for fake and ghost surrenderees," Sison said in a statement on the Communist Party of the Philippines Web site (www.philippinerevolution.net). Otherwise, he said informal exploratory talks in Oslo can thus lead to formal peace talks. Sison also pointed out the end of hostilities and disposition of forces constitute the fourth and last item of the substantive agenda of the peace negotiations. This comes properly for negotiation only after comprehensive agreements on social, economic and political reforms are forged and signed by the principals of the GRP and NDFP. “The Arroyo regime should not use the last item in the agenda to lay aside the people’s demand for basic social, economic and political reforms. The military hawks and clerico-fascists in the regime should stop imagining that they can force or outwit the NDFP to capitulate," he said. - GMANews.TV