(Eagle News)– He’s like an “old broken record.”
This was the reaction of Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison to President Rodrigo Duterte’s announcement to permanently end peace talks with Communist rebels on Thursday, March 21.
In a statement, Sison said “as far as the (National Democratic Front of the Philippines) is concerned, Duterte formally killed the peace negotiations on November 23, 2017, with his Proclamation 360 terminating them.”
The proclamation sought to label the CPP-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front as terrorists.
According to Sison, “since then, what Duterte has been doing is merely driving more nails into the coffin of the peace negotiations under his regime.”
He said what Duterte wants are “fake localized peace negotiations staged and controlled by the military and military-occupied Office of the Presidential Adviser for the Peace Negotiations.”
He said in “these fake negotiations, people are gathered by local officials and misrepresented as surrenderers and the military officers collect the reward money for the fake surrenderers.”
“This racket is the essence of the so-called whole nation approach whereby the civilians are subjugated and humiliated by the military for purposes of psywar, mass intimidation and listing of prospective targets of the Duterte death squads,” he said.
As such, he said “as far as the NDFP is concerned, the (Government of the Republic of the Philippines)-NDFP peace negotiations can be resurrected in the future by a new GRP administration.”
He said by terminating the peace negotiations “and brutally carrying out an all-out war against the people, Duterte gives the revolutionary forces and the people no other choice but to wage and intensify the people’s war.”
“The Duterte regime is not eternal. It can be finished with the success of the oust movement, with the end of his term in 2022 or with his certain overthrow as he forces his way to a fascist dictatorship,” he said.
“The conditions for waging the armed revolution are favorable because the broad masses of the people detest and want to get rid of a regime of greed and terror that is generating an unprecedented economic and financial crisis,” he added.
