ASEANEWS HEADLINE: MANILA – Oust plot shows distrust in gov’t Red’s October plan killed peace—DND :N

The real reason peace talks were canceled was that the communist rebels were plotting since 2017 to oust President Rodrigo Duterte by October this year, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Sunday night.

In a statement, Lorenzana said during the unilateral ceasefire from 2016 to January 2017, the Communist Party of the Philippines, New People’s Army, and the National Democratic Front called a People’s Congress during which they created a three-year plan that included the ouster of Duterte if he rejected a coalition government.

Duterte rejected the NDF demand for a coalition government in November 2017, calling it “pure nonsense.”

An ongoing review of all peace documents and agreements showed that they lay the foundation for power-sharing under a coalition government, Lorenzana added.

The Defense chief said the communists used the lull created by the ceasefire and peace talks to regain lost ground and rebuild their base, as well as to obtain the release of top party members who were detained.

“Based on the foregoing deliberate actions of the CPP-NPA-NDF, it is obvious that they are not sincere to talk peace and end the armed conflict. They are employing the revolutionary dual tactics to show semblance of peace but continually conducting violence and terror acts on the ground,” he added.

The communist rebels also failed to agree to the conditions set by Duterte for peace talks to resume, including a stop to its collection of “revolutionary taxes,” which the government brands as extortion. This, he said, showed that the communists were not sincere.

“They [CPP-NPA] have been tagged as a terrorist organization locally and internationally. They had their chance to work for peace when President Duterte appointed four of their members to the Cabinet. But they betrayed the government when they used their positions to advance the CPP’s revolutionary movement,” the DND chief added.

The Justice Department, meanwhile, has restarted proceedings to declare more than 600 people linked to the CPP and NPA as terrorists.

“We will continue with our petition in the court, unless and until the President and the government peace panel direct us otherwise,” acting Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on Monday following the termination of the peace talks between the government and the communist rebels set last week in The Netherlands.

The DOJ earlier filed before the Manila City Regional Trial Court last March a petition seeking to declare communist leaders and their armed members as terrorists.

The Justice Department submitted to the court a list of over 600 names, including those of CPP founding chairman Jose Maria Sison, former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo, and UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, it tagged as terrorists.

Corpuz, a former chairman of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, was named UN special rapporteur in 2014. She decried her inclusion in the list as “baseless, malicious and irresponsible.”

She founded the indigenous peoples’ advocacy and research group, Tebtebba Inc., and helped draft the Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples, which was adopted by the United Nations in 2007.

Ocampo is facing murder charges in the Manila RTC for his alleged involvement in the murder of suspected military spies in the communist movement in the 1980s.

Also in the list are alleged CPP leaders Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, National Democratic Front of the Philippines consultant Rafael Baylosis, former peace panel chief Luis Jalandoni, human rights lawyer and former Baguio City councilor Jose Molintas and Cordillerans Joanna Carino, Windel Farag-ey Bolinget, Sherwin De Vera, Beverly Sakongan Longid and Jeannette Ribaya Cawiding.

The petition was filed following the termination of the peace talks between the government and the CPP in November last year.

“The CPP and NPA are merely buying time by deceiving the Philippine government in entering into peace talks, while their main purpose is to mobilize all their forces in preparation for the people’s war aimed at overthrowing the duly constituted authority, seizing control of the Philippine government and imposing a totalitarian regime,” the DOJ petition stated. With PNA

The DoJ also moved to have the CPP and National Democratic Front leaders, who are standing trial for various cases in courts, returned to their respective detention cells following the latest suspension of the peace talks.

Guevarra specifically directed state prosecutors to file necessary motions before the Manila and Taguig regional trial courts for the revocation of bail grant on NDF consultants Benito Tiamzon, Adelberto Silva, Rafael Baylosis, Randall Echanis, Vicente Ladlad and Alan Jazmines. With PNA  /  posted July 03, 2018 at 01:50 am by Rey E. Requejo and Evalea Casaljay

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