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Thursday, December 23, 2004
NPA in N. Mindanao to abide by 10-day ceasefire
By Lizanilla J. Amarga
ARMED communist rebels here in Northern Mindanao announced that they would abide by their Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Central Committee order issued Tuesday to go on a 10-day ceasefire for the Christmas Holidays starting midnight tomorrow, Dec. 23.
This they said they would still be under "full alert mode" for any possible "offensive attacks" from the local police and military.
Armed Forces' 4th Infantry Division chief Maj. Gen. Samuel Bagasin said they "welcome" this latest development towards peace.
"Hope they are true to their words. But we will still continue to conduct security operations to maintain peace and order," he said.
Fourth Infantry Division spokesperson Col. Felicisimo Budiongan said they have to get an official stand of the AFP on this issue.
"Wala pang dissemination from higher headquarters," reads his text message Tuesday early afternoon.
In a statement, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Central Committee said they have ordered Tuesday their armed-wing, the New People's Army (NPA), to go on a 10-day ceasefire nationwide.
"The Christmas ceasefire, which takes effect from midnight of December 23 until midnight of January 2, 2005, was made in unity with the Filipino people's traditional celebration of Christmas and the New Year and to pave the way for the celebration of the CPP's 36th anniversary on December 26," their statement reads.
In a text message to this paper Tuesday, two rebel leaders who requested anonymity said they have already received a copy of the CPP order.
"But we will still be on full alert mode as we believe that even if Arroyo has declared a ceasefire her military men are not exactly obedient to her orders," one of the leaders said in dialect.
The CPP in their announcement has instructed NPA fighters to continue to bear arms and "remain alert and ready to fight and defeat any attacks and harassment" by government armed troops.
The CPP said it issued the declaration despite the Arroyo government's continued violation of past agreements reached in the now-suspended peace talks. The government, said the CPP, has failed to fulfill its commitment to take concrete measures to oppose and rectify the malicious inclusion of the CPP, NPA and NDF Peace Panel Chief Political Consultant Jose Ma. Sison in the US list of so-called terrorists.
The CPP also accused the Arroyo regime of "relentlessly violating" provisions of the human rights agreement signed by the NDF and the Philippine government.
It likewise condemned "successive brutal attacks by fascist forces of the reactionary government against unarmed people."
The group even cited the November 16 Hacienda Luisita massacre and the more recent killing of peasant leader Marcelino Beltran, a vital witness to the massacre.
It also condemned state forces for indiscriminately firing at a human rights day demonstration in Daet, Camarines Sur.
The CPP also scored the Arroyo regime for "duplicity" in declaring a Christmas ceasefire even as AFP and PNP continue with their military campaigns and operations against NPA guerrilla fronts across the archipelago.
The CPP reported ongoing AFP offensive military operations in Cagayan Valley, Mindoro Occidental, Surigao del Sur and Negros Occidental.
Saying that the "puppet, corrupt and anti-people" Arroyo government has made a permanent ceasefire impossible, CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal cited the regime's extreme subservience to US interests and its anti-people acts.
"In the face of its relentless attacks against the people, calling for a long-term truce is a psywar ploy to camouflage its militarist war of terror and crimes against the people," said Rosal.
Rosal likewise cited the regime's policy of freezing wages amid soaring prices and allowing foreign oil companies to raise oil prices with impunity, as well as worsened corruption and criminal activities by government officials as added factors that make a long-term truce untenable.
"A just and lasting peace can only be achieved by resolving the roots of the armed conflict, primarily by carrying out land reform and national industrialization," Rosal added.
"The Arroyo regime's puppetry to US interests, its worsening corruption and criminal activities, the intensified hardships and oppression of the masses and the brazen use of fascist state violence all justify the intensification of revolutionary armed struggle," Rosal said.
This even as the group believe that the Arroyo government "has made a permanent ceasefire impossible." The rejection of a longer-term truce was made in reaction to statements by Malacanang calling for a permanent cessation of hostilities between the government and the NPA.
(December 22, 2004 issue)
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