by Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP)
Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2010 at 9:39 PM ajlpp_us@yahoo.com 213-241-0906 337 Glendale Bvld. Los Angeles, CA 90026
The PESANTE BULETIN based in Los Angeles learned today from media sources in the Philippines that on the 42nd founding anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), a regional guerrilla spokesperson Ka. Oris aka Jorge Madlos of Mindanao-NDF expressed optimism that the 2011 scheduled peace talks will produce results.
Jorge Madlos aka Ka Oris is the spokesperson for NDF North Eastern Mindanao――said that something good could come out of the negotiations.
Los Angeles--The PESANTE BULETIN based in Los Angeles learned today from media sources in the Philippines that on the 42nd founding anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), a regional guerrilla spokesperson Ka. Oris aka Jorge Madlos of Mindanao-NDF expressed optimism that the 2011 scheduled peace talks will produce results.
Jorge Madlos aka Ka Oris is the spokesperson for NDF North Eastern Mindanao――said that something good could come out of the negotiations.
“We cannot avoid or evade peace talks. We have to explore everything just to achieve peace,” Madlos said at a CPP celebration Sunday attended by some 7,000 civilians and supporters in Surigao del Sur.
CPP Celebrates 42nd Anniversary
About 80 young guerrillas brandishing M-16 rifles and grenade launchers marched in public at a farming village at the foothills of the Diwata mountain range, while Army troops stood guard several kilometers away on the main road, listing the names of those attending the ceremony.
Guerrillas sang nationalist songs and speakers harangued the crowd on a makeshift wooden stage Guerrillas of the New People’s Army (NPA), which has endured decades of military crackdowns, celebrated the CPP anniversary Sunday in their jungle camps with a vow to intensify attacks.
But behind the scenes, negotiators on both sides have already agreed to resume talks after six years―fruits of the political goodwill and optimism that followed Mr. Aquino’s election in May.
Formal talks in 2011
Formal talks have been scheduled on Feb. 15-21 in Norway’s capital, Oslo, despite sporadic fighting, including the killing of 10 Army soldiers in a Dec. 14 rebel ambush. Both sides have also agreed to a Christmas truce through Jan. 3.
Five presidents have failed to crush the Maoist rebellion, which has killed at least 120,000 combatants and civilians.The party dates from its split from an older communist group at a conference on Dec. 26, 1968, in Pangasinan province. That date also was the 117th birthday of China’s Mao Zedong.
Washington has blacklisted the CPP and the NPA, its armed wing, as terrorist organizations and Prof Jose Ma. Sison, blaming them for separate attacks that killed four American military personnel in the 1980s.
The GRP under GMA walked away from peace talks brokered by Norway in 2004. The President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration instigated their (NPA and CPP's ) and Prof.Sison's inclusion on the US and EU terrorist lists.
Rebel concerns
The NPA, for almost 42 years operates a shadow government in areas under its influence conducting trials―and sometimes executions―of policemen and village officials accused of harming people.
The rebels also collect “revolutionary taxes”―and punish business establishments refusing to pay.
Madlos said oppressive conditions in the country that had fostered poverty, corruption and rights abuses remained under Mr. Aquino. “We will continue to wage the revolution because it’s right and we’re in a position to intensify attacks,” he said in a statement this week, ahead of Sunday’s anniversary.
The military has softened its counterinsurgency strategy, which has been linked to extrajudicial killings of hundreds of left-wing activists and suspected rebel sympathizers.
New COIN program
The new six-year counterinsurgency program unveiled last week called OPLAN BAYANIHAN seeks to wean away civilian communities from the rebels and includes support of advocacy groups from outside the government in addressing human rights concerns.
Political analyst Ramon Casiple said the program is “It’s no longer the body count approach. This is a war for hearts and minds,” Casiple said. “The rebels should realize that the ground is shifting.” Casiple is a former communist who turned reformist and a paid government hack.
The CPP has criticized the new plan. In a statement this week, it said it “will keep on engendering the revolution until the entire rotten, puppet, reactionary system is brought down.”
