Published in Manila Today
National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) counsel in the peace process Atty. Edre Olalia said that the terrorist tag is alarming, wrong, and must be corrected.
“The CPP-NPA-NDFP cannot be considered terrorist organizations because they adhere to international humanitarian law (IHL) on the rules of war and especially on the protection of civilians and non-combatants,” said Olalia
International humanitarian law compliance
In 1991, the NDFP declared its adherence to international humanitarian law, Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions and Protocol II. These are additional guidelines with regards to the protection of victims—including the wounded and the sick and whether or not they took part in a non-international armed conflict.
In July 1996, it issued the NDFP Declaration of Adherence to the Geneva Conventions and Protocol I and deposited it with the Swiss Federal Council, the official depository of IHL and also provided a copy to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the official guardian of the IHL. By submitting the said declaration, the NDFP has assumed rights and duties to adhere the IHL.
The NDFP also declared their adherence to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which guarantees the rights of children including protection during armed conflict.
In the same Declaration, the NDFP stated that “it is ever resolved to ensure that the rights of children are respected and that their welfare is assured under the policies and laws of the people’s democratic government and under the programs of its pertinent social agencies and the mass organizations of children, parents, teachers, women and other sectors interested in the rights and welfare of children in all urban and rural areas of the Philippines.”
“This labelling of the CPP-NPA-NDFP as so-called terrorists was a big obstacle in the peace talks before and this was used to force a surrender without addressing the reason why there was an armed conflict in the first place,” added Olalia.
IHL violations
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) hurled accusations of IHL violations against each other through the years.
The latest came from the AFP, when it said three unarmed soldiers were killed by the NPA in Malaybalay City, Bukidnon on February 1. The AFP said the bodies were desecrated, received 76 bullets between the three.
President Rodrigo Duterte ranted against the inhumane treatment of the soldiers, said they were killed like animals. This incident prompted a string of rash decisions from Duterte—withdrawal of unilateral ceasefire, cancellation of peace talks, CPP-NPA-NDFP, verbal rearrest order of NDFP consultants, and the Department of National Defense Secretary declaration of an all-out war—most of which have been opposed by NDFP peace counsel and human rights groups as violations to peace talks agreements and the government’s own court doctrine and due process.
Ka Allan Juanito, spokesperson of the NPA-North Central Mindanao Region Command, said in a statement sent to the media on February 7 that the deaths of Corporal Pat O. Non, Corporal Nino Christopher Talabor and Sergeant Owen Yee of the 8th Infantry Battalion were due to a legitimate encounter in line with the NPA’s policy of “active defense” before the scheduled lifting of the unilateral ceasefire on February 10.
Juanito said that three .45 pistols were seized from the soldiers, “Armscor issues with serial numbers 2052053, bb01224 and 1435922.”
Juanito also said “the three corpses were not desecrated other than the gunshot wounds.”
NDFP Senior Adviser Luis Jalandoni said in a TV interview that “the incident should be investigated because it might be a rubout” as the “NPA is not likely to waste bullets.”
“To the families, relatives and friends of the fallen soldiers, we offer our sincere condolences…It has been a consequence to Duterte’s unilateral ceasefire that AFP-PNP-CAFGU has since violated by invading the areas of the revolutionary movement. They suppress and hassle the livelihood and daily activities instead of bringing peace and development to the people of more than 500 barangays they [are] supposed to serve,” apologized Juanito in the same statement.
The AFP also constantly accused the CPP-NPA-NDFP for using child soldiers, while the New People’s Army (NPA) denied this accusation.
The NPA also accused the military of forcing children and non-combatants in the barrios to serve as military guides, also using children of known NPA fighters and revolutionaries as hostages to lure their parents out of hiding.
Terrorist tag makes US happy
Youth group Anakbayan Metro Manila believes that the AFP and the US are the first ones to rejoice with Duterte turning back against the peace negotiations and tagging the CPP-NPA-NDFP as terrorist groups.
“The US through its agents in the AFP are the spoilers in the peace process. They exerted much influence over Duterte in pressing for a bilateral ceasefire which is tantamount to capitulation without freeing political prisoners first and agreeing to social and economic reforms which aim to address the root cause of the armed conflict,” said Kristian Advincula, Anakbayan Metro Manila’s Spokesperson.
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) Secretary General Renato Reyes, Jr. share the same sentiment that “only the fascists and the ruling elite are happy with the terrorist tag as it justifies their all-out war declaration.”
“Of course the US considers JMS [Jose Maria Sison] in its terror list. JMS is a principled revolutionary, a staunch anti-imperialist. US imperialism feels threatened by what JMS represents. The oppressed people of the world however know better than to swallow hook, line and sinker the US claim,” said Reyes in a Facebook message in reply to Manila Today.
Since 2002, the CPP-NPA and Jose Maria Sison are listed as foreign terrorist organization and individual respectively by the US State Department.
Sison, in a speech during the New World Summit in the Netherlands back in 2012, cited that the interests behind the “terrorist” listing of the national liberation movement in the Philippines are chiefly those of the US among the imperialist powers.
“The ‘terrorist’ listing seeks to demonize the movement and justify the use of violence and deception against the people and social activists in order to preserve and promote the socio-economic interests of the US monopoly bourgeoisie.” Sison explained.
He said that the US to continue drawing superprofits from the working people and oppressed nations and peoples and seeks to crush their resistance.
‘Combating terrorists’ as justification, Sison argued that “it [US] has launched wars of aggression against Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries, killing hundreds of thousands of people and destroying their social infrastructure in the process.”
The GRP peace panel suggested to the NDFP in the third round of peace talks that they would recommend the removal of Jose Maria Sison, CPP Founding Chairman, in the US terrorist list in the presence of reporters. This suggestion, however, did not materialize in the Rome Joint Statement signed at the end of the third round of peace talks on January 25.