The “Terror Listing" of Prof. Sison Prejudices the GRP-NDFP Peace Negotiations
Brussels, 5 February 2003
Just a few days ago, Secretary of Foreign Affairs Blas Ople of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) revealed the malicious objective of the GRP' in instigating the listing of Prof. Sison, the New People's Army (NPA) and the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) as “terrorists” by the US and European governments. The GRP wants to pressure the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) to sign an agreement of capitulation that the GRP has prepared.
The filing of murder charges and the threat of extradition against Prof. Jose Maria Sison are clearly politically motivated and baseless. They are intended only to pressure the NDFP to surrender and give up the struggle for national and social liberation it has been waging for more than three decades.
The NDFP condemns the terror listing of Prof. Sison, who has played and continues to play a key and essential role in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations. His contributions to the peace negotiations, in the formulating of the agreements and in overcoming obstacles and difficulties have played a crucial role in advancing the peace negotiations.
The NDFP will not agree to negotiate while Prof. Sison is branded as a “terrorist” and threatened with extradition and fabricated and baseless criminal charges. The NDFP will not negotiate under duress with the tag of “terrorism” hanging like a Damocles sword over its Chief Political Consultant, and two of its major organizations, the CPP and the NPA.
This GRP pressure for the capitulation of the NDFP and the revolutionary forces it represents in the peace negotiations is in gross violation of the ten peace agreements signed by the GRP and the NDFP since 1992.
In particular, it violates The Hague Joint Declaration of 1992, which stipulates the principle of non-capitulation. It also violates the guiding principle of national sovereignty that is mutually agreed upon by the GRP and the NDFP in The Hague Joint Declaration, by conceding to the US and EU governments the usurpation of jurisdiction over the armed conflict in the Philippines. The laws and jurisprudence of the GRP allow only a charge of rebellion, not terrorism, against those who engage in armed struggle against it..
This act of the GRP, with the collusion of the US and the governments of the European Union, also violates the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) signed and approved in0 1995. By threatening Prof. Sison, the NDFP Chief Political Consultant, with fabricated murder charges and extradition, the GRP violates the provision that guarantees. Prof. Sison and other NDFP personnel involved in the peace negotiations with safety and immunity from arrest, detention and other punitive actions.
The GRP is also violating the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), signed and approved in 1998, which upholds the inherent right of both Parties to adhere to human rights and international humanitarian law. The CARHRIHL recognizes the necessity and significance of both the GRP and the NDFP to assume separate duties and responsibilities for upholding, protecting and promoting the principles of human rights and the principles of international humanitarian law. By tagging the CPP and NPA, major organizations of the NDFP, as “terrorist” and instigating the US and the EU governments to do the same, the GRP is in gross violation of the CARHRIHL.
The GRP wants to pressure the NDFP to sign its draft “final peace accord” that is supposed to put all four substantive agenda into one agreement. This violates the Joint Agreement on the Formation, Sequence and Operationalization of the Reciprocal Working Committees, signed in Brussels in June 1995.
The “terror listing” of Prof. Sison, the NPA and the CPP and the demand of the GRP for the capitulation of the NDFP must be effectively countered. These unjust and baseless actions of the GRP, with the collusion of the US and European governments, are directed at destroying the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations.
The NDFP calls for the removal of Prof. Sison, the NPA and the CPP from the so-called “terror lists” of the US and EU governments. It demands that the GRP rectify its malicious acts against Prof. Sison, the NPA and the CPP.
Once the “terrorist” tag has been removed from Prof. Sison, the CPP and the NPA, with the help of a strong international political campaign and a vigorous legal defense, then the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations can be resumed in order to address the root causes of the 34-year-old armed conflict. These negotiations must be done, in accordance with The Hague Joint Declaration and other previous agreements, not in violation of those agreements.
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