Press Statement, 28 October 2004
The propagandists of the Arroyo regime and its corrupt and brutal armed forces keep on issuing press releases to misrepresent my October 21st press statement as an order to the New People's Army to intensify its offensives.
In order to set the record straight, I am reissuing said press statement and attaching it hereto. It is regrettable that the major mass media in Manila have not reported on the statement.
Because the major mass media either ignore or misquote my press statements very often, I request the public to verify the flow and full content of my statements at the following websites: www.sison-inps.741.com and www.defendsison.be
I am not in any position to issue any order to the NPA to intensify its offensives. The Central Committee and Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of the Philippines are politically in charge of the NPA and the NPA National Operational Command and National Military Staff are in charge of the NPA in terms of military command and administration.
I am merely the chief political consultant of the NDFP in matters of peace negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP). Consequent to the Arroyo regime shutting the door to peace negotiations, I can devote more time to research, education, legal battles and poetry writing for musical rendition.
Availing of my right to free speech, I wish to declare further that the Arroyo regime further barricades the door to peace negotiations by becoming more servile to the US and more corrupt than ever before and by unleashing the most vicious acts of state terrorism against the people and progressive forces.
In my opinion, the NDFP will never agree to any prolonged ceasefire with the GRP, unless all the comprehensive agreements of the four substantive agenda have been approved by the principals of the GRP and NDFP or in advance the GRP recognizes
the existence of the revolutionary organs of democratic power and the territory that these cover.
The GRP is daydreaming when it announces through its negotiating panel that the precondition for the resumption of peace negotiations is the capitulation of the NDFP through its acceptance of the “terrorist” label on the CPP and NPA and through a baseless permanent ceasefire.
The latest statements of GRP officials only serve to further barricade the door to peace negotiations. Amidst the outrageous puppetry, corruption and brutality of the Arroyo regime, these GRP officials are the ones pushing the patriotic and progressive forces and people to intensify their armed revolution.
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