The Communist Party of the Philippines has called on President Duterte to end or to suspend Oplan Bayanihan that is being implemented by the Armed Forces of the Philippines .
The call, CPP said, is in the spirit of the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
“He (President Duterte) must order the Armed Forces of the Philippines to withdraw its armed combatants from the guerrilla zones and areas under the control of the revolutionary government. He must carry this out concurrently with fulfillment of his promise to free political prisoners en masse through an amnesty proclamation,” the CPP said.
If accomplished by January next year, CPP said President Duterte can have the group’s guarantee that they will prolong the unilateral ceasefire previously declared.
“It will further encourage the revolutionary forces to forge with it a bilateral ceasefire to boost accelerated negotiations for a just and lasting peace,” the group added.
CPP also told the President to cast away his illusion that the GRP has exclusive dominion over the entire Philippines, saying that “significant parts of the country, there exists two governments which are at war with each other: the GRP and the people’s democratic government which the NDFP represents.”
The continuing policy of deploying troops and occupy peasant communities is pressing on the civil war and proving the President he is no different from the regimes of Aquino and Arroyo – neither of which were interested in the peaceful resolution of the armed conflict.
The CPP also commended its armed unit, the New People’s Army (NPA) for standing by the Party’s unilateral ceasefire declaration.
“They have withstood and forbeared the continuing Oplan Bayanihan armed operations of the AFP within and around NPA guerrilla zones and base areas.”
The group also condemned the AFP for “bullheadedly continuing to carry out armed hostile actions against the peasant masses and NPA units in the guerrilla zones and revolutionary areas.”
It added that the AFP has practically observed no ceasefire for the past three months.
“The unilateral ceasefire declarations issued reciprocally by the GRP and the NDFP have persisted only because NPA units have chosen to carry out evasion maneuvers to avoid armed skirmishes with the AFP as well as combat troops of the Philippine National Police (PNP),” the group said.
They also expressed dismay of the failure on the part of President Duterte to reign the AFP and hit the order the President made last August to “be friendly with the revolutionary government”, saying that same is an “empty one considering that not a single area command of the AFP respected nor implemented this policy.”
“By deploying fully-armed units to the very heart of the NPA guerrilla zones and guerrilla bases, the AFP leadership wants its units to engage the NPA in armed skirmishes to force the ceasefire to an end. They know full well that the NPA can only evade and counter-maneuver so much. The AFP’s forward troop deployments are preparations for an offensive in a vain attempt to crush the NPA and the wide and deep support it enjoys among the peasant masses,” the CPP added.
The group said pressing on with AFP’s deployments will set the stage for widespread armed clashes as the NPAs will be forced to engage in active defense and defend the people.
President Duterte will only have himself to blame if such situation will force the hand of the CPP to terminate its unilateral ceasefire declaration, the group added.
