Conditions for extending the ceasefire

In the spirit of peace negotiations and to extend the unilateral ceasefire declaration, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the Filipino people insist that GRP President Duterte must end or suspend Oplan Bayanihan and the suppression operations against the people and their revolutionary movement.

He 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.

If he accomplishes this by January, Duterte can have the guarantee that the CPP will prolong its unilateral ceasefire declaration. It will further encourage the revolutionary forces to forge with it a bilateral ceasefire to boost accelerated negotiations for a just and lasting peace.

He must cast away his illusion that the GRP has exclusive dominion over the entire Philippines. The fact is, in significant parts of the country, there exist two governments which are at war with each other: the GRP and the people’s democratic government which the NDFP represents.

By continuing to forward-deploy his abusive troops and occupy peasant communities, he is pressing on the civil war and proving himself no different from the war freak Aquino and Arroyo regimes neither of which were interested in the peaceful resolution of the armed conflict.

The CPP commends all units of 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 CPP condemns the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for bullheadedly continuing to carry out armed hostile actions against the peasant masses and NPA units in the guerrilla zones and revolutionary areas. For the past three months, the AFP has practically observed no ceasefire.

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).

Against the spirit of the reciprocal ceasefire declarations, the AFP leadership itself ordered its troops to continue with Oplan Bayanihan counter-insurgency operations. When confronted by people, its operating troops even make such claims as “only the NPA has a ceasefire.”

The CPP is utterly dismayed at the failure of GRP President Rodrigo Duterte to rein in the war dogs of the AFP. It is quite apparent that the order made by Duterte last August as commander-in-chief to the AFP to “be friendly with the revolutionary government” and with the CPP-NPA is an empty one considering that not a single area command of the AFP respected nor implemented this policy. On the contrary, the AFP continues to regard the CPP-NPA with extreme hostility.

During the entire course of the unilateral ceasefire, the AFP has deployed rmed units and maintained armed presence in centers of civilian communities in violation of the CARHRIHL and international protocols which protect the welfare of civilians in times of war.

Continuing Oplan Bayanihan counter-insurgency operations undermine the reciprocal unilateral ceasefire declarations. 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.

If he presses on with the AFP’s deployment in the guerrilla zones and occupation of communities, Duterte will be virtually setting the stage for widespread armed clashes with the New People’s Army as Red fighters will be forced to engage in active defense and defend the people against abuses by the forward-deployed combat troops of the AFP. He will only have himself to blame if this forces the hand of the CPP to terminate its unilateral ceasefire declaration.

Source: CPP