NDF-EV urges Gov. Nicart to support the peace talks at the national level

By NDF-EV
June 1, 2011

The National Democratic Front-Eastern Visayas today declined the offer of Eastern Samar Gov. Conrado Nicart, Jr., to discuss peace in the province and said the gesture for peace will be much better if the governor will support the peace talks at the national level.

“The issue of peace is bigger than in Eastern Samar alone,” said Fr. Santiago Salas, NDF-EV spokesperson. “That is why the peace talks should be held at the national level as it is now to thresh out the root causes of the armed conflict and to make a just and lasting peace possible. Holding peace talks at the local level will only play into the hands of the militarists and fascists who want to sow confusion and sabotage genuine peace by such a divide-and-rule tactic against the revolutionary forces,”

Fr. Salas added that the peace talks are proceeding at a snail's pace because the Aquino government is showing a lack of political initiative, and because militarists and fascists are working behind the scene to push “counterinsurgency” scheme Oplan Bayanihan.

“While the Aquino government has committed to releasing the NDFP peace consultants and other political prisoners, not a single one has been released and the military is monopolizing the say-so by insisting the political prisoners have to go through the gauntlet of the judicial process.

That is the reality, even though Noynoy Aquino can cut to the chase by ordering the release of political prisoners through executive fiat, as his mother Cory Aquino did in 1986 in ordering the release of Jose Ma. Sison and others imprisoned by the Marcos dictatorship. It seems the militarists and fascists are making all the decisions because they want to wage total war against the revolutionary movement through Oplan Bayanihan.”