AFP to NPA: Talk peace or face death

Talk peace or face death.

This was the warning of Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Benjamin Defensor to communist rebels yesterday, a day after communist leader Jose Ma. Sison told the New People’s Army (NPA) to step up its terror attacks.

"Following Sison’s call to continue with the assaults would mean signing their death warrants, a virtual suicide on the part of the NPA’s members," Defensor said in a statement.

He said Sison’s call was only a reaction to the recent setback he and his group suffered when the 15-nation European Union declared the NPA and the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which he founded, as terrorist organizations.

"We want to end the senseless killings resulting from these terrorist attacks but we will not cower away from Sison’s threat and we are prepared to meet his order with our brand of counter measures,’" Defensor said.

He reminded communist rebels that they will be the ones who will bear the brunt of the fighting since Sison, who had been living off dole-outs from the Dutch government since he exiled himself to the Netherlands, will remain comfortable in Europe.

"He is there lounging in a house in the Netherlands while the (CPP) cadres are in the mountains hungry, trying to dodge bullets and bombs, facing real prospects of a violent death," Defensor said.

Defensor said Sison should wise up, renounce violence as a political tool and go to the negotiating table to talk peace with the government.

"Sison no longer has any choice now that the Europeans, where he gets most of his funding, declared him and the NPA as terrorists," Defensor added.

Meanwhile, party-list group Bayan Muna deplored the EU’s decision to blacklist Sison and the CPP-NPA.

"EU officials are virtually turning their backs on the cause for peace," said Bayan Muna secretary general Nathanael Santiago.