Joma proposes peace talks resumption

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Maria Sison has proposed the immediate resumption of peace negotiations with the government.

Sison pushed for the revival of the peace talks between the government peace panel and the National Democratic Front (NDF) and the implementation of The Hague Declaration and previous agreements that were made before the peace negotiations stalled.

Sison said he had gone as far as “to propose a concept of immediate truce and alliance” but “on the basis of a mutually acceptable declaration of principles and policies upholding national independence and democracy.”

But Sison said the government should not insist on a ceasefire during the peace negotiations.

“It is unjust for anyone to expect the revolutionary forces and the people to simply cease fire and surrender to a rotten ruling system that shuns patriotic and progressive demands and refuses to engage in basic reforms,” he said.

Sison said the NDF, the umbrella group representing the CPP and the New People’s Army (NPA) in the peace talks, has repeatedly declared its readiness to resume peace negotiations with the government under the administration of President Aquino. – With Michelle Zoleta