*ARROYO ESCALATES BRUTAL CAMPAIGNS OF SUPPRESSION*

Press Statement
22 August 2008

*ARROYO ESCALATES BRUTAL CAMPAIGNS OF SUPPRESSION*
*AND CLOSES THE DOOR TO PEACE NEGOTIATIONS*

*By Prof. Jose Maria Sison*
Chief Political Consultant
National Democratic Front of the Philippines

In line with her brutal policy of suppressing the revolutionary forces
of the people, Gloria M. Arroyo has apparently closed the door to peace
negotiations by declaring that she would negotiate with "communities"
rather than with the armed revolutionary movements like the National
Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF), unless they first surrender and agree to be
subjected to "disarmament, demobilization and rehabilitation" under the
terms of the continuing system of oppression and exploitation.

Arroyo misses the whole point about the peace negotiations as a mutually
agreed process for the conflicting parties to address the roots of the
armed conflict and work out agreements on social, economic and political
reforms in order to realize a just and lasting peace. She is
excessively obsessed with the vain wish to destroy or debilitate the
armed revolutionary movements through all-out military force. This is
complemented by her notion that she can use sham negotiations to trick
these movements to capitulate or to paralyze them with indefinite
informal talks and ceasefire.

She overestimates what she and her armed forces can do and
underestimates what the people and the armed revolutionary movements can
do against her regime. She is oblivious of the fact that the entire
ruling system and her regime in particular are rotten to the core and
are beset by a grave socio-economic and political crisis, that her armed
forces are already fatigued and demoralized by the failures and defeats
of Oplan Bantay Laya and that the armed forces of the NDFP and MILF can
deliver more lethal blows to their common foes if they simultaneously
intensify their offensives in their respective territories.

Indeed, it can be expected that the level of armed resistance by the
revolutionary forces and people will rise on a nationwide scale because
in the first place the Arroyo regime is carrying out a brutal policy of
suppression and is escalating military campaigns against them. All the
organized forces, institutions and people interested in the realization
of a just and lasting peace through peace negotiations should press the
Arroyo regime to end its brutal policy of suppression, to stop the
depradations and atrocities of the reactionary armed forces and to
undertake serious peace negotiations with the NDFP and MILF in
accordance with previous agreements. ###