By ALDWIN QUITASOL
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY — The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) condemned the attempted assassination of one of its consultants Glicero Pernia on Monday, September 16 at Guinobatan, Albay and criticized the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for blaming the New People’s Army (NPA) for carrying out the ambush.

The NDFP said the claims of the military on the ambush were in stark contradiction. The military claimed on one hand that NPA guerillas tried to rescue him (Pernia) and the other version is that the NPA planned to kill him.

“The propaganda of the military is malicious and baseless. Glicerio Pernia is an NDFP Consultant in good standing whose release is among those demanded by the NDFP Negotiating Panel as a concrete proof of the government’s (Government of the Republic of the Philippines or GRP) compliance with the Joint Agreement on Security and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) before the resumption of formal peace talks,” the NDFP said in an e-mailed statement.

According to the NDFP, Pernia and his police escorts came from a court hearing in Ligao City and were on their way back to the Albay provincial Jail when fully-armed men ambushed them. The ambush took place in an area heavily deployed with troops of the AFP and the Philippine National Police (PNP). The incident took place near the 502nd PNP Provincial Mobile Group detachment and large camps of the 8th Scout Ranger Company, 22nd Infantry Battalion, Philippine Army and the Special Operations Team (SOT) of the AFP’s 901st Brigade encamped in nearby barangays.

“The NDFP holds the US-Arroyo regime and its armed forces accountable for this dastardly assassination attempt on Pernia. This is another flagrant violation of the JASIG. It further sabotages the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations,” added the statement.

Meanwhile, the chairperson of the NDFP negotiating panel Luis Jalandoni discussed the prospects and developments of the peace talks between the GRP and the NDFP in a teleconference with students at the UP Baguio here. Jalandoni said that despite the negative statements and attacks from the Office of the President on the Peace Process (OPPAP) Secretary General Avelino Razon and other GRP officials, the NDFP remains open to a meeting of members of both negotiating panels with their respective lawyers to come up in a written agreement on complying with JASIG and the release of NDFP consultants.

According to Jalandoni, the representatives of the two negotiating panels in the June 15 meeting at the Norwegian Embassy in The Hague agreed on the respect and compliance of the JASIG where NDFP consultants and other JASIG-protected consultants be expeditiously released. Jalandoni added that the NDFP gave the GRP a list of 39 political prisoners ordered released by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo whose release within one month was agreed up in by the GRP in the OSLO Joint Statement II of April 3, 2004.

He added that until now, the GRP failed to release any of the detained consultants and quash the trumped up charges against those with warrants of arrest.

“Whatever the decision of the Arroyo regime, the revolutionary movement is determined to continue its struggle for national and social liberation, for national sovereignty, genuine independence and democracy, which will be the firm basis for a just and lasting peace. If the Arroyo regime refuses to negotiate for a just peace, then the NDFP will continue preparing for the probability or possibility of serious negotiations with the next administration. The twelve peace agreements already signed remain a good basis and a high standard for further peace negotiations,” stated Jalandoni. # nordis.net