NDF on Peace Talks


In 1990, the NDF and the GRP entered into exploratory talks in order to set the framework for possible peace talks. In 1992 they signed the Hague Joint Declaration, which declared that the armed conflict could only be resolved by addressing its root causes and that peace talks would take place according to the mutually acceptable principles of national sovereignty, democracy, and social justice. Further agreements regarding safety and immunity were signed over the next two years, and on June 26, 1995, formal peace talks opened in Brussels.

The GRP, however, had repeatedly violated several of the agreements concerning safety and immunity in the weeks before the beginning of the talks, and on June 26 , the GRP unilaterally suspended peace talks. For the NDF, MIM, and RAIL, this is one more sign that the GRP is not serious about peace and wants to use the peace talks to trick the NDFP and its allies into capitulation.

The following is a resolution on the peace question approved during the NDF First National Conference in July 1994. It is reprinted here from the May-August 1995 issue of Liberation International, a publication of the International Office of the NDF.

In view of the preliminary talks between the National Democratic Front (NDF) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) held in Breukelen, The Netherlands, last June 10-14, 1994, and in view of the intensified deception by the U.S.-Ramos regime on the peace process, the First Conference of the NDF clarifies once again, and hereby approves, the following views and standpoint of the NDF:

1. We, the allied organizations in the NDF, aspire for genuine, just and liberating peace. This peace can be achieved only through the resolution of the fundamental problems of the Filipino people and their liberation from the plague of imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism. For as long as the puppet and reactionary state reigns, this peace can be achieved principally by advancing the people's democratic revolution.

1.1 The real root of the unresolved crisis in Philippine society is the continuing anti-national, anti-democratic and anti-people rule of imperialism and the local reactionary classes of the comprador big bourgeoisie and landlord class. Fascist suppression and violence are the principal means by which this corrupt order is maintained and defended.

1.2 The Filipino people's just response and solution to this extreme exploitation and oppression is the people's democratic revolution. Counterrevolutionary violence is justly answered with the people's revolutionary violence.

1.3 The NDF is a force which is waging a war genuinely in the interests of the Filipino people and advancing the comprehensive revolutionary program for fundamental social transformation, and is not merely a rebel, insurgent, or criminal force to be suppressed by police of "counterinsurgency" operations such as the U.S.-Ramos regime and other reactionaries wish.

2. The U.S.-Ramos regime, as the principal representative and defender of reactionary power and the semi-colonial and semi-feudal order, does not truly desire genuine peace.

2.1 The U.S-Ramos regime continues to pursue an all-out campaign to crush the revolutionary movement through large scale military and psywar operations in various parts of the archipelago.

2.2 The U.S-Ramos regime continues to insist on a framework of compelling the revolutionary forces to capitulate through "peace talks" reinforced by its desire to take advantage of the damage and difficulties suffered by the revolutionary forces due to past errors and deviations.

2.3 The regime continues to formulate and implement anti-people programs, laws and policies that are even more exploitative and oppressive than those imposed by the Marcos fascist dictatorship and the U.S.-Aquino reactionary regime.

2.4 Even as it basically opposes serious political negotiations, the U.S.-Ramos regime pretends to uphold the peace process. This posturing is merely a part of its psywar package against the people and the revolutionary movement. Its principal objective is to induce revolutionary forces to surrender. Talks or posturing about the talks are also being used by the regime to serve its tactical needs in connection with enticing foreign investors, gaining "merit" in the eyes of its foreign masters, or calming down the anger of the people.