CPP: No ceasefire on NDF's 38th anniv on Sunday

There will be no Easter ceasefire from the New People's Army (NPA) when the National Democratic Front marks its 38th anniversary Sunday, the Communist Party of the Philippines said Friday. In a statement, the CPP said there will be "mass celebrations" to mark the victories of the past year this Sunday. "(An Easter) ceasefire declaration is highly unlikely (as the Aquino administration and its chief negotiator) continue to exhibit unpeaceable attitudes and actions," it said in a statement on its website Friday afternoon. "The CPP is not keen on issuing an Easter Sunday ceasefire declaration as the Aquino government continues to show itself as unpeacable with the continued detention of key NDF negotiators covered by the immunity agreement as well as hundreds of other political prisoners. The Aquino regime has also undertaken a renewed campaign of extrajudicial killings which has already victimized at least 15 labor leaders, peasant and social activists in a matter of months and intensified the militarization of civilian communities in the rural areas," it added. The CPP said that, on Sunday, the "revolutionary forces" will aim to "achieve bigger victories in the struggle against foreign intervention, government corruption, exploitation and oppression of workers and peasants, unemployment, poverty, militarization, disease and environmental destruction." The CPP said that the Aquino administration had "shown a general lack of interest in addressing the socio-economic and political roots of the armed conflict." The CPP claimed the government "refuses to heed the demand to put an end to cutbacks in social spending which have resulted in upwardly spralling costs of services, putting them beyond the reach of ordinary Filipinos." Also, it said that the government refuses to address the widespread clamor to abrogate the Oil Deregulation Law, which it said allowed foreign oil companies to jack up prices at will in a supposed drive for maximum profit. But it particularly scored chief government negotiator Alexander Padilla for "provocative and unstatesmanly statements that disparage the revolutionary movement." Padilla had been quoted earlier as saying social networking and the Internet may be pushing Philippine rebels "into oblivion." "He continues to disappoint peace advocates who knew him as a human rights lawyer as he now conducts himself more and more like a spokesman of the fascist AFP," the CPP said. The CPP said the revolutionary forces under the NDF will continue to engage the Philippine government in peace negotiations as an additional avenue to push forward the agenda of the national democratic revolution. But at the same time, it called on the Filipino people to "continue intensifying mass strugges and the armed revolution to advance their aspirations for national liberation and social emancipation." - TJD, GMA News