CPP re-extends ceasefire to January 15 after belated GPH announcement

By Communist Party of the Philippines
January 3, 2013

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today reextended its ceasefire declaration to January 15 after the Aquino regime belatedly announced yesterday its own suspension of military operations.

The CPP-CC issued the following declaration:

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines hereby declares to all commands and units of the New People's Army (NPA) and the people's militias that the end of the ceasefire declared on December 20 has been reextended to 2359H of January 15.

Specifics of the December 20 order will remain valid for the duration of this order. This declaration overrides an earlier order by the CPP-CC abbreviating the ceasefire to 2359H of January 2.

This declaration is being issued upon recommendation of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) after being belatedly informed of the formal order by the president of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GPH) Benigno Aquino III extending the suspension of offensive military and police operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP).

According to the CPP, the Aquino government did not promptly order the extension of its earlier suspension of offensive military and police operations. As shown by the facsimile of Aquino's order, the recommendation by the Secretary of National Defense was forwarded only yesterday noon, two weeks after the agreement was forged and a few hours after the CPP order abbreviating the ceasefire was made public.

Over the past two weeks, the GPH representatives refused to answer several communications seeking compliance with the December 20 to January 15 synchronized temporary ceasefire. The correspondences were sent by the NDFP Negotiating Panel directly and through the Royal Norwegian Government third-party facilitator.

"The CPP hopes that the reextension of the ceasefire order will help push forward peace negotiations between the GPH and the NDFP. The GPH, however, still has a lot of work to do in terms of compliance and rectification of violations of previous agreements, including the release of detained peace consultants in accordance with the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and the release of more than 400 political prisoners in compliance with the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law."