Casiño hits NPA over Guingona ambush
Bayan Muna Partylist Representative Teddy Casiño at his office at the House of Representatives. 18 Feb 2013, photo by John Javellana / Rappler.
MANILA, Philippines - Bayan Muna representative and senatorial candidate Teddy Casiño “strongly” criticized the New People’s Army (NPA) over the ambush that injured Gingoog City Mayor Ruthie Guingona and killed her aides in Misamis Oriental.
Casiño said in a statement the incident was “wrong and unacceptable,” and that Ruthie, an elderly woman, should have been spared.
NPA members ambushed on Saturday night, April 20 the 4-vehicle convoy carrying Ruthie, wife of former vice president Teofisto Guingona and mother of Senator Teofisto Guingona III, along a remote road in Gingoog. The mayor was wounded in the attack, while at least 2 others died.
“Although the NPA has admitted its mistake, we expect them to make a thorough investigation, hold those responsible to account, take remedial actions and make amends to the victims’ families. This is a matter that can also be taken up with the NDFP-GRP Joint Monitoring Committee on the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law,” said Casiño.
REYNALDO SANTOS, JR.
Casino also earlier posted the statement below on his Twitter page:
I strongly criticize the NPA’s military action on Mayor Ruthie Guingona’s convoy that resulted in the death and injury of civilians.
1:29 AM - 21 Apr 2013
POSTED ON 04/21/2013 7:02 PM | UPDATED 04/22/2013 8:05 AM
http://www.rappler.com/nation/27081-casino-npa-guingona-ambush
NDFP deplores Guingona incident
The negotiating panel of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and its consultants deplore the incident in which a unit of New People’s Army (NPA) ambushed the convoy of Gingoog City Mayor Ruthie de Lara Guingona.
The NDFP negotiating panel, through its chairperson Luis Jalandoni, expressed its sympathy for Mayor Guingona and her entire family and wishes her the quickest recovery from her wounds and shock.
The panel sent its condolences to the families of the two killed escorts who should have shared with her the assurances of safety accorded to the Guingona family by the revolutionary movement of the people.
“The NDFP and all the revolutionary forces that it represents, including the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA), hold the Guingona family in the highest regard because of its steadfast stand for national independence and democracy during the struggle against the US-supported Marcos fascist dictatorship and against the anti-national and anti-democratic policies and acts of the successors of Marcos,” the statement sent to Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro read.
Jalandoni said the NDFP know the Guingonas as persons of high moral character and as principled patriotic and progressive political leaders.
Jalandoni lauded former VP Guingona for speaking as a statesman, rising above the pain of his wife and family and for his continuing respect for the NDFP and calling for the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations to move forward.
The statement said that while there is yet no final peace agreement between the GPH and the NDFP, the revolutionary movement continues to wield political authority in the countryside, with the NPA enforcing the movement’s policies, such as those governing the conduct of campaigns during reactionary elections.
Jalandoni said the NPA is always duty-bound to adhere to its own Basic Rules of Discipline, to the provisions of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), and other instruments and norms of international humanitarian law, especially on the protection of civilians and hors de combat.
He clarified the NPA Regional Command’s admission of responsibility, issuance of a public apology and expression of sympathy and condolences to Mayor Guingona and her family, to the families of her slain and wounded civilian companions, leads to further investigating the incident, determining accountability and identifying measures to prevent its recurrence.
He further said the NPA and CPP have reiterated that all political leaders who are not hostile to the NPA are enjoined to arrange with the NPA for their safe travel whenever possible or otherwise to avoid travelling with armed escorts that may be mistaken as hostile in certain places and at certain times especially during dark hours.
“We hope that the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations will advance in addressing the roots of the armed conflict, in making agreements on social, economic and political reforms and in laying the basis for a just lasting peace,” he said.
Grace Cantal-Albasin
Thursday, April 25, 2013
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cagayan-de-oro/local-news/2013/04/25/ndfp-deplores-guingona-incident-279351
Gov’t hints at ‘rift’ in CPP could be affecting peace talks
MANILA, Philippines–The government on Monday hinted at a rift within the so-called “reaffirmist faction” of the Communist Party of the Philippines that could be influencing the stalled peace negotiations between the government and the communist rebels.
Presidential adviser on the peace process Teresita Deles said the government peace panel’s recent consultations with communities affected by the decades-long insurgency have raised one important question: is the government even talking to the right people?
“Who are we talking to? Are they the right people? That was the advice to us, that we should examine that question,” Deles said at the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines forum.
CPP founder Jose Ma. Sison and Luis Jalandoni are heading the negotiating panel of the CPP and its political arm, the National Democratic Front and armed group, the New People People’s Army.
Government chief negotiator Alex Padilla said that according to the government’s intelligence sources, Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, members of the CPP’s Central Committee, are now the ones “in-charge.”
Padilla said that one indication that Sison may no longer have control over the CPP’s people on the ground was when the latter reneged on the documents that he himself presented during the “special track” on the talks that was proposed by the CPP-NDF-NPA panel itself.
Nikko Dizon
Philippine Daily Inquirer 1:54 pm | Monday, May 6th, 2013
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/73677/govt-hints-at-rift-in-cpp-could-be-affecting-peace-talks#ixzz2TKIX9gIA