NDFP lambasts Padilla*
April 21, 2011
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) berated Atty. Alexander Padilla, who chairs the negotiating panel of the Government of the Philippines (GPH) for his "provocative" commentaries that have no place in the peace negotiations. Padilla recently claimed that the revolutionary movement could no longer recruit educated youth because the latter were more obsessed with the internet.
NDF Human Rights Committee chair Fidel V. Agcaoili said Padilla was merely demonstrating how far removed he was from reality. He said there were several websites, blogs and Facebook accounts being used by mass organizations and personalities to propagate the message of the national-democratic movement to the Filipino people. Agcaoili cited the Philippine Revoution Web Central, the Paaralang Jose Ma. Sison, Facebook accounts of Marco Valbuena and readers of Ang Bayan, as well as revolutionary and progressive videos uploaded on YouTube, among others.
The effective use of these venues by the Philippine revolutionary movement is a way of propagating the message of the national-democratic revolution even before they can be reported in local and international newspapers.
Padilla's "provocative" comments come at the heels of his earlier statement questioning the NDF's sincerity in achieving a political settlement in the face of the raging civil war in the country. His insistence on a three-year timetable for concluding the peace talks is detrimental to the current negotiations because it plays into the hands of militarist saboteurs who are only interested to see the talks' failure and in unleashing allout war under Oplan Bayanihan.
Padilla must realize that the success or failure of the peace talks rests squarely on the shoulders of the Aquino regime and not on the NDFP, said the Communist Party of the Philippines. Instead of coming out with such damaging statements, he should instead concentrate on looking for solutions to the issues of land reform and national sovereignty, widespread unemployment, poverty and hunger which lie at the roots of the civil war.
