From: news@netnews.upenn.edu (USENET News System)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.filipino
Subject: Jose Ma Sison Rejects Legalization Offer
Date: 28 Jul 92 16:24:14 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.filipino
Organization: University of Pennsylvania


	MANILA, Philippines (UPI) -- The exiled chief of the outlawed
Communist Party of the Philippines indicated Tuesday he would reject
President Fidel Ramos'offer to legalize the party and grant amnesty to
its armed wing.
	Jose Maria Sison, who is also the party's founder, claimed the
proposal, made in Ramos' state of the nation address Monday, lacked
measures to eradicate grinding poverty and other root causes of the
rebellion.
	``If we analyze the speech of Ramos, he does not have a proposal to
solve the political problems of the country,'' Sison said. ``Ramos
instead gave proposals to worsen the problem.''
	Ramos in his speech called on Congress to repeal the anti-subversion
law, which outlawed the CPP and its military arm, the 15,000-member New
Peoples Army.
	The president also formed a committee to negotiate peace talks with
the communists and a dwindling right-wing rebellion and Muslim
separatist movement in the south.
	Justice Secretary Franklin Drilon said Tuesday he ordered his
department to study the cases of captured communist leaders charged with
subversion and may come up with recommendations for either clemency or
bail.
	He said the committee has 90 days to draw up an amnesty program for
all rebel groups.
	``The offer of amnesty and repeal of the anti-subversion law will not
attract the National Democratic Front,'' Sison told radio station DZMM
from his office in the Dutch city of Utrecht.
	The NDF is an umbrella organization of 14 underground groups led by
the Communist Party.
	``(Government) soldiers are contiuning their attacks on the masses
all over the country,'' Sison said. ``The offer of amnesty and the
repeal of the subversion law will worsen the political problems of the
country.
	His statements are expected to dim prospects of a peaceful settlement
of the war, which has caused thousands of deaths and massive dislocation
in the countryside.
	Sison slammed Ramos for continuing a policy to repay the country's
$29 billion external debt, which he said was mostly made of fraudulent
loans during the regime of ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
	He also said Ramos vowed to pursue an export-oriented economy and
failed to address demands for a sweeping land reform program.
	He said Ramos gave no assurance that the United States would not
retain access to its major naval base at Subic Bay northwest of Manila
after Washington completes a pullout late this year.
	Manila last year rejected a proposal to extend the tenure of Subic
for 10 more years, ending nearly a century of U.S. military presence in
its former colony.
	At least 10 U.S. servicemen, including Vietnam War hero Col. Jame
Rowe, have been killed by the rebels since since 1987 in a bid to force
Washington to withdraw.
	Sison was freed from 10 years in jail in 1986 when former president
Corazon Aquino declared a sweeping amnesty shortly after she took power
in a civilian-backed military revolt.
	He fled the country after his release and is widely believed to have
reassumed his role as CPP chairman.