“It should immediately be followed up with the soonest release of more than 400 other political prisoners, some of whom have long been imprisoned,” said the NDFP’s Reciprocal Working Committee on Socio-Economic Reforms (RWC-SER) in a statement.
It noted that the “demand for the immediate release of political prisoners has long been a nagging issue of justice, of human rights, and of the peace talks and should be undertaken immediately, free from the whims of GRP officials, and without at all imposing conditions on the NDFP.”
The NDFP has been pressing the immediate release of NDFP peace consultants Leopoldo Caloza, Ferdinand Castillo and Eduardo Sarmiento.
“Like newly-released Emeterio Antalan, who had been a staunch advocate of and fighter for comprehensive agrarian reform before his arrest and even while in prison, the imprisoned NDFP consultants could significantly contribute in the current talks on socio-economic reforms given their decades of leadership in the struggles of peasants and workers in the country. It is only right that they should be immediately released, together with hundreds of other political prisoners,” the statement noted.
The NDFP also said that “many among the newly-released political prisoners, like Manolito Matricio, are also farmers, who were imprisoned just because of their struggle for land. “
“They attest to the fact that the demand for genuine land reform, a priority in the ongoing talks on socio-economic reforms, has been a long-standing demand the mass of our farmers will continue to stand up and fight for,” it noted.
Matricio is a member of the militant peasant organization Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and part of the “Mamburao 6,” farmers who were imprisoned for resisting landgrabbing in Mamburao in Mindoro Occidental.
The NDFP said “the political prisoners’ cause and activism for land reform show that the peace talks between the NDFP and GPH must indeed continue and succeed. With the resumption of the stalled 5th Round of the peace talks, the NDFP RWC-SER is intent on again urgently bringing to the table this very basic demand for genuine land reform and other proposals for socio-economic reforms. We expect that, this time around, substantial gains for the benefit of the Filipino people will be achieved.”
“The NDFP is willing and ready,” the statement stressed.
