MANILA (AFX-ASIA) - Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison said the US wants to go to war in the Philippines, reacting to the US move to include the CPP in its list of foreign terrorist organisations. "This designation of the CPP as terrorist is a psy-war (psychological warfare) preparation for further US military intervention and even aggression," Sison said in a telephone interview with local ABS-CBN television from the Netherlands.
"I suppose the US is raring to go for war in the Philippines."
Sison also said the designation is intended to "destroy once and for all", peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the CPP's political front, the National Democratic Front (NDF), based in Utrecht, Netherlands.
Sison did not say how the decision could affect the CPP.
President Gloria Arroyo's spokesman Ignacio Bunye said, "The exclusion list simply means that the US government will tighten its noose as far as the CPP and its guerrilla arm New People's Army are concerned." This could result in less funding from leftist groups in the US, he added.
National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said the US listing "was expected due to the serious threats they (the CPP) have been making against innocent civilians including Americans and US interests."
He was referring to an NPA statement in April ordering the guerrillas to "inflict severe casualties on the invading US forces and to take punitive action against US economic and related interests".
Despite the US listing, government peace negotiator Eduardo Ermita said "back-channeling" efforts to reopen peace talks with the communist leadership will continue.
The government suspended formal peace talks with the CPP last year after the communists assassinated two congressmen. But Ermita said a draft of an agreement to reopen the talks will be presented to the rebels this month.
Sison also criticised the just-concluded six-month long joint US-Philippine operations against the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim kidnapping group in the south, which has prompted President Arroyo to redeploy troops away from hunting the kidnap band and towards battling communist guerrillas elsewhere in the country.
"Now they are trying to spread the war. They are going to shift to a war," from the Abu Sayyaf to the NPA, Sison said.
Sison said, however, his side is still awaiting informal efforts to reopen peace negotiations between the government and the NDF.