Government-NDF peace deal seen in 2012

NESBRU – Government negotiators and communist rebels agreed Monday on a road map for continued peace talks aimed at resolving Asia’s longest-running insurgency by June 2012.

Ending the first round of long-stalled peace negotiations in Norway, the two sides agreed to meet again in April and every two months after that.

“Tonight finds us on the zigzag path to peace,” government chief negotiator Alex Padilla said. “But we have taken the first step.”

He said the government expects the comprehensive agreement on socio-economic reforms to be signed by September 2011, on political and constitutional reforms by February 2012, and on the end of hostilities and disposition of forces between June and August 2012.

Padilla said with a final political agreement in hand, “we hope to have laid the groundwork for a just and lasting peace within the first three years of the Aquino administration,” he added.

“The return to the formal peace table and our accomplishments during this first round of talks are indications of the desire of both parties to work together in resolving our differences and finally bring about peace, development, an end to poverty, and the restoration of justice, decency and civility in our land,” Padilla said.

“We held the formal negotiations on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the EDSA people power revolt where we showed the world how we could bring about change by ways of peace. This is the challenge of our current process,” Padilla said.

He said the negotiations were “frank, candid and held in the spirit of goodwill characterized by respect for one another’s position.”

National Democratic Front (NDF) panel chairman Luis Jalandoni said a ceasefire declared by both sides during the weeklong talks outside the Norwegian capital “served as a confidence builder” for the first formal peace negotiations in six years.

“It has been a rollercoaster ride all the way, and until a few moments ago, no one could be quite sure whether the talks would end up on a high or a low point,” he said.

Jalandoni added that “just and lasting peace” could only be achieved through socio-economic and political reforms in the Philippines.

Both sides said they were considering extending the ceasefire but no decisions had been made.

“That (ceasefire extension) would be under study and evaluation but we will be getting the reports of the revolutionary forces on the ground and get the recommendations of our principals,” Jalandoni said.

“We are hoping for future ceasefires but that would be under negotiation with the NDF,” Padilla, for his part, said.

The rebels said Sunday they had freed retired Army Sgt. Mario Veluz and policemen PO3 Jorge Sabatin and PO3 Jervel Tugade.

A fourth captive, Army soldier Bryan Canedo, was still being held and questioned after he was seized Feb. 7 in Compostela Valley province, the rebels said.

Battle setbacks have weakened the Maoist rebels, who reached their peak in the mid-1980s, when their fighters numbered about 25,000. However, the military still regards the communist insurgency as the country’s most serious security threat after Muslim rebels and al-Qaeda-linked militants in Mindanao.

Government negotiators hope that the election of President Aquino on the promise he would reduce poverty and improve governance would soften the rural-based communist insurgency.

Peace talks stalled in 2004 after the rebels accused the Arroyo administration of instigating their inclusion in US and European terrorist blacklists.

A joint statement following the talks in Norway said a draft comprehensive agreement on ending hostilities “may be completed and signed by the panels in June 2012.”

Both government and rebel negotiators said the outcome of the first round of talks was uncertain until the very end because of a lack of trust between the parties.

“It will take rounds of negotiations to build that trust again,” Padilla said.

Stand on revolutionary tax

Padilla also said the NDF had made no commitment regarding revolutionary taxes.

“We have no commitment from the NDF that they will stop revolutionary taxation. The government of the Philippines, we asserted, is the only sovereign taxing entity,” Padilla told Palace reporters via videoconferencing.

He said the revolutionary taxation issue was discussed briefly and that both parties were of the understanding that law enforcers may arrest any rebel member found extorting money.

“Any of them actually seen collecting taxes will be arrested. Our law enforcement could step in and arrest them,” Padilla said.

“We discussed this but not in particular, because these issues could derail the negotiations,” he pointed out.

Asked if the terror tag on the rebels would hamper negotiations, Padilla said, “it’s not a hindrance.”

“The problem is with the US, which we have no jurisdiction of,” he said.

The panels also thanked the Norwegian government for its “able facilitation, hospitality and continuing support for the GPH-NDF peace negotiations.” It has been acting as third party facilitator for the talks since 2001.

Ambassador Ture Lundh led the Norwegian government third party facilitation team. Also in attendance during the press briefing was NDF chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison.

Drop terror tag, please

Meanwhile, Commission on Human Rights chair Loretta Ann Rosales appealed to the Armed Forces not to refer to NPA guerrillas as terrorists.

“I have reservations about the use of the word terrorists. You don’t usually call people terrorists amid the peace talks,” she told some 200 Air Force officers and enlisted personnel attending a seminar on human rights.

She noted that while the US and the European Union have classified the NPA as a terrorist group, the Philippines has not. “You can just call them NPAs.”

Rosales said it is also her agency’s task to break “distorted concepts” that only those in the left understand human rights and those engaged in human rights work are leftists and therefore enemies of the military.

“We are breaking this distorted version of human rights,” she said, adding that the AFP is “the state agency tasked to expedite and uphold human rights.”

She appealed to members of the Armed Forces to look at human rights “as an essence of your duty.”

Rosales said that while the rebels have committed human rights violations, soldiers are “under stricter scrutiny” because they “are bound by the Constitution to protect the people’s rights.”

She said communist rebels “have no official accountability to the people.”

Rosales also said the police and the military under the Aquino administration have been very cooperative in CHR’s investigations, particularly into the death of botanist Leonard Co. Co was allegedly killed in the crossfire between the military and NPA rebels in Leyte last November.

AFP welcomes talks

The military welcomed the conclusion of the first round of formal talks between the government and the NDF, saying the development is in line with its new security plan called “Bayanihan.”

“Bayanihan is about winning the peace. I have called on the officers to give peace a chance. We welcome the conduct of the peace talks,” AFP chief Gen. Ricardo David Jr. said in a chance interview yesterday.

Bayanihan, which took effect last Jan.1, aims to end armed rebellion through peace negotiations and development programs.

David said they would follow the recommendations of the government peace panel on the proposal to extend the ceasefire.

“We are supportive of the policies of the government,” David said.

David said they remain upbeat about the peace process despite the ceasefire violations.

“These can be settled and can be minimized by both parties,” he said.

The two camps have traded accusations of ceasefire violations during the talks.

The military said NPA rebels launched offensives against government troops in Davao Oriental and Eastern Samar while the NDF has accused security forces of conducting offensive patrols and troop deployment in some parts of Mindanao.

David stressed that despite the truce, the AFP is prepared to deal with security threats. “Our troops will be there to do their part,” he said. – AP, Delon Porcalla, Jose Rodel Clapano, Ding Cervantes, Alexis Romero, (The Philippine Star)