NDF panelists don’t have field control

By Jarius Bondoc (The Philippine Star), Mar 8, 2017

Peace talks between the government and communist rebels were going well when everything suddenly collapsed. Too bad, since the two sides already had inked three major agreements in three months in Oslo and Rome. Still, President Rodrigo Duterte had to call it all off. Guerrillas in Mindanao and Luzon had slain unprovoked six soldiers and abducted two more. It was in breach of the ceasefire that the umbrella National Democratic Front (NDF) had declared from Europe, as the government did ahead, to get the talks started last year.

This is the nth time under six Presidents that negotiations broke down. As in the past, various New People’s Army (NPA) guerrilla fronts simultaneously ambushed government installations and troops. The NPA in Mindanao accused soldiers of entering its controlled barrios hunting down its members. No such thing, the Armed Forces of the Philippines countered. Three of the fatalities were evacuating flood victims when attacked; three others brutally were shot 93 times; the abductees were in civvies teaching the rural folk livelihoods.

Between the propaganda lines lies the truth. The NDF panelists in Europe have no control over the NPA guerrillas in the field. There was dire reason for the NPA to attack, despite the NDF ceasefire. The rebels had to eat, and needed money for it. The troop presence in rebel locales, though engaged only in civic action, were hampering the insurgents’ collection of “progressive taxes” from big businesses.

Alexander Padilla shares lessons from heading the government peace panel during the previous Aquino administration. Then, as now, only the NDF spoke for the rebel side, he says. Nobody sat for the NPA, much more for the higher-ranking Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). José Maria Sison, the acknowledged CPP founder presently based in Utrech, The Netherlands, participated in past talks. But he acted then, as now, merely as “political adviser” of the NDF. Padilla doubts if the newly freed Tiamzon spouses Benito and Wilma are participating as the current CPP chairman and secretary general, respectively. Only NDF officer Luis Jalandoni signed the documents then, as his replacement Fidel Agcaoili is doing now.

It would be useful to understand the interrelationship of the CPP, NPA, and NDF, based on various reports. The CPP professes to lead the “national democratic revolution,” with the NPA as its military arm. But the NDF claims to represent in the talks all the “revolutionary forces” – the CPP, NPA, and under- and aboveground organizations and individuals. In a table of organization, that would put the NDF at the top, with the CPP, NPA, and allies in a row under it.

But then, the NDF also was a creation of the CPP; its officers are attached to the CPP United Front Commission. That latter subgroup is of equal importance to the CPP Military Commission that consists of commissars in charge of the NPA guerrilla fronts. In effect, Padilla says, the NDF is a mere political arm of the CPP. That, in a new table of organization puts the CPP at the helm, with the NDF and NPA under it. That’s why the NPA need not abide with ceasefires declared solely by the NDF.

For the talks to come to a peace settlement, Padilla says, the government must insist on sitting down with the CPP and NPA, not only with the NDF. Real influence resides in the communist ideologues and the men with the gun. They too must be in the negotiations.

Factors to consider too are age and field command, Padilla adds. Septuagenarians Sison and the Tiamzon spouses are considered titular leaders. Long self-exile and imprisonment have separated them from the guerrilla fronts. Younger NPA cadres have command and control of the armed units in Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Bicol, Eastern Visayas and Mindanao.

It is unlikely, though, for the various NPA field commanders to accede to regional peace talks. They have denounced such suggestion during past talks as “divide-and-rule tactic.” Would there be a way for the commanders to pick a common rep to the talks in Europe? That would restart the stalled process.

A final factor to consider is the disposition of the rebel forces. Since both the government and NDF are eager to resume the talks, they need to agree on how to feed and secure the rebels under a new truce. The guerrillas will need food, clothing, and other basic needs. If those expenses remain unaddressed, they will always resort to “progressive taxation,” which the government deems as robbery-extortion.