The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) condemned the arrest of two of its consultants in the peace negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP), calling the apprehensions illegal.
The arrest of Porferio Tuna in Tagum City last October 2 and Simeon Naogsan in Bacarra, Ilocos Norte last October 21 are clear violations of the NDFP-GRP Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), the underground revolutionary group said.
“Their illegal arrests raise concerns about the government’s sincerity in pursuing a resolution to the decades-long armed conflict in the Philippines,” the NDFP said.
Both the NDFP and the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. GRP are engaged in discussions on the possible revival of formal peace negotiations since last year, according to their announcements last November.
The NDFP clarified that the JASIG is a crucial agreement borne out of the peace negotiations between the parties and signed in February 1995.
“It ensures the safety of those involved in the peace negotiations,” it explained.
The arrests of Naogsan and Tuna are the latest in a long list of violations of the JASIG and other peace agreements but are in fact part of a “disturbing pattern” of GRP’s utter disregard for pacts made on the negotiating table, the group said.
The NDFP cited the killing of NDFP Negotiating Panel member Benito Tiamzon as well as wife and fellow peace negotiator Wilma Austria Tiamzon in August 2022 as a “glaring example” of the GRP’s disregard of JASIG, the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and other peace agreements.
“The Tiamzons, senior NDFP officials, were reportedly captured, tortured, and summarily executed by the AFP,” it added, also citing the case of Concha Araneta who was brutally killed in Panay Island just last August,
The NDFP also recalled the brutal deaths of Randall Echanis and Ericson Acosta in 2020 and 2022 respectively it said “highlight the government’s continued campaign of violence against those involved in the peace process.”
The NDFP confirmed that Naogsan is its consultant in the peace process, also citing his long history of pushing for the genuine autonomy and self-determination of the Cordilleran peoples.
Naogsan opposed big mining concessionaires and infrastructure businesses that are encroaching the mountains and rivers of the Cordilleras, it added.
(Photo by R. Villanueva/Kodao)
Tuna, on the other hand, provided crucial insights on the conditions of peasants, plantation workers, and national minorities in Southern Mindanao especially during the 2016 to2017 formal peace negotiations in Europe, the NDFP said.
“His contributions helped shape the NDFP’s draft Comprehensive Agreement on Socioeconomic Reforms, which aims to address the root causes of armed conflict, including by resolving landlessness, exploitation, poverty and the lack of employment and national industries,” the group said.
The NDFP complained that Tuna is being subjected to intense psychological torture in jail, coerced by military officers and turncoats working for the US-Marcos regime.
“Such inhumane tactics highlight the brutal strategy of the GRP, which has long used political imprisonment, harassment, intimidation, abductions, and torture to silence critics and dissidents,” the NDFP said.
By detaining Tuna and Naogsan, the Marcos administration effectively obstructs the path to meaningful socioeconomic reforms in the peace process, it added.
“If the Marcos regime is really serious about resolving the armed conflict in the Philippines, it must stop the state-sponsored attacks on peace consultants, uphold the JASIG, and demonstrate its commitment to the peace process by immediately releasing Porferio Tuna, Simeon Naogsan, and all other political prisoners,” the NDFP said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
