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GRP rejects Joma-Duterte meet in Hanoi

The Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) negotiating panel rejected a National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) suggestion that its chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison and President Rodrigo Duterte meet in Hanoi, Vietnam.

This was revealed by Sison in a statement Saturday, May 26, saying he and his former student could have agreed to attend the signing of substantial agreements, including an interim peace declaration, by the two parties.

“The NDFP has offered Hanoi as the alternative venue to facilitate the attendance of Duterte. But the GRP side did not give a positive answer and the RNG [Royal Norwegian Government, third party facilitator to the peace negotiations] special envoy cannot make any arrangement with Hanoi,” Sison said.

“Hanoi as a venue near the Philippines was proposed by NDFP in consideration of the heavy work schedule of Duterte,” he added.

Sison added that the original plan mutually agreed upon by the GRP and NDFP representatives in back channel consultations in recent weeks was to have Duterte attend the Oslo ceremony for the signing of the Interim Peace Agreement.

But the GRP side backed out and offered Duterte’s executive secretary Salvador Medialdea as his proxy instead, Sison added.

Duterte has repeatedly challenged Sison to come home to the Philippines and continue the peace negotiations in the country.

In a speech in Davao City Thursday, Duterte again said he is guaranteeing Sison’s safety and will even escort him back to the airport should the talks fail.

Sison, however, said his acceptance of Duterte’s challenge will violate earlier GRP and NDFP agreements such as The Hague Joint Declaration and the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees to hold the talks in a foreign and neutral venue.

“Second, I would be placing myself and the entire peace negotiations in the pocket of Duterte and at his mercy. Third, any peace spoiler or saboteur would be able to destroy the entire peace negotiations by simply abducting or harming any NDFP panelist or consultant,” Sison added.

NDFP negotiators and staff were arrested and killed when their 1986-1987 peace talks with the Corazon Aquino government collapsed, prompting them to insist on a foreign and neutral venue when formal peace negotiations resumed with GRP President Fidel Ramos in 1992.

Sison however is not ruling out returning to the country.

“I have consistently declared that I will return home when substantial progress is already achieved in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations and my comrades and lawyers are satisfied with the legal and security guarantees,” Sison said.

“By substantial progress, I mean the entire CASER [Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms] has been mutually approved by the GRP and NDFP principals,” he said.

For his soonest possible interface with Duterte, Sison said the NDFP has considered the possibility of the meeting “at the signing of the Interim Peace Agreement, packaging the ceasefire agreement, amnesty proclamation and the ARRD and NIED sections of CASER either in Oslo or Hanoi.”

GRP chief negotiator Silvestre Bello III’s comment on Sison’s statement is still being sought by Kodao. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Memories of fasting in beautiful Marawi

By Angel L. Tesorero

Dubai, UAE—Dubai resident Inshirah Taib, from Marawi City in southern Philippines, has two contrasting pictures of her hometown and favourite city: Once a centre of Islamic grandeur and tradition, Marawi has been razed to the ground after Daesh-inspired Maute group laid siege to the city exactly a year ago.

Marawi, the capital of Lanao del Sur province, is the religious centre of the Maranaos, a tight-knit indigenous Muslim community in Mindanao. With strong Muslim tradition it was renamed in 1980 as ‘Islamic City of Marawi,’ the only Islamic city in a predominantly Christian country.

“Marawi is the spiritual centre for the Maranaos, the most devout of major Muslim groups in the Philippines. Muslim moral values are part of the city code. Muslim women cover their heads, the sale of pork is forbidden and alcohol and gambling are banned,” Inshirah shares.

The city used to be full of life during the holy month. Every house had dazzling lights; women would bring out from the drawers their colorful ‘mukna’ which were used for Taraweeh prayers and the elders would stay at mosques, spending the entire holy month reading the Holy Quran,” she adds.

“But now the beauty of Marawi is gone. A year after the internecine conflict, many residents are still living in evacuation centres collectively called as ‘Tent City’. At ground zero, including our own place, the government has not yet allowed anyone to return – because of threats of unexploded bomb and ordnance. Buildings which are still precariously standing are likely to collapse after most structures suffered heavy bombings. And some residents now call our place as haunted city, because of the desolation brought by the futile war which claimed more than 1,100 lives and brought the displacement of more than 400,000 residents due to daily air strikes and intense ground combat which lasted for five months after the Maute group rampaged the city on May 23 last year,” Inshira shares.

Residents of Marawi and nearby villages had to put their lives on hold; farmers and breadwinners lost their means of livelihood. Children were forced to stop schooling. Up to now, bones and skeletons of those who were caught in the crossfire are still being unearthed from the rubbles. Worse, the faithful now have to spend Iftar and recite their prayers at the evacuation centres as bullets and bombs left gaping holes on mosques.

But this was not the Marawi that Inshirah grew up with. She shares: “At Banggolo, the heart of Marawi, where the plaza is located we had various programmes, including Islamic lectures during the month of Ramadan. There was also a contest for the most beautiful voice reading of Quran and residents would showcase their talents. Marawi used to be known as “the land of cars” because most families had cars and most of us drove, including girls or teenagers. Visiting of relatives and friends was common and highly encouraged. Once, I along with my brothers, slipped away with our father’s car just to visit friends from the nearby village.”

She continues: “Every night during Ramadan the town plaza was crowded with people enjoying all kinds of street foods and sweets. Eateries, numbering to more than a hundred, served “Palaw A Apang” (mountain of hotcakes) and different flavours of broasted or grilled chicken.”

“The well-to-do families sponsored Iftar for groups of people while the less-fortunate ones never felt hungry because Ramadan is a time of giving,” adds Inshirah, who has been a resident of Dubai for a decade and married to her kababayan (compatriot) Ahmad Jumar Taurac, and mother to one-year old Safiyyah.

“It hurts that the present generation will not experience the beauty of Marawi but its memory will never be erased in my mind. Ramadan is very much missed in my hometown but it is always in my prayers as I cry to Allah in supplication and lay prostrate on my prayer mat to revive the glory days of Marawi,” Inshirah concludes. #

(This article was originally published in The Khaleej Times)

Joma dismisses Duterte’s threat to kill him

National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison made light of yet another threat against him by his former student Rodrigo Duterte.

Responding to Duterte’s latest invective-laced tirade against him, Sison said the President has repeated so many times to kill him he is considering it a “term of endearment.“

“[S]ometimes I surmise that the expression ‘kill‘ has actually become a term of endearment, as in some American comedies,“ Sison said.

In a speech in Davao City Thursday night, Duterte said that should Sison accept his offer to come home and yet the peace negotiations between the NDFP and his government fail, he would allow his former professor to leave but would order him never to return.

“I will allow him to go out. I will not arrest him because word of honor ‘yan. But sabihin ko talaga sa kanya, putangina mo, huwag ka na bumalik dito. Papatayin talaga kita,” Duterte said. (But I will really tell him, you son of a bitch, do not return anymore. I will really kill you.)

Sison said he will not reply to Duterte in any hostile manner, but added he would draw the line if his former student actually wrecks the work already done by the NDFP and Duterte’s negotiating panels to prepare the resumption of formal peace talks.

“It seems to me that in using strong words he is eager to resume the peace negotiations rather than to block them,“ Sison said.

Sison added it is best that he and Duterte allow and encourage the GRP and the NDFP negotiating panels to continue preparing for the resumption of formal talks and make substantial progress as soon as possible.

Sison has been quoted by earlier reports to have predicted that formal negotiations may resume on the last week of June after the declaration of a mutual stand-down agreement between the New People’s Army and government forces.

The NDFP and Government of the Republic of the Philippines negotiating panels are expected to firm up agreements on social and economic reforms, specifically on agrarian reform and rural development as well as national industrialization and economic development, should the thrice-cancelled fifth round of talks finally push through.

“I have reason to be optimistic on the basis of the hard and productive work that the panels have already done in the form of back channel consultations, consensus building and bilateral drafting, unless the Duterte regime is once more backtracking,” Sison said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Threat of nationwide martial law still alive, Sison warns

The threat of a nationwide martial law remains with President Rodrigo Duterte’s constitutional reform advisers seeking ways to make it easier for its declaration, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison said.

Reacting to a news report that a series of attacks by the New People’s Army (NPA) may be grounds for the declaration of martial law under the government’s proposed federal charter, Sison said it is an indication that the threat continues to exist while Duterte is the president.

“Within the so-called Constitutional Commission, there is the drive of certain pro-Duterte elements headed by a retired general to draw up a draft federal charter that makes easier the declaration of martial law by citing ‘lawless violence’ or ‘a series of offensives by the NPA’ as the basis for the declaration of martial law,” Sison said in a statement.

Sison was referring to Ret. Lt. Gen. Ferdinand Bacobo, a charter change Consultative Committee member quoted in a Philippine Daily Inquirer report Wednesday that “lawless violence,” including NPA attacks that cause “widespread and extraordinary fear,” may be grounds for the President to declare martial law.

Saying such a move may not augur well for the resumption and success of the government’s peace negotiations with the NDFP, Sison said that instead of trying to scapegoat the NPA and make it the pretext for martial law declaration, state terrorism and fascist dictatorship, the Duterte regime should let its peace negotiations with the NDFP succeed in addressing the roots of the armed conflict and laying the ground for a just and lasting peace through comprehensive agreements on social, economic and political reforms.

The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) also said the proposal is dangerous, saying martial law should be considered as a drastic tool of last resort.

“In the first place, what is problematic is the absence of an objective standard for the conceptual meaning of what really constitutes terrorism or terrorist acts,” NUPL president Atty. Edre Olalia said.

“[L]awless violence can be addressed by the other powers like calling out the armed forces without suspending or compromising civilian rule, curtailing the exercise of basic rights, and denying legal remedies,” Olalia said.

Duterte’s Martial Law in Mindanao became a year old Wednesday, eight months after declaring it has driven the ISIS-inspired Maute group away from Marawi City. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Martial law victims start claiming compensation

Hundreds of Martial Law human rights violations victims trooped to the Commission on Human Rights in Quezon City Friday to start claiming their compensations.

Following the release of the initial list of 4,000 eligible claimants by the Human Rights Victims Claims Board earlier this month, cheques are now being distributed to survivors of Martial Law atrocities under the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship in the 1970s to the 1980s.

The Human Rights Victims Claims Board (HRVCB) approved 11,103 of about 75,730 claims filed with the board, its chair Lina Sarmiento announced.

Republic Act 10368 or the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013 ordered the payment of reparation to the thousands of victims from the 10 billion pesos Marcos funds given back to the Philippine government by Swiss banks.

The amounts being paid to claimants range from P176,000 for illegal arrest victims (1 point) to as much as P1.76 million for killed relatives (10 points). # (Raymund B. Villanueva / Photos by Mon Ramirez-Arkibong Bayan)

Saving Taliptip

by Leon Dulce

Obando Fishport was bustling with activity at 6:00 in the morning. A colorful and tightly packed flotilla has gathered, fishing boats carefully slipping and sliding past each other to get their turn at docking.

 The bustle slowly fades to an idyllic backwater as we travelled via pump boat to the coastal village of Taliptip in Bulakan town, Bulacan province. Its surrounding seas is life to some 5,000 mostly fishers and salt-makers. It is from the gentle waters and mangrove corridors where they get their bounty of fish, mussels, crabs, shrimp, and krill.

On this collection of small island communities, a 2,500-hectare reclamation project by the San Miguel Corporation is being aggressively pursued, threatening to convert everything in its wake into a an aerotropolis complex of airports, expressways, and urban expanse.

 The project was a well-kept secret from Taliptip’s residents until concerned environmental advocates and church workers raised the issue among the communities—and until President Rodrigo Duterte was seen in the news already inking the project’s deal.

 Residents, especially the families who have lived in the village over the past 80 years, are concerned that their life and livelihood are under threat by this project.

A fisherman tending to his nets in Taliptip. Photo by Leon Dulce/Kalikasan PNE

“So long as the sea is here, there is hope…What will we fish when all this is turned into cement?” said Arthur*, a fisherman from Sitio Kinse, an island community of Taliptip ensconced in a dense shroud of mangroves.

 Arthur shared that the average fish catch for a day would net them around 500 pesos. Deductions from their gross income will be used to defray gasoline and other expenses and pay their boat consigner’s share. During the dry seasons, some fishers tend to the salt fields and get 154 to 254 pesos as payment per sack depending on the quality of the salt.

 A good day’s catch is a rarity nowadays, however. Gloria*, a woman resident of Sitio Dapdap, explained that fishing families usually stock up their live catch in makeshift pens and sell these on a weekly basis. A daily trip to and from the central market in Obando is simply too expensive compared to the dwindling daily catch.

A section of the Bulakan Mangrove Eco-Park. Photo by Leon Dulce/Kalikasan PNE

The hardships push the people of Taliptip to be sustainable by necessity. Living off the grid, residents pooled their resources to set up solar panels and batteries for their simple electricity needs. The residents take care of the mangroves since the shellfish they harvest live among its roots, and serve as a natural barrier to big waves.

 Aside from a 25-hectare eco-park established by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), various other stretches of mangroves are spreadt across Taliptip’s waters. A huge population of birds such as terns, egrets, kingfishers, and swallows make a home out of these trees.

A plethora of birds roosting over makeshift structures put up by fisherfolk. Photo by Leon Dulce/Kalikasan PNE

It is not hard to see the importance of these coastal greenbelts. The National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), the lead agency that approved the reclamation project, however, apparently has a diametrically-opposed view.

 San Miguel has pronounced that it can payroll entirely for the P735.6-billion aerotropolis, a hefty price tag that must have been the clincher. That amount seemed enough to justify ignoring the thousands of people set to be displaced and the ecologically critical vegetation to be converted.

A portion of a stretch of mangroves allegedly cut by San Miguel personnel. Photo by Leon Dulce/Kalikasan PNE

Early this year, the Duterte government also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Dutch government to cooperate in the crafting of the Manila Bay Sustainable Development Master Plan (MBSDMP). The cart came before the horse, however, with projects such as the aerotropolis rapidly progressing without the guidance of a comprehensive sustainable development and management framework.

San Miguel personnel were reportedly behind a massive mangrove-cutting spree in Taliptip two weeks ago. Communities had no idea if the cutting had a special tree cutting permit from the DENR, as required by law.

 Almost 30,000 hectares of such projects presently cover the entire length of the bay.

A fisherman off the port of Obando. Proposed reclamation projects span the entire coastline of Manila Bay. Photo by Leon Dulce/Kalikasan PNE

For Arthur, defending the only livelihood they know from the real threat of reclamation is non-negotiable. “We will not leave our homes. We will fight so long as there are people supporting us and giving us strength to fight,” he declared.

Environment groups and churches are digging in deep with the communities for the struggle to save Taliptip and various other communities across Manila Bay. Will Duterte stand with the people and stick to his rhetoric against reclamation, or will he bow once again to the oligarchs it has vowed to stand up against?#

= = =

Leon Dulce is the national coordinator of the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE). Follow the local people’s struggle to save Taliptip on Facebook, or through the hashtag #SaveTaliptip on Twitter.

*Real names withheld for security purposes

 

 

 

Bayan Muna: SSS using old scare tactics to avoid pension hike

Social Security System (SSS) president Emmanuel Dooc is using old scare tactics for the fund to defer payment of pension increases, Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate and Bayan Muna chairman and former Rep. Neri Colmenares said.

Reacting to a statement by Dooc that the SSS may suffer bankruptcy if it is forced to pay additional P2.5 billion a month to pensioners starting 2019, the Bayan Muna leaders said the government-owned corporation has more than enough time to find additional sources of income to pay the 2,000 pesos monthly pension increase of its members.

“This is the same scare tactic used by the previous SSS administration. It would be well for Dooc to stop scaring the people [with] this phantom adverse effect once the current pension is increased,” added Rep. Zarate.

In response to Dooc’s statement that SSS needs to hike the members’ monthly payments to fund the pension increase, Zarate said that the House Joint Resolution No. 10 passed by the House of Representatives in 2017 mandating the SSS pension increase does not allow for an increase in premium contribution.

“The present SSS leadership has assured to institute needed reforms to improve its fund life. What happened to these reforms? Again, it is best for the SSS board and management to support the pension increase and work with Congress in looking for means to increase its current fund life,” Zarate said.

Colmenares for his part said that Dooc should stop deluding the people that SSS has no funds for the second tranche P1,000 pension increase.

“They are trying to sabotage the distribution of the P1,000 pension increase, even if it [SSS] has actually admitted several times that it has the funds for the pension increase. At most, the increase will only shorten the SSS fund life to 2026 instead of the current 2032, based on the SSS’ own computations,” Colmenares said.

Colmenares said that even if the shortened fund life is true, eight years is more than enough time for the government and SSS to find ways other than increasing members’ premium payments.

“In 2001, SSS declared that it has a fund life of only five years and yet it was able to increase this to 2042 in just 14 years. If it previously survived a five year fund life, then surely it can also survive an eight year fund life,” he said.

Colmenares said the SSS is in fact in better shape than its counterparts in United Kingdom (UK), which has a fund life of only up to 2027, and Canada, which has a fund life until 2022.

Colmenares said the SSS could instead implement the following:

  • improve collection efficiency from the employers of its 31 Million members;
  • collect the billions in contributions, which delinquent employers failed to remit in the last ten years;
  • cut down in bonuses and perks given to its Board members and collect the disallowed more than P200 Million  retirement package given to SSS Board Members in 2009; and
  • collect the fines imposed by the courts against employers who violated the SSS law.

“If these are not enough, then Congress can always provide for subsidies as provided under Section 20 of RA 8282 as amended. There is no way that the SSS will go bankrupt since under Section 21of the said law, the Philippine government guarantees the benefits and solvency of the SSS,”  Colmenares said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Lawyers hold rally vs Sereno ouster

Lawyers held a rally in front of the Supreme Court Tuesday to protest the May 11 decision of the majority of its magistrates to oust Ma. Lourdes Sereno as chief justice.

Dissenting with the decision, lawyers led by the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers said Sereno’s ouster through the quo warranto petition is unconstitutional.

In a statement, NUPL said the “erroneous” and “shortcut” petition has far reaching effects as it slays judicial independence.

“Our democracy is in peril. Monopoly of power in the Executive without checks and balance is practically complete,” the NUPL said.

Performance artist Mae Paner dramatizes what lawyers says is the death of judicial independence with the ouster of Ma Lourdes Sereno as chief justice through a quo warranto petition. (Photo by Sarah Jane Mendoza Aguilar/Kodao)

The group earlier said Sereno should have been subjected to an impeachment trial in the Senate as an impeachable official, blaming the Rodrigo Duterte government for the chief magistrate’s ouster.

“Dissent even in traditional forms are shot down. Those who stand in the way of government policy and fancy are waylaid,” NUPL said.

The NUPL said it is its duty to protect the rule of law and has thus decided to organize the nationally coordinated  protest actions.

“Our reason for being is put to question. We are being forced to relearn or unlearn what we studied or taught in law school. The Decision revolts against norms we hold dear,” it said.

Wearing court attires, the lawyers also wore black ribbons as a sign of protest and pleading. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

NDFP admonishes GRP on arrest of injured NPA leader, preemptive announcements

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) negotiating panel admonished the Rodrigo Duterte government on the arrest of New People’s Army (NPA) leader Elizalde Cañete while still recuperating from an 11-hour brain surgery in Bukidnon Province.

The NDFP said it views with great concern the arrest, saying the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) is under obligations to uphold their Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) under which hors de combat like Cañete should be afforded safeguards as regards to health, among other rights.

READ: Arrest try of injured Red commander humanitarian law violation, NPA says

The group issued a statement following reports that Cañete’s kin as well as human rights paralegals are being barred from visiting him at Don Carlos Memorial Hospital in Kitaotao Town where he is confined.

Human rights group Karapatan-Southern Mindanao Region said Cañete’s relatives were also harassed by military intelligence agents under the 88th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army.

Karapatan SMR also said that hospital nurses and medical attendants were told by high-ranking officials of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) Cañete has been issued a warrant of arrest and is prevented from receiving relatives unless allowed by military and police authorities.

The group added Cañete’s family and paralegals are uncertain of Cañete’s health status as he is guarded heavily by combined elements of the PNP and AFP.

“We admonish the GRP to honor its commitments under CARHRIHL. Likewise, we warn the GRP that any harm done to Cañete can have adverse consequences to the efforts of both sides to resume the peace negotiations,” NDFP chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili said in a statement.

Agcaoili added AFP and PNP’s disregard of Cañete’s rights can jeopardize the back-channel talks for making preparations for the resumption of the stalled peace talks that have already reached an advanced stage.

Backchannel

Earlier, the Communist Party of the Philippines also admonished the GRP for violating its agreement with the NDFP that unilateral statements will not be issued prior to actual agreements in the ongoing series of backchannel talks.

While saying it is looking forward to positive resolutions, the CPP said officials of the Duterte government should be more circumspect in issuing public statements or comments so as not to preempt the outcome of the informal talks and efforts to revive formal negotiations.

Earlier, The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process said in a statement issued on Tuesday said that “[e]fforts to resume peace negotiations with the CPP/NPA/NDF are underway, with informal back-channel talks now taking place in Europe.”

OPAPP also announced it received positive results from the backchannel talks in Europe, the statement said.

The CPP however urged the media and the public to await official statements on the outcome of informal talks between representatives of the NDFP and the GRP.

NDFP chief political consultant Jose Ma. Sison echoed CPP’s statement, saying any announcement or statement on the ongoing backchannel talks must be co-signed and jointly issued by the GRP and the NDFP.

“The point is to avoid misundertandings and preemption of the outcome by any side at the expense of the other,” Sison told Kodao.

Sison added there is a strong trend towards resumption of formal talks within June, based on the fact that the back channelers are determined to put together a package of agreements on ceasefire, amnesty and release of all political prisoners.

He added that the signing of the Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ARRD) as well as National Industrialization and Economic Development (NIED) sections of the prospective social and economic reform agreement CASER may also constitute an Interim Peace Agreement.

“Bilateral teams are poised to finalize the common drafts of the ARRD and NIED for submission to the Reciprocal Working Committees on Social and Economic Reforms,” Sison said.

Sison added that one more round of back channel talks will wrap up everything for the resumption of formal talks. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Arrest try of injured Red commander humanitarian law violation, NPA says

The New People’s Army (NPA) in Southern Mindanao Region condemned the attempted arrest by combined military and police troopers of its commander recuperating from a major operation in a Bukidnon hospital.

The NPA said Zaldy Cañete, injured in a fierce gun battle in Barangay Kipilas, Kitaotao, Bukidnon Thursday, is obviously an hors de combat and must be given protection, respect and humanitarian medical treatment and recovery in accordance with civilized rules of warfare.

“The GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) and the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) should not subject Cañete to further punitive action by virtue of his condition as an hors de combat,” Rigoberto Sanchez, the NPA Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command spokesperson, in a statement said.

An hors de combat is a person who is “outside of the fight” after injury or surrender.

On May 10, 2018, the Philippine Army’s 3rd Infantry Battalion attacked Cañete’s 1st Pulang Bagani Company, resulting in a two-hour fire fight that involved aerial and ground bombing by the GRP troops.

Cañete sustained head and body injuries, including a bullet wound on his lower left ear that exited on his right frontal skull.

The NPA said eight government troopers were in turn killed.

Cañete was turned over to his relatives in the area who took him to the nearby Don Carlos District Hospital where he underwent an 11-hour brain surgery.

The injured Red fighter is suffering memory loss and loss of speech as a result of his injuries and is confined at the hospital’s intensive care unit, the NPA said.

A few hours after his operation, however, AFP, PNP and intelligence operatives arrived and attempted to serve multiple warrants of arrest against Cañete, the NPA said.

“The GRP’s hasty attempted arrest and detention of Cañete is treacherous and violates the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), the Geneva Conventions and other generally accepted principles and standards of international humanitarian law which clearly protect injured persons of the Parties in armed conflict,” the NPA said.

“In the same manner that the NPA has treated leniently any captured personnel of the military, police and paramilitary forces as prisoners of war in faithful allegiance to the international customary law pertaining to humanitarian principles, norms and rules in armed conflicts, the GRP has no recourse but to afford Cañete the same rights and non-discriminatory protection,” it added.

Human rights group Exodus for Justice and Peace (EJP) echoed the NPA’s call, saying the attempted arrest of an hors de combat is an international humanitarian law violation.

“Any action taken by the AFP on Cañete would constitute a serious breach and will dampen the spirit of reopening the [peace] talks,” EJP said in a statement.

“[The] EJP observes that the AFP continues to ignore the efforts of the GPH panel and the people’s clamor for peace as it continues its operations and propaganda. Clearly this does not help the peace talks,” their statement added.

The EJP periodically acts as a third party facilitator to the release of GRP troops who were taken as prisoners of war by the NPA.

The EJP appeals to the government to release Cañete on humanitarian grounds and as part of an enabling environment for the resumption of the talks.

NDFP and GRP peace negotiators are reportedly engaged in a series of backchannel talks in accordance with GRP President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive to try to revive the peace negotiations he cancelled in November last year. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)