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GRP announces non-participation in fifth round of formal talks

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NOORDWIJK AAN ZEE, The Netherlands—The Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) has announced it will not participate in the fifth round of formal peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

In a press conference, Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza and GRP chief negotiator Silvestre Bello III said there are no clear indications that an enabling environment conducive for the formal talks to proceed has been achieved after two days of informal and backchannel negotiations.

“This is a temporary setback which has also happened in the past.  This only means we need to work harder on the peace process,” Bello said.

Dureza refused to explain their reasons and just asked the reporters present at the press briefing to report their statements “as stated.”

GRP negotiators, however, has repeatedly said earlier it wants the CPP to rescind its order to the NPA of intensified operations against government troops in light of defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana’s statement the rebel guerrillas are among the targets of President Rodrigo Duterte’s martial law declaration over all of the Mindanao region.

“It would be a factor,” Dureza replied when asked if the GRP would resume formal peace negotiations in case the CPP complies to the demand.

Dureza and Bello said President Rodrigo Duterte is aware of the GRP panel’s decision.

In reply, NDFP chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili said the cancellation of the fifth round was “GRP’s decision and responsibility.”

“Contrary to the GRP allegations, the NPA operations cannot be attributed to the failure of the CPP-NPA-NDFP leadership to control their ground forces.  Rather, they (CPP directives) are defensive and counter-offensive responses to the AFP provocative actions and offensive operations,” the NDFP, in a prepared statement, said.

The NDFP said the GRP is obscuring the fact that its forces “have been waging an ‘all-out-war’ against the NPA, conducting offensive operations and aerial bombings of communities regardless of ‘collateral damage’ – all on the direct and standing orders of President Duterte.”

Agcaoili said the GRP should consider stopping its all-out-war policy first before issuing “vague demands” to the NDFP.

Peace process to continue

The GRP said they are not terminating the entire peace process with the NDFP in their decision not to participate in the fifth round of talks.

The NDFP agreed with the GRP and said they expect their counterparts to respect previously-signed agreement such as the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law as well the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees.

“We expect the GRP to respect the safety of our negotiators and consultants once they go home to the Philippines after this and as they go about their work as peace workers,” Agcaoili said.

Agcaoili also said they are willing to resume formal peace negotiations as soon as the GRP decides to go back to the negotiating table.

He also said the NDFP may seek an audience with President Duterte to seek clarifications in the near future.

“I would like to think that he (Duterte) still wants to sign a final peace agreement with the NDFP,” Agcaoili said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Panels working to salvage 5th round

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NOORDWIJK AAN ZEE, The Netherlands—The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Negotiating Panel said it is drafting a reply to its Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) counterpart as part of efforts to find common ground and allow the fifth round of formal peace negotiations to proceed.

In an interview, NDFP chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili said the NDFP Panel is ready to talk about socio-economic reforms and other substantive agenda set in their April 6 Joint Statement.

Agcaoili added their reply shall clarify to the GRP the NDFP panel could not order the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) to retract its order to the New People’s Army (NPA) to further intensify their offensive operations against the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.

He explained the CPP’s directive was a response to GRP defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana’s statements that the NPA was among the targets of President Rodrigo Duterte’s Martial Law declaration over the entire Mindanao region.

Agcaoili cited bombings of communities in North Cotabato and Bukidnon that killed one civilian and injured several others in the past two days.

“There are NPA units operating in those areas,” he said.

He added that they could only recommend to the CPP in much the same way that GRP’s chief negotiator Silvestre Bello III and Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza could not order the AFP and the GRP security cluster to withdraw their all-out war policy against the NPA and lift President Rodrigo Duterte’s martial law declaration over the entire Mindanao region.

Agcaoili said they have gone as far as they could go in recommending to the CPP to reconsider its order to the NPA.

GRP’s ceasefire demand

Agcaoili revealed the NDFP panel was also told by the GRP panel it wants a bilateral ceasefire agreement signed during the fifth round.

“We have made our position clear that until we reach an agreement on social and economic reforms as well as political and constitutional reforms, there could never be a ceasefire,” Agcaoili said.

“We hope they would receive our reply positively so that, hopefully, we can proceed with the opening ceremony of the fifth round tomorrow,” Agcaoili said.

Abella’s statement wrong

GRP chief negotiator Silvestre Bello III, for his part, clarified that Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella’s statement is wrong.

“The government of the Philippines will not proceed with the scheduled 5th rounds of peace negotiations in The Netherlands,” Abella said in a statement in Manila.

Abella’s announcement was lifted from Dureza’s prepared statement read to Filipino and Dutch journalists covering the talks.

Informed of Abella’s announcement, GRP chief negotiator Silvestre Bello looked surprised but said such statements should only come from the government panel present in The Netherlands.

“The fifth round is still a possibility,” Bello said.

The panels are set to meet again at five o’clock in the afternoon (local time, 11 pm Philippine time) in a last ditch effort to salvage the scheduled fifth round. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

 

Agcaoili explains the NDFP-GRP Agreement on the Joint Interim Ceasefire

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National Democratic Front of the Philippines chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili explains their Agreement on the Joint Ceasefire Agreement.

In an interview in Noordwijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands last April 6, 2017 during the fourth round of formal negotiations, Agcaoili explains a joint ceasefire is yet to be agreed upon pending the approval of ground rules and other related issues.

He also said a joint ceasefire must only come after the prospected Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms shall have been signed. Read more

Wilma Tiamzon explains the agreement on interim joint ceasefire

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NOORDWIJK, The Netherlands–The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) signed the Agreement on an Interim Joint Ceasefire yesterday after four days of intense formal and informal negotiations.

The parties said the document aims to encourage the forging of a more stable and more comprehensive joint ceasefire agreement and to provide a more enabling environment for the earlier signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER).

They said the interim joint ceasefire shall be signed simultaneous to, or immediately after, the signing of the CASER, which is expected to be finished within the year and after ground rules and guidelines are forged by their respective ceasefire committees.

The prospective ceasefire’s guidelines and ground rules shall govern the presence of armed units and elements of both parties in local communities and the creation of buffer zones.

The ground rules would also include agreements on what constitutes prohibited, hostile and provocative acts by armed groups of either party.

The guidelines shall also allow for a ceasefire monitoring and verification mechanism to oversee the prospective ceasefire’s implementation and to handle complaints of violations.

Watch NDFP’s ceasefire committee head Wilma Austria Tiamzon explain the agreement on interim joint ceasefire as well as the advancement on CASER negotiations. # (Interview and video by Jola Diones-Mamangun / Text by Raymund B. Villanueva / Featured photo by Nwel Saturay)

GRP-NDFP sign agreement on interim joint ceasefire in 4th round of talks

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The Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) signed an agreement on an interim joint ceasefire yesterday on the third day of their ongoing fourth round of formal talks.

The parties said that in signing the agreement, they are showing their goodwill and trust in the peace process, coming as it did after they cancelled their six-month old unilateral ceasefire declarations last February.

The previous reciprocal unilateral ceasefire declarations started unraveling in January during the third round of formal talks in Rome, Italy when the Philippine Army attacked a New People’s Army encampment in Makilala, North Cotabato.

The parties said the agreement on a new interim joint ceasefire would be implemented after ground rules and guidelines have been agreed upon and the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-economic Reforms is forged within the year.

Watch the entire ceremony in this video.  (Video and featured photo by Jola Diones-Mamangun)

Socio-economic reforms: Forgotten part of the 4th round?

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NOORDWIJK, The Netherlands—President Rodrigo Duterte’s “barest conditionalities” have put the limelight on the ceasefire agenda in the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines’ (NDFP) fourth round of formal talks in this seaside town.  While the NDFP repeatedly tries to underscore it should be the substantive socio-economic reforms agenda that should take center stage in this round, it almost cannot be helped that greater interest is shown on Duterte’s demand for a signed bilateral ceasefire agreement.  This round’s opening ceremony was in fact postponed twice to resolve the snags created by Duterte’s eleventh hour instructions to GRP negotiators.

At the end of the third day of negotiations last night, negotiators from both parties can be observed exchanging notes and consulting on what can only be surmised as issues related to Duterte’s conditionalities. To observers, there seems to be a greater sense of urgency among the negotiators to come to an agreement on Duterte’s demands.  It also seems that this round’s success would be measured on whether the President’s four conditions are met or not and the possibility of the fifth round of formal talks in June are hinged on satisfying them.  The heightened interest on negotiations for a new ceasefire agreement—be it bilateral, joint, reciprocal or unilateral or interim or indefinite—is of course helped along by journalists constantly fielding questions related to the prospective ceasefire agreement.

Meanwhile, the Reciprocal Working Committees on Socio-Economic Reforms (RWC-SER) are mostly left alone to go quietly on with their work.

Unprecedented gains

Within just two days of formal negotiations, RWC-SERs have already met three times.  According to reports, they have built on the unprecedented gains of the third formal talks in Rome, Italy last January where both parties “agreed on principle” on free land distribution.

At the RWC-SER’s second bilateral meeting yesterday morning, the committees identified enough number of concurrences in each other’s draft they are already looking at reconciling the first part of a prospective Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms (CASER): agrarian reform and rural development (ARRD).  With four more RWC-SER bilateral meetings scheduled until tomorrow, the NDFP is optimistic that apart from finalizing ARRD, discussions on national industrialization could begin before this fourth round ends.

NDFP Jose Maria Sison predicted this momentous achievement in his opening remarks last Monday.  “I have read and studied the drafts of the proposed agreements from the GRP and NDFP and I have also examined the comparative matrices. I observe that there are enough concurrences and similar positions as common ground for forging the agreements,” Sison said.  “I continue to be optimistic that within this year, it is possible for the GRP and NDFP Negotiating Panels to forge and sign the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) and the consequent joint ceasefire agreement,” he said.

Sison said the RWC-SER can proceed to unify their respective drafts at an accelerated pace during rounds of formal talks and work meetings of bilateral teams and even between rounds of formal negotiations. After an “ultimate common draft” is signed by the panels and principals, it may even serve as guide and framework of executive orders and legislation “to carry out genuine land reform, lay the foundation of national industrialization, ensure the protection of the environment and wise utilization of natural resources, uphold the people’s rights, improve the wage and living conditions, expand the social services (especially free public education at all levels and free public hospitals and clinics) and develop international economic relations within the context of an independent foreign policy.”

What Sison described is practically what government and what a just society should be all about.  More importantly, these are the concrete steps in addressing the roots of the armed conflict, the reason why the 48-year old CPP waged its revolution in the first place.  Even GRP chief negotiator Silvestre Bello III described the socio-economic reforms agenda as the “heart and soul” of the peace negotiations.

Most important

A ceasefire agreement is, of course, important.  But, as NDFP chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili in his own opening remarks said, it is (only) “for the creation of conditions conducive to reaching agreements on basic reforms.”

There have been countless ceasefires (bilateral, joint, or unilateral) in the 48-year old revolution and in the 31-year history of the NDFP-GRP peace negotiations.  The most recent reciprocal unilateral ceasefire declarations (August 2016 to February 2017), in fact, being the longest. There is one common denominator in all of them, however: they all end, sooner or later.  Ceasefires in the Philippines always have a way of being violated, as when the Armed Forces of the Philippines attacked an NPA encampment in Makilala, North Cotabato when the GRP and the NDFP were in the midst of a very productive formal round last January.

The GRP-NDFP peace panels are very nearly halfway through forging a comprehensive agreement on socio-economic reforms.  It is befuddling why this fact is lost on many minds, including, it seems, Duterte’s. Beyond the issue of ceasefire, what all Filipinos must focus on are the achievements on socio-economic reforms negotiations.  When completed and implemented, it will effectively end the nearly-five decade civil war in the Philippines.

Because no temporary ceasefire could ever match a permanent end to the hostilities ushered in by a just and lasting peace. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Panels begin formal ceasefire negotiations

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NOORDWIJK, The Netherlands—The reciprocal ceasefire committees of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) negotiating panels has begun their formal negotiations on at least two proposed truce modes this morning.

Said to be the most contentious issue on the approved agenda in this fourth round of talks, the parties ceasefire committees are discussing the GRP’s bilateral ceasefire proposal it first submitted at the third round of formal talks in Rome, Italy last January and the NDFP’s joint unilateral ceasefire declarations to be bound by a memorandum of understanding.

The panels have earlier discussed GRP’s new bilateral ceasefire proposal before the formal opening of this round following new instructions from Malacañan Palace in Manila.

GRP President Rodrigo Duterte has made a signed bilateral ceasefire agreement with the NDFP one of his four “barest conditionalities” in order for the peace talks to continue.

The conditionalities have caused the delay in the opening ceremony of the fourth round by a day to allow for the two parties to hold informal discussions on a bilateral interim ceasefire agreement demanded by Duterte.

GRP chief negotiator Silvestre Bello III in a Malacañan news briefing last March 31 said he received only one marching order from Duterte: “Get me a ceasefire agreement.”

In his opening remarks at yesterday’s opening ceremony, however, NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison emphasized that the ceasefire agreement should not come before a comprehensive agreement on socio-economic reforms.

“It is possible for the GRP and NDFP Negotiating Panels to forge and sign the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) and the consequent joint ceasefire agreement,” Sison said.

“But I wish to stress as a matter of principle that the people demand that CASER be a step ahead of the joint ceasefire agreement, unless these agreements can be signed at the same time by the panels and then by the principals,” he said.

NDFP chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili echoed Sison’s statement, stressing the issue of ceasefire should not be pursued as an end in itself.

“Ceasefires, whether unilateral or bilateral, are just a means to an end. Its main purpose is to create conditions conducive to reaching agreements on basic re- forms that are satisfactory to both sides,” Agcaoili said.

“The NDFP believes it is possible to have a bilateral ceasefire agreement that conforms to the position that simultaneous and reciprocal declarations of unilateral ceasefire can be agreed upon and bound by a Memorandum of Understanding that shall be issued at the end of the fourth round of formal talks,” he added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

 

‘CASER ahead of bilateral ceasefire agreement is wise’–Fidel Agcaoili

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The Left”s chief negotiator did not mince words in his remarks at the opening ceremony of the fourth round of formal NDFP-GRP peace talks.

Fidel Agcaoili said he reiterates the wisdom of securing the approval of the CASER (Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms) ahead of any bilateral ceasefire agreement, unless both agreements can be signed simultaneously.

“Ceasefires, whether unilateral or bilateral, are just a means to an end. Its main purpose is to create conditions conducive to reaching agreements on basic re- forms that are satisfactory to both sides,” Agcaoili said. (Featured photo by Nwel Saturay / Nwel Saturay on Flicker )

Fourth round of GRP-NDFP talks finally opens; ceasefire in the agenda

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NOORDWIJK, The Netherlands—The opening ceremony of the fourth round of formal talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) pushed through this morning, both parties making yet another unprecedented move towards achieving more substantial agreements despite tensed negotiations the previous day.

With nearly all the negotiators, consultants, advisers and resource persons of both parties wearing traditional barong Tagalog and ternos, the ceremony regained some of the light-heartedness of the previous three rounds seemingly lost in the frantic informal discussions marking the first day of negotiations.

Delayed by only a few minutes, the ceremony went as planned and was marked with congratulatory remarks at NDFP Chief Political Consultant Jose Maria Sison’s recovery from a month-long hospitalization.

Deviating from his prepared speech, Sison thanked the Royal Norwegian Government for agreeing to facilitate the talks in The Netherlands to allow his participation in this round of talks.

Norwegian Special Envoy to the Philippine Peace Process Elisabeth Slattum congratulated the GRP and NDFP panels for showing “flexibility” and “creativity” to move the talks forward, as well as on “seek(ing) solutions when others would just give up.”

“I would like to congratulate the parties and the President of the Philippines for working through a tough crisis and for showing courage, perseverance and genuine commitment for the achievement of peace for the benefit of the Filipino people,” Slattum said.

“This is the farthest point that we have already achieved in our negotiations with the Communist Party of the Philippines, New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front.  We are on our fourth round of talks,” President Peace Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza said.

“I am seeing and noticing that we that we are no longer in the concept of negotiating but already sharing common values and common aspirations for a better Philippines,” he said.

“The NDFP Negotiating Panel comes to this fourth round of formal talks determined as ever to push and accelerate the negotiations in the hopes of forging a comprehensive agreement on social and economic reforms by the end of 2017,” Fidel Agcaoili, the Left’s chief negotiator, for his part, said.

Just a means to an end

Agcaoili, however, reiterated in his opening statement the NDFP’s stand on the bilateral ceasefire proposal after GRP President Rodrigo Duterte insisted on a signed agreement in this round of talks.

“I share Professor Sison’s positive views and reiterate the wisdom of securing the approval of the CASER (Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms) ahead of any bilateral ceasefire agreement, unless both agreements can be signed simultaneously. It is important to stress this as the issue of ceasefire should not be pursued as an end in itself,” Agcaoili said.

“Ceasefires, whether unilateral or bilateral, are just a means to an end. Its main purpose is to create conditions conducive to reaching agreements on basic re- forms that are satisfactory to both sides,” Agcaoili added.

The opening ceremony was postponed by a day after the GRP informed the NDFP of Duterte’s new “basest conditionalities” that include a signed bilateral ceasefire agreement.

In response, Agcaoili mentioned a memorandum of understanding that may break the impasse on the issue of the bilateral ceasefire agreement.

“The NDFP believes it is possible to have a bilateral ceasefire agreement that conforms to the position that simultaneous and reciprocal declarations of unilateral ceasefire can be agreed upon and bound by a Memorandum of Understanding that shall be issued at the end of the fourth round of formal talks,” Agcaoili said in his speech.

Both parties said the remaining four days of the round would be spent on the continuation of the discussions on the proposed bilateral ceasefire agreement, the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law in respect to the release of all political prisoners, and the implementation of socio-economic projects for the Filipino people. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

LARAWAN: Pag-uusap hinggil sa tigil-putukan

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NOORDWIJK, The Netherlands
April 2, 2017