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Duterte orders negotiators to work on resuming talks with Reds

The Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) have stepped closer to resuming formal peace negotiations.

In a tweet Wednesday night, Presidential peace process adviser Jesus Dureza announced that GRP President Rodrigo Duterte has directed his peace negotiators to work on resuming formal talks with the NDFP.

“President Duterte directed during the Cabinet meeting today (Wednesday) to work on the resumption of peace talks with the CPP/NPA/NDF [Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army] with clear instructions on the importance of forging a ceasefire agreement to stop mutual attacks and fighting while talks are underway,” Dureza said.

Dureza added that Duterte has said to give the peace process “…another last chance”.

He said the Duterte has also committed “to provide support” to the revolutionary movement as long as it stops imposing and collecting taxes.

NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison for his part said that formal peace negotiations are the right venues to deal with GRP’s issues and complaints such as ceasefire proposals and the NPA’s revolutionary taxation activities.

The resumption of peace talks between the GRP and NDFP negotiating panels is needed precisely to deal with substantive issues and complaints,” Sison said.

Sison said that in the same round of formal talks, the parties can present conflicting positions and subsequently seek to solve problems “on mutually acceptable grounds.”

He said that both negotiating panels already have a draft of the agreement on coordinated unilateral ceasefires, “which is under the watch of a joint national ceasefire committee.”

“This draft agreement is in effect the start of a bilateral ceasefire agreement. It is a significant step towards the Comprehensive Agreement on the End of Hostilities and Disposition of Forces,” he added.

Sison also said that the GRP and NDFP has already achieved substantial consensus on the general principles of agrarian reform and rural development and national industrialization and economic development, which both parties acknowledge are the most important parts of the prospective social and economic reforms agreements.

He added that there is also a draft amnesty proclamation to release all the political prisoners listed by the NDFP in compliance with the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.

“When the GRP and NDFP negotiating panels meet, they can be confident of achieving substantial success. Without a formal meeting of the panels, there can only be an acrimonious public exchange of complaints and demands, which appear or sound like the preconditions prohibited by The Hague Joint Declaration,” Sison said.

The Hague Joint Declaration requires that no side shall impose on the other side preconditions that negate the character and purpose of peace negotiations.

“The conflicting parties become negotiating parties precisely to thresh out serious differences and complaints and seek the solutions to achieve a just and lasting peace,” Sison explained.

“As a matter of course, the two panels shall reaffirm all the existing agreements by way of ending the previous termination of the peace negotiations. It logically follows that the two panels shall cooperate in doing away with the obstacles and hindrances to the agreements and to the entire peace process,” he added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

 

NDFP welcomes Duterte’s statement to resume talks

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) welcomed President Rodrigo Duterte’s recent speech expressing “openness and readiness” to resume formal peace negotiations.

NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison said they are likewise open and ready to resume the peace negotiations and expect the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and NDFP negotiating panels to meet as soon as possible.

Duterte last Tuesday again changed his mind and said he is ready to resume formal peace negotiations with the Left.

“I’d like to address myself first to the NPAs. Alam mo, hindi tayo magkalaban. Gusto ko mang lumaban, eh ang puso ko, sinasabi niya ‘ang kapwa mo Pilipino pinapatay mo,’” Duterte said in a speech in Bongabong, Oriental Mindoro.

“Gusto kong magkaroon tayo ng usapan. But along the way, papunta doon maraming obstructions and everything. But you must understand, hindi madali magpunta sa paratingan natin,” he said.

“And so if we can have a middle ground,” Duterte added.

In a statement issued a few hours after Duterte’s speech, Sison said the NDFP is “sincere in striving to negotiate and forge with the GRP comprehensive agreements on social, economic and political reforms to address the roots of the armed conflict and lay the basis of a just and lasting peace.”

Sison said making a significant advance on the basis of the drafts prepared on October 4, 2017 will also forward corollary agreements to amnesty and release all political prisoners as well as coordinated unilateral ceasefires between the parties’ armed forces.

“We hope that from here on we can make steady and significant advances on the road of realizing peace in accordance with the people´s demand for full national independence, democracy, social justice, economic development and cultural progress,” Sison said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Complain through proper channels, NDFP tells Dureza

The chief peace negotiator of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) advised presidential peace adviser Jesus Dureza to course any complaints about alleged rebel atrocities through the proper channels instead of using these as a “scapegoat” for difficulties in resuming stalled negotiations.

Dureza on Monday lashed at the New People’s Army for the “senseless destruction” over the weekend of heavy equipment used in infrastructure projects in Davao City, saying these “unnecessarily squanders whatever gains we have been quietly getting lately in our common efforts” with the rebels to return to the negotiating table.

Reacting to Dureza’s statement, NDFP peace panel chairman Fidel Agcaoili said: “What about the continuing killings of NPA fighters, even those unarmed and undergoing medical treatment like Ka Bendoy and his companion, and the continuing arrests, detention, threats and harassment of open legal activists and even UN rapporteurs, and the terror attacks against communities, occupation of schools and public places like health centers that have led to forcible displacements of tens of thousands of residents?”

Ka Bendoy is Bicol rebel leader Alfredo Merilos who was killed along with a civilian, Liz Ocampo, in what the military claimed was a shootout in Naga City, Camarines Sur on March 15.

However, the rebels maintain that Merilos, who was seeking medical treatment, and Ocampo were summarily executed.

As for the complaint raised by Dureza, Agcaoili said “there is a mechanism for addressing the occurrence of such incidents — the Joint Monitoring Committee under the CARHRIHL (Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law).”

“The (government) should bring their alleged complaints there, just as the NDFP does,” Agcaoili said.

He added that Dureza’s “attitude shows a lack of interest and sincerity in searching for the appropriate solutions in order to carry out negotiations that would forge agreements that would bring about basic social, economic and political reforms and lay the foundation for a just and lasting peace in the country.”

Although President Rodrigo Duterte began his term by resuming peace negotiations with the rebels, the talks broke down as both sides accused each other of violating their separately declared ceasefires.

In November last year, he issued Proclamation 360 formally terminating the talks.

Since then, the government has also moved to have the Communist Party of the Philippines and NPA proscribed as terrorist organizations.

However, the Department of Justice petition filed in court triggered controversy by including a list of more than 600 individuals described as “terrorists,” among them UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, a Kankana-ey, and several other indigenous peoples’ and human rights advocates.

Recently, a number of lawmakers also urged government to resume talks with the rebels. #

 

Uphold CARHRIHL: Creating the atmosphere for a just peace

Peace advocates commemorated the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines in a forum at St. Scholastica’s College in Manila last March 10.

The advocates, in the presence of hundreds of SSC students, called on GRP President Rodrigo Duterte to respect the human rights agreement and resume the peace process with the NDFP.

“At this time, when the Duterte administration appears focused on moves like pulling out of the International Criminal Court and declaring more than 600 persons as terrorists under the Human Security Act, we urge President Rodrigo R. Duterte to instead focus the attention of his government on faithful adherence to the principles of human rights and international humanitarian law,” the advocates said in a statement. (Editing by M. Montajes)

Kaguma @ 47: ‘Drag tyrant out of Malacañan!’

“Duterte is morally-corrupt and barbaric. He has no right to stay in power!”

The underground group Katipunan ng mga Gurong Makabayan or Kaguma commemorated its 47th founding anniversary Wednesday by calling on its members to resist the Rodrigo Duterte government’s “fascism and terrorism.”

In a statement sent to Kodao, Kaguma said it offers a red salute to all freedom-loving Filipinos, “especially to teachers who transcend their role within the confines of the classrooms” as they struggle to thwart what its calls Duterte’s rampage of violence and murder.

Founded in 1971, Kaguma went underground when dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law less than six months later in September that year.

It later became a founding allied organization of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) when it was established in April 1973.

Kaguma logo.

In its statement, Kaguma condemned the government’s K + 12 curriculum it said objectifies schoolchildren as subservient labor to capital.

It cited the deaths of more than 13,000 victims of the government’s so-called war against drugs as well as 150 activists under Duterte.

The group encouraged relatives of victims to seek justice through the International Criminal Court’s should the case against Duterte push through and become a full blown trial.

“We must encourage the international community to look into the case and help by means of amplifying their condemnation as well against the fascism of the US-Duterte regime,” the revolutionary group said.

The group said teachers and the academe has a big role to fill-in in educating the broad masses of people on the true state of our nation under a tyrannical ruler.

“Duterte is morally-corrupt and barbaric. He has no right to stay in power!” the group said as it called on its members to rise up to end to Duterte’s rule.

“Prepare for the people’s uprising and drag this tyrant out of Malacañan!” Kaguma said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

EASTER HOMILY

By Jason Montana

 

Open your eyes to the power of the people and the

arms they bear

Of sacrament and gun and a story living in their

hearts.

How different is the violence of the ruling classes and

their foreign masters

In their social system of exploitation and oppression!

The people’s war is violence of symbol and war:

Of seed sprouting from crushing rock and earth;

Of sun pushing out a sky full of dead stars;

Of mother and child struggling against the darkness of

wombs.

It is of Yahweh confirming the nothingness of evil and

death

When he stunned the precision and finality of his

sunrises,

And his mighty wind raised the Son of Man from the

dead.

Rehearsals of revolution are these deeds of sun and seed

and human birth,

And of Jesus glorious from the tomb, above all.

A great story is told, of driving force, and the people

rise!

——–

The poet wrote this piece as a member of the New People’s Army. Prior to joining the NPA, Fr. Paco Albano was a Benedictine priest who co-founded the underground Christians for National Liberation (CNL) that organized church peoples against Ferdinand Marcos’s tyrannical Martial Law and to wage the National Democratic Revolution. After many years in the underground, he resumed his priestly duties and died a priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ilagan (Isabela Province) until his death earlier this month.

 “EASTER HOMILY” is part of the poet’s book “Clearing: Poems of People’s Struggles in Northern Luzon” published by the Artista at Manunulat ng Sambayanan, CNL, and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines in 1987.

Thousands of complaints since CARHRIHL signing, NDFP says

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) said nearly seven thousand complaints of human rights and international humanitarian law violations have been received by its Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).

At a forum marking the 20th anniversarry of the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) at St. Scholastica’s College in Manila Friday, the NDFP said a total of 6,898 complaints have since been lodged at the JMC from its establishment in June 2004 to March 14, 2018, nearly six years after the signing of the agreement.

The NDFP said 4,886 complaints have been received by the GRP section while 2,012 have been received by the NDFP section of the JMC.

The NDFP said it is incumbent upon the parties to avail of the monitoring mechanism for the submission of complaints, instead of resorting to drastic means such as terminating the formal talks every time an armed incident happens.

President Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly blamed the New People’s Army (NPA) whenever he cancelled formal talks with the NDFP.

After Duterte again cancelled talks last November, his government has since asked the courts to proscribe the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the NPA as terrorist organizations.

The CPP and NPA are allied organizations of the NDFP.

Peace advocates and St. Scholastica’s College-Manila students who attended the event marking the 20th anniversary of the signing of the CARHRIHL Friday morning.

Peace advocates who attended the CARHRIHL anniversary event, however, called on Duterte to respect the human rights agreement and resume the peace process with the NDFP.

“At this time,  when the Duterte administration appears focused on moves like pulling out of the International Criminal Court and declaring more than 600 persons as terrorists under the Human Security Act, we urge President Rodrigo R. Duterte to instead focus the attention of his government on faithful adherence to the principles of human rights and international humanitarian law,” the advocates said in a statement.

The group added that CARHRIHL’s full implementation not only provides additional protection for the people amid armed conflict, it will also propel both the GRP and the NDFP to resume peace negotiations.

The statement was signed by Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez of the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform, Bishop Reuel Marigza of Pilgrims for Peace, Kaye Limpado of Sulong CARHRIHL, Saharon Cabusao of Kapayapaan Campaign for Just and Lasting Peace, Benjie Valbuena of ACT for Peace and Rey Casambre of the Philippine Peace Center.

Iñiguez in his own speech called on both the GRP and the NDFP to convene the JMC to discuss the complaints it received.

“Convene the JMC. Confront the many complaints from the people. According to Article 1 of the Final Provisions of the CARHRIHL, the JMC is still operative and it has to regularly convene until it is formally dissolved,” Iñiguez said.

“The sincerity of both parties can only be measured by how faithfully they implement their agreements. We call on the GRP and the NDFP, ‘Respect and vigorously implement all agreements!’” the prelate added.

Since the Gloria Arroyo administration, however, the GRP has repeatedly refused or caused the cancellation of JMC meetings to discuss the complaints.

The Benigno Aquino administration of the GRP has even asked the royal Norwegian Government, Third Party Facilitator to the peace process, to stop funding the committee’s operations.

The current GRP administration, for its part, has convened the JMC with the NDFP during and in between its four fomal rounds of negotiations with the NDFP, but no actual complaints have been tabled before Duterte cancelled all meetings and negotiations last year. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Norway appoints new GRP-NDFP talks facilitator

The Royal Norwegian Government (RNG) appointed a new special envoy to the Philippine peace process, its embassy in Manila announced Tuesday.

Diplomat Idun Tvedt is appointed as the new facilitator to the peace process between the Government of the [Republic of the] Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), replacing Elisabeth Slåttum who had been the most successful to hold the post so far.

The RNG is the Third Party Facilitator of the GRP-NDFP peace process since 2001.

A lawyer by education, Tvedt has made a career in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the areas of human rights and peace, the RNG Embassy said.

“In the past few years, she worked at the Norwegian Embassy in Bogota where she was a member of the facilitation team responsible for the peace process between the Colombian government and the FARC [Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia],” it added.

Outgoing and incoming. Slattum (left) and Tvedt (right). [Photo by Dr. J. Alcantara]

Norwegian Ambassador to the Philippines Erik Førner said Tvedt serves as an encouragement to their embassy in Manila as it assists the peace process between the Manila government and the Leftist revolutionary movement.

“[Tvedt] has a high standing in the Norwegian Foreign Service and her knowledge and experience in peace and reconciliation matters are truly impressive,” Førner said.

Inquirer.net earlier reported Tvedt is scheduled to arrive in the Philippines Sunday for a two-day visit.

Førner said he is sad to see Slåttum go after her successful three-year term as special envoy.

Successful facilitator

Slåttum took over as special envoy from fellow diplomat Tore Hattrem in 2014 when formal peace negotiations between the Benigno Aquino government and the NDFP had already been suspended for more than three years.

The Rodrigo Duterte government resumed formal peace negotiations with the NDFP in August 2016.

Four formal talks had been held since in Norway, Italy and The Netherlands with substantial agreements on agrarian reform and rural development.

Duterte however cancelled the scheduled fifth round of negotiations in The Netherlands last May after failing to convince the NDFP to sign a bilateral ceasefire agreement before talks could continue.

Duterte, center, with the GRP negotiating team last Thursday. (Malacañan photo)

Duterte has hinted about resuming formal negotiations in a recent speech in Misamis Oriental while Malacañan Palace has also released photographs of the President meeting his negotiating team last Thursday.

The NDFP for its part said it has always remained open to resuming the negotiations.

“The NDFP had always been open to continue with the fifth round of the formal talks, which he (Duterte) has scuttled in May 2017,” NDFP chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

NDFP to Duterte on talks resumption: ‘We have always been open’

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Negotiating Panel said it remains open to resume formal peace negotiations with the Rodrigo Duterte government.

Reacting to Duterte’s statement Friday he still has to talk to the New People’s Army (NPA), NDFP chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili told Kodao the revolutionary movement is also open to reviving formal talks with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).

The NPA is an allied organization of the NDFP.

“The NDFP has always been open to continue with the fifth round of the formal talks, which he scuttled in May 2017,” Agcaoili said.

Duterte hinted peace talks with the NDFP might soon be revived in a speech at Cagayan de Oro City’s Laguindingan International Airport Friday.

“Ideology ‘to. So I’m facing that. I have to talk to the NPA still,” Duterte said after ticking off a list of problems he said he is facing.

The Duterte GRP cancelled the fifth round of formal negotiations last May after failing to secure an open-ended bilateral ceasefire agreement with the NDFP.

The NDFP said the GRP demand was a precondition violating The Hague Joint Declaration that says cessation of hostilities shall come after social and economic as well as political and constitutional reforms agreements have already been agreed and signed by both parties.

Negotiators from both the NDFP and GRP said they are ready to sign agrarian reform and rural development agreements, including free distribution of at least one million hectares of land to poor farmers, when the fifth round of formal negotiations are finally held. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Duterte has never been an ally–Sison

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison denied the revolutionary movement in the Philippines has ever been in an alliance or in a united front with President Rodrigo Duterte.

According to a report published on the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) website, Sison said in a speech last September 15 in Utrecht, The Netherlands his former student has never been the movement’s ally despite his claim there is a “Duterte faction” among revolutionaries in southern Mindanao.

Sison said their southern Mindanao comrades described Duterte a bureaucrat capitalist or “a politician who creates private wealth for himself using his public office.”

Duterte is capable of saying and doing anything that is left, middle or right, depending on what serves him from moment to moment, Sison said.

In a speech at the reopening of the NDFP’s International Office in the Dutch city, Sison said some people misunderstood their efforts to promote the peace negotiations between the Duterte regime and the Left already involves a working alliance.

Sison added that while Duterte publicly offered as many as four cabinet posts to the CPP, it cannot accept any government position while there are talks.

The NDFP instead nominated Judy Taguiwalo to the Department of Social Work and Development, Rafael Mariano to the Department of Agrarian Reform and Liza Maza to the National Anti-Poverty Commission.

The NDFP said their nominees are “patriotic and progressive individuals who are highly qualified, honest and diligent.”

Taguiwalo and Mariano, however, were rejected by the Commission on Appointments (CA). Both said they felt no support from Duterte during their CA ordeal.

“There was never a united front deal. As a matter of fact, Duterte doesn’t want a coalition government but only an inclusive government under his leadership. It is by way of undertaking goodwill measure that the NDFP recommended meritorious individuals,” Sison said.

Sison admitted there was a recommendation to the NDFP to entertain Duterte as a possible ally. But he explained the recommendation is conditional to the peace negotiations.

Duterte cancelled the fifth round of formal negotiations in The Netherlands last May after failing to secure an open-ended bilateral ceasefire agreement with the CPP and the New People’s Army.

The report said Sison “assailed some reactionary political forces who claim that the revolutionary movement has been in alliance with Duterte and trying to blame the movement for the human rights violations committed by Duterte.”

Sison said the revolutionary movement is ready to work with a broad united front of various political forces, including reactionaries who are against the Duterte regime it now considers the enemy.

Sison also warned the military and police who would turn against Duterte are the President’s biggest threat that can result in his quick ouster. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)