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4 POWs, 23 political prisoners to be released soon—NDFP, GRP

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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) held a press conference this morning (local time) to reiterate their respective commitments to expedite the release of New People’s Army (NPA) prisoners of war (POWs) on one hand and political prisoners in the other.

“The NDFP today reiterates and confirms the February 19, 2017 statement of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) directing the concerned NPA units to expedite the release of the six captured POWs still in their custody as a ‘positive gesture’ for the ongoing fourth round of the peace talks,” the NDFP said.

Last March 25, however, two POWs, paramilitary members Rene Doller and Mark Nocus, captured in Lupon, Davao Oriental on February 14, were already released by their NPA custodial force to the members of the Third Party Facilitators and Independent Humanitarian Mission (TPFIHM) in Mati City, Davao Oriental.

The GRP said its security forces are amenable to suspending military and police operations for 10 days to allow the NPA to affect the POW releases to TPFIHM members.

The four (4) remaining POWs are PFC Edwin Salan (captured in Alegria, Surigao del Norte on January 29); Sgt. Solaiman Calucop (captured in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat on February 2); PFC Samuel Garay (also captured in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat on February 2); and PO2 Jerome Natividad, captured in Talakag, Bukidnon on February 9.

The GRP for its part said it will soon release 23 NDFP-listed political prisoners held in various jails across the Philippines.

The GRP said most of the political prisoners to be released on humanitarian grounds are sick and elderly.

Four of the 23 political prisoners were convicted, including three NDFP consultants, who will be released through presidential pardon.

The NDFP and GRP said the agreement to expedite the releases of POWs and political prisoners are part of the successes of the ongoing round of talks. # (Video by Jola Diones-Mamangun / Text by Raymund B. Villanueva / Featured photo by Jon Bustamante)

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)

The NDFP and GRP talks: defying odds, fighting spoilers

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NOORDWIJK, The Netherlands—Defying odds, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) negotiating panels pushed through with the opening ceremony of their fourth round of formal peace negotiations yesterday, April 3. Despite fears that GRP President Rodrigo Duterte’s new “barest conditionalities” may cause the talks’ cancellation, both panels worked feverishly until late Monday night to find enough common ground to still make the formal round possible.

The “commonness” was obvious on the press statement the NDFP released after the ceremony entitled “NDFP, GRP determined to resolve snags, move talks forward.”  Its first paragraph also said “both Parties express(ed) determination to resolve current problems and move the talks forward.” While the NDFP panel is not short on giving due credit to the current GRP panel headed by the veteran Silvestre Bello III, it is simply not every day it sees its counterpart deserving of high praise or “equal billing” in its own press statement.

Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza in his statement at yesterday’s opening ceremony said they are very confident the talks would be moving dramatically forward. “This is the farthest point that we have already achieved in our negotiations with the Communist Party of the Philippines(CPP)-New People’s Army (NPA)-National Democratic Front.  We are now in the fourth round of talks,” he said.

Dureza was wrong if he was referring to the number of rounds held or the number of agreements signed under one GRP administration.  The Fidel Ramos government forged 10 major agreements and statements with the NDFP between 1992 and 1998, including the all too important The Hague Joint Declaration, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees, and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law. The Ramos government and the NDFP also succeeded in hammering out additional agreements such as on the Role of the Third Party Facilitator, the Joint Monitoring Committee, and Joint Agreement in Support of Socio-Economic Projects of Private Development Organizations and Institutes.

Dureza was correct, however, if he was referring to the number of formal talks held in so short a time.  Under Duterte’s nine-month old government, there have been four formal rounds so far and two informal talks.  The first informal talk in June brought both parties back to the negotiating table after more than five years of impasse and the second held last month brought the stalled talks back on track after Duterte cancelled the formal talks.

This morning, the GRP and the NDFP have begun formal negotiations on at least two ceasefire proposals.  Both parties are shrugging off a shaky start characterized by an opening ceremony that has been postponed twice.  Various peace talks committees are now holding one meeting after another.

Some groups though are bent on depicting the “warm and cordial” period of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations are over.

Biggest failure

A naysayer is former GRP Negotiating Panel chairperson Alexander Padilla, former President Benigno Aquino’s chief negotiator with the NDFP. On ANC’s “Talkback” yesterday, Padilla scored both the NDFP and the GRP and said the ongoing peace negotiations are likely to fail.

First, Padilla said, none of the NDFP panel members represent nor have control of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army.  “The NDF always says that the CPP-NPA is part of their organization but it’s not in reality. Even Benito Tiamzon, who is (sic) supposedly the leader before he was arrested, I don’t think he represents the CPP-NPA. None of the panel does,” he said. Second, Duterte’s four conditions are recipes for failure, Padilla added. “If you set conditions for the resumption of talks on either side, I think that’s a recipe for failure,” he said.

Padilla earned for himself a scathing riposte from the NDFP who said Padilla was in fact the biggest failure in the history of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations.

The NDFP said the talks with Padilla as GRP negotiating panel head did not progress an inch.  The group said Padilla in fact dragged the negotiations backward by trying to tear apart all the important agreements already signed, such as describing The Joint Hague Declaration as “a document of perpetual division” and implying there was really no need to negotiate socio-economic reforms. Padilla just wanted the NDFP to surrender, the NDFP said.

“That is why under his watch as head of the GRP negotiating panel, the talks could not proceed to the second item on social and economic reforms which even the GRP panel under Silvestre Bello acknowledges as the ‘heart and soul’ of the peace negotiations,” the NDFP said.

The NDFP slammed Padilla’s claim the NDFP do not represent the CPP and the NPA in the talks.  “He is implying that Pres. Duterte and the rest of the GRP panel are stupid for talking to these leaders,” the NDFP said.

“Padilla is known to be a ‘die-hard Yellow’ and wants the talks to fail under Duterte.  Padilla should shut up.  He is now irrelevant to the current peace talks,” the group added.

The former chief negotiator did not also get any sympathy from Duterte’s peace adviser. “Let him speak for himself,” Dureza said.

“Peace-spoiling by US-stooges”

But the biggest peace spoilers, as far as the Left is concerned, are not the “Yellows” but elements in the GRP’s own Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). In a statement, the CPP called Defense Sec. Delfin Lorenzana, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon and AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Eduardo Año “US stooges seeking to derail the NDFP-GRP peace negotiations.”

The CPP complained that the AFP, directed by three of Duterte’s highest security officials, has embarked on an aerial bombardment campaign in Mindoro, Agusan del Norte and Davao Oriental, Abra, Agusan del Sur, Sarangani, Davao and other provinces in the past few days alone. AFP troops have also occupied Barangay Baglay in Lagonglong, Misamis Oriental, as well as other villages in Abra, Marilog, Sultan Kudarat and Mindoro, the CPP said. Moreover, AFP troops have also reportedly killed civilians Renel Mirabeles of Bagong Silang, Sipocot, Camarines Sur (March 30), Jeffrey Santos of Barangay Tagbinonga, Mati, Davao Oriental (March 30), and Danilo Nadal of Barangay Tibagun, Pantukan, Compostela Valley (April 2).

“Since February, close to 50 peasants and members of the national minority, mostly residents of areas which the state security forces suspect to be part of the NPA mass base, have been killed by operating troops of the AFP,” the CPP said.

“In waging aerial bombardments and a campaign of armed suppression against the people, they are, however, succeeding only in convincing thousands of people to support and join the New People’s Army,” the CPP added.

Before the GRP peace negotiators flew to this city for the ongoing round of talks, Lorenzana himself tagged the the CPP and NPA as “terrorists” and “thugs” which the CPP said goes against the January unilateral move of the GRP Negotiating Panel asking the United States to remove NDFP Chief Political Consultant Prof. Jose Ma. Sison from its terrorist listing.  Instead, Lorenzana insist the fourth round of peace talks be devoted to forging a bilateral ceasefire over the substantive agenda of socio-economic reforms.

“Lorenzana and his fellow US stooges are trying to prevent peace negotiations from moving forward in efforts to discuss and resolve the substantive socio-economic issues, especially the most crucial issues of genuine land reform and national industrialization,” the CPP in a statement said.

Socio-economic reforms and ceasefire

Indeed, the ongoing round of talks has problems.  While the NDFP stands pat on forging an agreement on socio-economic reforms before a bilateral ceasefire is signed, the GRP is now insisting on a bilateral truce accord so that Duterte will allow his negotiators to continue talking with the Left.

This difference in focus though, if anything, is making the negotiators, consultants, advisers and staff work even harder with simultaneous meetings and discussions.  Both panels are obviously “resolving snags” brought about by naysayers, military campaigns against civilian communities, and Duterte’s volatility. All the hard work, both parties say, are for them to “stay at the negotiating table.”

Despite a shaky start, this ongoing round of talks may still spring more surprises, achieving more agreements that would offer the Filipino people what The Hague Joint Declaration described as “just and lasting peace.”# (Text by Raymund B. Villanueva / Featured photo by Nwel Saturay)

 

 

 

 

 

‘We are working hard to finish the socio-economic reform agenda’–Coni Ledesma

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Long-time NDFP Negotiating Panel member Coni Ledesma said the fourth round of their peace negotiations with the Duterte government has moved forward.

Ledesma said both parties are working hard to finish negotiations on socio-economic reforms to improve the lives of the Filipino people.

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 )

Discussions may prove difficult and exacting–Silvestre Bello III

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The Government of the Republic of the Philippines’ chief negotiator said discussions in the remaining four days of the fourth round of formal talks with the NDFP may be “difficult and exacting.”

Nonetheless, Silvestre Bello III said their panel will not waiver from the task of finding common ground in diversity.

“As you will agree with me, the forging og the ceasefire agreement is not about ‘giving in’ or ‘giving up”, it is about ‘giving all for peace,” Bello said. (Featured photo by Nwel Saturay / Nwel Saturay on Flicker)

 

‘Peace negotiations necessary to address roots of armed conflict’–Joma Sison

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Chief Political Consultant Jose Maria Sison delivered the first remark for the NDFP in the opening ceremony of the fourth round of formal peace negotiations with the GRP, calling the peace talks as necessary in addressing the roots of the armed conflict.

As expected, Sison in his remarks laid down a most comprehensive blueprint in pushing forward the peace negotiations.

“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,” Sison said. (Featured photo by Nwel Saturay)

‘We’re back where we belong’–Norwegian facilitator

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Royal Norwegian Government Special Envoy to the Philippine Peace Process Elisabeth Slattum welcomed the GRP and NDFP panels to the negotiating table after two months of impasse.

In her opening remarks, Slattum congratulated 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 added it is the Norwegian’s hope as committed third party facilitators the parties would continue to progress in their endeavors to reach agreement on socio-economic reforms with the aim of addressing the root causes of the conflict.

The Netherlands
April 3, 2017

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)