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NDFP to file complaint on disappearance of consultant

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The negotiating panel of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) said it will file a complaint against the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) on the reported involuntary disappearance of one of its peace consultants.

NDFP chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili said the disappearance of Lora T. Manipis and her husband Jeruel B. Domingo since February 24 will be a subject of a complaint to be filed with their joint human rights and international humanitarian law monitoring committee with the GRP.

“We expect the GRP to act on [the complaint] together with all the other hindrances [to the resumption of the peace talks],” Agcaoili told Kodao.

The NDFP in Far Southern Mindanao said Minipis and Domingo both vanished without a trace after being seen by witnesses in Kidapawan City. The group said the couple had not made any contact with their family and comrades.

“At the time of their disappearance, they were arranging for activities related to the peace process. They were also actively holding dialogs with indigenous people and peasants who have been affected by the large-scale mining operations of X-trata Mining in Tampakan, South Cotabato,” NDFP said.

Manipis joins other NDFP consultants believed abducted by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, such as Leo Velasco, Rogelio Calubad, Prudencio Calubid, NDFP staff members Philip Limjoco, Leopoldo Ancheta, and Federico Intise.

“We fear that Manipis and Domingo may have already been executed by intelligence and military operatives, or are suffering from intense torture and other violations of international humanitarian law,” the NDFP said.

Meanwhile, Davao Today reported that Philippine Army’s 10th Infantry Division spokesperson Capt. Jerry Lamosao denied responsibility for the couple’s disappearance.

“If they believe that the Army is responsible, they should have filed a complaint earlier given that if they coordinate with authorities, they can ask for assistance,” Lamosao said.

Agcaoili said they are still checking Manipis’ Document of Identification name with their official list of consultants under the NDFP and GRP’s Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).

The JASIG list was deposited by both the NDFP and the GRP with an unnamed third party in The Netherlands last June.

Consultants included in the JASIG list as well as other persons directly participating in the peace negotiations are guaranteed free movement and freedom from arrest, surveillance, interrogation and similar actions in connection with their involvement or participation in the peace negotiations for the duration of the peace talks.

Immunities cover acts, statements, materials, information and data made during or resulting from the peace negotiations.

The 2017 list, encrypted in Universal Serial Bus (USB) flash disks and backed up in a Security Drive (SD), contains photographs and the real identities of NDFP peace consultants who are still underground, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Group lauds possible resumption of GRP-NDFP talks

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JAKARTA, Indonesia—Mindanao peace advocates lauded the possible resumption of peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) following an exchange of positive statements from their respective leaders.

Independent peace talks observer and Sowing the Seeds of Peace in Mindanao main convenor Bishop Felixberto Calang said their group joins the “many jubilant voices” in welcoming the promised resumption of the negotiations.

Calang said they are hoping for the eventual signing of agreements on social and economic reforms, the release of political prisoners, and the upholding the agreement on human rights and international humanitarian law.

“The (possible) resumption of the talks shows that President (Rodrigo) Duterte himself is the decisive protagonist who can provide the ‘enabling environment’ for the sustainability of the (peace process), Calang said in a statement.

Presidential peace adviser Jesus Dureza announced Wednesday that Duterte has ordered his negotiators to work for the possible resumption of the talks, a move welcomed by the NDFP.

The NDFP through its chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison for its part said it remains open and ready to resume the talks.

Calang, however, cautioned against peace spoilers out to permanently scuttle the talks.

This is a second life for the peace talks (with the Duterte government). The Filipino people must not allow hawkish vultures to lead it astray again to a tragic end,” Calang said, noting “dark clouds…hover(ing) above the process such as the terrorist-witchunt list, Martial Law in Mindanao, and the widespread militarization of Lumad communities.

“All of these need to be addressed or considered if we wish for the talks to proceed with a good start,” Calang said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Duterte orders negotiators to work on resuming talks with Reds

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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

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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)

Uphold CARHRIHL: Creating the atmosphere for a just peace

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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)

Bello announces early conclusion of 2nd round of talks

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In this video, government chief peace negotiator Silvestre Bello III answers questions on the status of the formal peace negotiations between the GRP and the NDFP on its third day. Read more

NDFP to press for agrarian reform and industrialization at 2nd round of talks with GRP

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CONSULTANTS of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) emphasized the need to address genuine land reform and nationalist industrialization at the second round of their formal peace negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).

At a press forum in Cubao, Quezon City last Friday (September 23), the consultants said both genuine socio-economic programs are the most crucial issues to the Filipino people that they will discuss with the GRP on October 6-10 in Oslo, Norway. Read more

Second round of GRP-NDFP talks to be held earlier

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THE Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) has announced that the second round of peace negotiations between the Duterte government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) will be moved to earlier dates.

“The Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the NDFP have agreed to adjust the schedule of the second round of the peace negotiations in Oslo from October 8-12 to October 6-10,” the OPAPP in a media advisory said.

It also announced that the next round shall be at the Holmenfjord Hotel, venue of the only formal talks between the Benigno Aquino government and the NDFP in February 2011.

Patmei Ruivivar, OPAPP information officer, said that GRP chief negotiator Silvestre Bello III is scheduled to attend  the National Public Employment Service Office Congress with President Duterte on October 13 in Cebu City.

Bello is concurrently the Duterte government’s Department of Labor and Employment secretary.

“It was a mutually agreed adjustment communicated through representatives from both panels and coordinated with the Royal Norwegian Government,” Ruivivar said. # (Report and featured image by Raymund B. Villanueva)

A talk with the Tiamzons on the GRP-NDFP peace talks (Part 2)

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THE Tiamzons, Benito and Wilma, explain the revolutionary struggle and the struggle for reforms . They also clarified the interim nature of the indefinite ceasefire mutually and unilaterally declared by the GRP and the NDFP and the possibility of forging a bilateral ceasefire as both parties negotiate on the substantial agenda of the peace talks.

Watch part 2 of highlights of the  public forum on the GRP-NDFP peace talks last September 10, 2016 at the Fisher Mall in Quezon City.

The forum was facilitated by UP Professor Sarah Raymundo.  Edited with footages from Kodao Productions and produced for Kababayan4Change, a network of Pinoys abroad seeking change with the Duterte administration.

Read more

A talk with the Tiamzons on the GRP-NDFP peace talks (Part 1)

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TOP revolutionary leaders Benito and Wilma Tiamzon gave an overview of the resumption of peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), including the social and economic reforms agenda, and what the people can and must do beyond the negotiations.

The forum was held by Kapayapaan Campaign for a Just and Lasting Peace on September 9, 2016 at the Fisher Mall in Quezon City. Read more