GPH peace panel denies failure to comply with pact on lengthy truce

From InterAksyon (Jan 3): GPH peace panel denies failure to comply with pact on lengthy truce

The government’s peace panel to negotiations with communist rebels denied Thursday that the administration failed to comply with an agreement for a lengthy holiday ceasefire. In a statement posted on the website of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, the panel said the press communiqué issued in the wake of a December 17-18 meeting in The Hague between representatives of both parties and the Norwegian government, as well as a subsequent statement issued on December 20 from Secretary Teresita Deles would prove the government affirmed the extended ceasefire from December 20 to January 15, the longest truce between both parties. The original suspension of offensive military operations declared by the government was only until January 2.

On Wednesday, the Communist Party of the Philippines said it was ending the ceasefire it had declared at 11:59 p.m., the same time the military SOMO was scheduled to end, because of the "failure of the GPH (government of the Philippines) to comply with the agreement last December 17-18 to extend its own ceasefire order to January 15." Ironically, just hours after the CPP announcement, the Armed Forces of the Philippines announced it was extending its SOMO to January 15.

The government panel labeled the rebels’ allegations a "false claim," noting that apart from declaring a ceasefire extension, there were also "procedural processes undertaken by the security forces to officially affirm the extension of the SOMO and SOPO that led to its formal announcement by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police this afternoon, January 2." "It is unfortunate that the CPP/NPA/NDF is interested in looking for excuses to resume violence than it was to seek peace," the government panel said.

"Government stands firm to the nationwide ceasefire agreed upon with the NDF which commenced on December 20, 2012 and will remain effective until January 15, 2013. Our security forces will maintain its unilateral declaration of SOMO and SOPO, despite the CPP’s termination, and will stand ready to defend and protect our people," the statement said.

However, Luis Jalandoni, chairman of the National Democratic Front’s negotiating panel, which recommended the termination of the ceasefire, pointed out that President Benigno Aquino III himself had made no formal declaration to extend the original SOMO to January 15.

InterAksyon has also obtained a copy of a letter from Secretary Voltaire Gazmin to Aquino showing the defense chief endorsed the recommendation of the AFP for an extended ceasefire only on January 1 and that the President had approved on January 2, the day the original SOMO was to end. Wednesday night, Jalandoni said the NDF peace panel had recommended that the CPP again declare the ceasefire active until January 15 following Aquino’s approval of Gazmin’s recommendation.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/51818/gph-peace-panel-denies-failure-to-comply-with-pact-on-lengthy-truce