Palace defends Deles on scuttled peace talks

From the Manila Standard Today (Jun 16): Palace defends Deles on scuttled peace talks

It”s not the fault of Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles that the peace talks with the National Democratic Front has been placed on the backburner because the communist rebels have not shown good faith and sincerity on the negotiating table.

“I doubt that anybody would believe that Secretary Deles is the one who was sabotaging the talks between the government and the (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army),” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said in an interview on government radio.

Valte said the government has shown good faith and sincerity in negotiating with the NDF since Benigno Aquino assumed office in 2010.

“Unfortunately, we cannot say the same for them,” Valte said, noting that the Reds have even attacked civilians while they were negotiating with the government.

“[Secretary Deles] has been working to make sure to have resolution on the talks,” she said. “The government is not the one who is lacking in sincerity.”

Valte made the remark after NDF spokesman Fidel Agcaoili accused Deles on Friday of scuttling the peace talks with the government through her statement that the revolutionary movement “has designed the peace talks to be unending.”

“In fact, what Deles wants is a permanent end to the peace negotiations,” Agcaoili said. “Deles has had one singular aim in the peace negotiations between the Government of the Philippines and the NDF – the capitulation and pacification of the revolutionary movement,” Agcaoili said.

Deles had been the government peace adviser since the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The government unilaterally withdrew from the peace talks and publicly announced its intentions for localized peace agreements, a longtime military strategy that the rebels had always rejected.

“But because she (Deles) could not get her way, she has been sabotaging the peace talks, even proclaiming the so-called sovereign right of the US to intervene in Philippine affairs in the ‘terrorist’ listing of the CPP, NPA and Prof. Jose Maria Sison, the Chief Political Consultant of the NDFP Negotiating Panel, after coming from a round of negotiations where it was agreed that the two Parties would call on the international community ¨to refrain from any action that may impede or impair the peace process,” Agcaoili said.

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2013/06/16/palace-defends-deles-on-scuttled-peace-talks/