Gov’t remains open to peace talks with Reds, says Palace

From the Daily Tribune (Mar 30): Gov’t remains open to peace talks with Reds, says Palace

Presidential deputy spokesman Abigail Valte said the Aquino administration remains open to hold peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in light of calls from the the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform after the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro by the government with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

“On the side of government, we have always expressed willingness to sit down and to talk,” Valte said.

Valte reiterated the statement of Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) Secretary Teresita Deles that the communists should have present a clear agenda to the government peace negotiating table to resolve the decades old armed conflict.

“We have always asked the CPP-NPA-NDF to come up with a clear-cut agenda for the talks. This is a formula that has worked for us in several other negotiating tables and I think we’ve proven that the government can be trusted when it comes to negotiations,” Valte said.

She cited that the CPP leadership in Utrecht, the Netherlands had declared that they would no longer want to talk with the Aquino administration and that peace negotiations would only resume with the next administration after the 2016 elections.

Valte said the CPP should have a firm stand on what they would want to bargain with the Philippine government.

“Well, that is something that should be a concern to them in the sense that they should have clear messages, at least, for the public,” Valte said.

Valte said the OPAPP had its own experience of hardships on the negotiating table with the MILF but they were able to come up with the CAB after several months of tedious discussions in Kuala Lumpur.

“There were many challenges that were confronted in the talks with the MILF but the panels were able to hurdle those challenges. We’ve always been a believer in good faith when it comes to peace talks and we’ve proven that through the signed peace agreement,” Valte said.

Valte said the government has no resolve but to have a peace negotiation with the communists.

“We’ve always subscribed to peace negotiations as a way to put an end to their struggles. And we’ve always advocated peaceful means to settle any dispute, whether it’s local or whether it’s international,” Valte said.

Valte said the CPP would know what they intend to do with themselves now that the government has achieved peace negotiations with the MILF.

Lawyer Alex Padilla, chief negotiator of the government peace panel for the CPP, said it is irrelevant to talk with anybody with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines unless officially appointed by the CPP leadership from Utrecht, or if not Jose Maria Sison or Luis Jalandoni themselves.

Padilla explained that everything in the Philippine communist fronts had been coming from the CPP in Utrecht that made for the GPH to decide holding talks directly with the CPP leadership and not from the NDFP.

Padilla said the heads of the legal organizations which are members under the umbrella of the NDFP, are all considered communists.

He added the arrest of the couple Wilma Austria and Benito Tiamzon has nothing to do with the peace negotiations with the government because Tiamzon had never been a peace negotiator.

http://www.tribune.net.ph/nation/gov-t-remains-open-to-peace-talks-with-reds-says-palace