Back-channel talks on

From the Manila Bulletin (Dec 28): Back-channel talks on

Gov’t, CPP preparing pacts on ceasefire, economic reforms

Back-channel negotiations between the communist party and the government to conclude ceasefire pacts and resume peace talks next month was confirmed yesterday by a former peace negotiator turned party-list representative in Congress.

1-BAP (Unang Barangay Ating Paunlarin) Partylist Rep. Silvestre “Bebot” Bello III, who served as peace negotiator with the National Democratic Front (NDF), said the resumption of peace talks between the government and the communist rebels can be expected by mid-January, 2015.

“I can confirm the statement of Mr. (Jose Maria) Sison regarding the status of the talks between the government and the NDF,” he said in an interview, affirming that there have been back channel negotiations since September and both parties are striving to conclude pacts on a ceasefire and social and economic reforms before President Aquino steps down in 2016.

“My level of confidence on their sincerity is also very high,” Bello said, following Sison’s revelation through podcast on his website, which was recorded last week.

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, who heads the 75-man ad hoc panel tasked to scrutinize the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, also expressed confidence that the two parties would return to the peace negotiating table to end the decades-old insurgency.

“I believe there is sincerity on the part of the NDF. I am very elated and I laud both panels that they would be able to resume peace negotiations in mid-January. We will wait for the successful conclusion of the talks,” he said in a separate interview.

Sison, NDF chief political consultant, said the two parties will likely return to the peace negotiating table after Pope Francis’ visit to the Philippines on January 15-19, 2015.

For his part, AKO Bicol partylist Rep. Rodel Batocabe thinks that the NDF-Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) has no other option, but to engage in serious peace talks with the government.

“I think the CPP has no other option but to pursue the path to peace if it wants to be relevant in our political landscape,” he said.

During its founding anniversary last year, the CPP central committee rejected the forging of peace with the Aquino government, saying that it has “to wait for the next regime to engage in serious negotiations.”

“The armed struggle as a means to gain power and institute systemic reform has long been passed and outmoded in an era of globalization and information technology amidst the democratic space guaranteed by our Constitution. So what is the use of killing fellow Filipinos and perpetrating further violence? Peace is the only option acceptable to our people who are already dead tired of violence which left a lot of widows and orphans,” Batocabe said.

Since 2004, there has been a deadlock in the peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the Reds.

The NDF had asked the government to give in to the list of “preconditions” before going back to the peace negotiating table. These include the release of detained political consultants of the NDF and the scrapping of conditional cash transfer, Pamana and Oplan Bayanihan programs.

It was last year that the Philippine government ended its peace talks with the NDF, citing its lack of “sincerity and political will.”

http://www.mb.com.ph/back-channel-talks-on/