New Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Lt. Gen. Hernando Iriberri.
The military under newly-installed Armed Forces chief Lt. Gen. Hernando Iriberri welcomed the possible resumption of the stalled peace talks with communists and vowed to cooperate with government negotiators to resolve the longstanding conflict.
“The AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) welcomes the government’s openness for revival of the peace talks with the CPP-NDF-NPA (Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front-New People’s Army),” Iriberri said in a text message.
“We shall be working hand in hand with agencies of government tasked to lead the talks to ensure a united and principled approach to productive discussions for the peaceful resolution of conflicts and long term peace in our country,” he added.
The CPP is the political arm of the communist movement while NPA is its armed wing. The NDF negotiates in behalf of the CPP and the NPA.
Talks with the NDF were stalled in 2013 after the government panel rejected a demand to free communist leaders with criminal cases.
NDF claimed that the detained communists, including suspected NPA commanders, are "peace consultants" and should be immune from arrest.
Communist negotiators insist that the release of peace consultants is consistent with the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).
Government negotiators, however, said NDF could not prove that the jailed rebels, especially those using aliases, are really peace consultants covered by JASIG.
Representatives from the government and NDF panels went to The Netherlands in July 2011 to verify whether the detained communists are entitled to immunity guarantees. They agreed to open a sealed envelope containing the photos and aliases of the peace consultants. The envelope, however, only contained diskettes that could not be opened.
Early this month, House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte confirmed that he met with CPP founder Jose Maria Sison, who has been in self-exile in Utrecht since 1986. Belmonte described the meeting as “more like a confidence-building measure.”
Malacañang has called the meeting “a good start” but stressed that the next developments hinges on the efforts of government negotiators.
However , talks about the possible resumption of the peace talks did not prevent violent incidents on the ground.
In Compostela Valley, one civilian was hurt after an improvised explosive device believed to have been planted by the NPA went off last Saturday.
Lt. Col. Eduardo Gubat, spokesman of the Armed Forces Eastern Mindanao Command, said the incident happened near the Mabini Police Station at around 8:20 p.m.
The civilian, identified as Ravelyn Ababa Cobrado, 21, was hit by shrapnel and was rushed to the Davao Regional Hospital.
“The CPP-NPA-NDF is really not sincere about peace in the region. There are so many innocent lives that were lost, people injured and properties damaged due to their indiscriminate use of IEDs (improvised explosive devices),” said Eastern Mindanao Command chief Lt. Gen. Aurelio Baladad.
“The continuous manufacture and use of these IEDs are gross violations of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law,” he added.
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