While Philippine President Benigno Aquino III is keen on
forging a peace agreement with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)
before he leaves office at the end of June next year, the prospects of resuming
the stalled peace negotiations between the two sides have remained dim.
Secretary Teresita Deles, presidential adviser on the peace
process, said Monday that it is difficult to restart the stalled talks with
preconditions.
Deles told the local media that "It was premature to
talk about prisoner releases without a full appreciation of the context and
parameters of the talks now being proposed."
Deles was responding to remarks made by Luis Jalandoni,
chairman of the National Democratic Front (NDF) peace panel that the NDF would
return to the negotiating table only if the NDF consultants and political
prisoners held in jails across the country on criminal charges would be
released.
Jalandoni said that of some of the political prisoners are
" peace consultants" whom the NDF insisted were pass holders of the
Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG). JASIG was signed by
both sides to allow political prisoners to sit with the NDF panel during the
negotiations.
But the government has refused to release the prisoners,
saying that they are facing criminal charges, including rebellion, homicide,
and murder.
Notable among the prisoners are spouses Benito and Wilma
Tiamzon whom the government tagged as top officials of the CPP and its military
wing, the New People's Army (NPA). The couple was arrested in Cebu City in
Central Philippines in March 2014.
The NDF is the umbrella organization representing the CPP
and the NPA in negotiating with the government.
Jalandoni made the remarks during a dinner with Houser
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte in Amsterdam
Sison, Jalandoni and the other top leaders of the
NDF-CPP-NPA now live in exile in Utrecht , the Netherlands
Jalandoni said the rebel peace panel is willing to start
negotiating a peace agreement and finish it before the end of President
Aquino's term in June 2016. "With the signing of such an agreement (we'll)
see if a truce and cooperation are possible," Jalandoni said.
Belmonte said the meeting with the NDF officials was
"more like a confidence-building measure".
Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr.
acknowledged that the recent meeting between Belmonte and the group of Sison in
the Netherlands Netherlands
He admitted, however, that the government, through the
Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), must still
reconcile some pending issues with the communist side about the possible
resumption of the peace talks.
Talks have been suspended a few years ago due to a conflict
on the rebels' demand for the release of some of their detained consultants.
Former President Fidel V. Ramos has also called for the
resumption of peace negotiations between the government and the local communist
group after what he termed as "friendly overtures" with the CPP-NPA
during his term.
Ramos, who actively engaged in peace talks with the
communist rebels during his presidency, stressed the importance of forging
peace that is "inclusive, honorable and just."
The NPA, which has been waging a guerrilla war against the
Philippine government for the past 45 years, is considered as one of the
world's longest-running communist insurgencies.
The number of NPA combatants, according to the latest
figures from the military, has dwindled to about 3,200 and some 1,200
noncombatants from more than 26,000 in the late 1980s due to setbacks in
encounters with government troops, surrenders and factionalism. But the
resilient guerrillas remains the country's most serious security threat, after
the Muslim rebellion in the Southern Philippines .
The war has claimed more than 40,000 lives, according to
government figures.
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=292467
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