Communist rebels urged: Stop waging war

From the Philippine Star (Feb 20): Communist rebels urged: Stop waging war

Government peace panel chairman Alexander Padilla yesterday urged communist rebels to stop waging war and instead seek ways to bring peace to the country.

Padilla criticized National Democratic Front (NDF) panel chairman Luis Jalandoni for telling half-truths to cover up atrocities of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Padilla denied Jalandoni’s claims that President Aquino snubbed a signed peace agreement with communist rebels in 2014.

“There was no peace deal,” he said.

Padilla said innocent civilians in communities are the ones directly suffering from the attacks of the New People’s Army.

“Instead of continuing to wage armed conflict against our democracy, the CPP/NPA/NDF must seek ways to deliver peace, especially to the communities on the ground that have been sorely affected by their armed struggle,” he said.

Padilla challenged the NDF to go beyond its usual practice of making unreasonable demands then putting the blame on the government for the failure to resume peace talks.

“It is high time for the CPP/NPA/NDF to change its tactic of making impossible demands and blaming the government for the failure to resume peace talks,” he said.

“They have used this tired old rhetoric to cover up for their continuing violence on the ground and their strategy to use the peace process to get as many concessions as they can from government without giving anything in return.”

Padilla said Jalandoni is not telling the whole story.

“What Mr. Jalandoni is referring to was not an agreement,” he said.

“In December 2014, there were reports of peace talks resuming between the government of the Philippines and the NDF. We clarified then that what was happening was, a group of private individuals we consider ‘friends of the process’ was shuttling between the two parties to explore possible parameters for restarting the talks at the earliest possible time. It was this private group that initialed a proposed agreement subject to approval by the two panels.” 

Padilla said the government was studying that proposal and was prepared to discuss it with the NDF panel in January 2015 until the Mamasapano incident happened.

“In February 2015, the private group again went to Utrecht and returned with another proposal from the NDF to resume the talks, this time with a stronger demand for the release of hundreds of its leaders and followers in detention, the withdrawal or dismissal of cases against their detained alleged consultants and other pre-conditions,” he said.

Padilla said the peace talks were stalled because of that.

“With the NDF asserting even more than its usual demands, like many other initiatives undertaken in the past to explore the resumption of the talks, that one also did not pan out,” he said.

Padilla said the government tried all possibilities for the resumption of the peace talks.

“The NDF’s usual strategy is to use the negotiations to get as many concessions as it can from government without giving anything in return. In spite of this, (the government) continued to pursue all possibilities for the resumption of talks,” he said.

Padilla said the government tried twice to get the talks moving in 2015.

“We tried two more times in 2015, based on proposals offered by our Norwegian facilitator to the parties, but to no avail,” he said.

“On the first one, the NDF said they needed more time to consult the ground while the RNG (Norwegian government) and the government waited. On the second one, the NDF expressed its reservation on the RNG’s facilitation process for generating goodwill measures that would benefit the people.”

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/02/20/1554979/communist-rebels-urged-stop-waging-war