President Rodrigo Duterte listens as Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. speaks during their meeting in Malacanang Thursday. (image from video by Anakpawis Rep. Ariel Casilao)
(UPDATE - 5:06 p.m.) On his first day in office, President Rodrigo Duterte took the unprecedented step of inviting representatives of Leftist groups to a dialogue in Malacanang Palace Thursday and accepted a 15-point agenda they wish him to address.
Renato Reyes Jr., secretary general of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, who was with the delegation that met with Duterte, described their 40-minute meeting in the Osmena Room toInterAksyon.com as “cordial” and the President’s welcome as “very warm.”
He said he and other representatives of sectoral groups, including former Gabriela Representative Liza Maza, were fetched by members of the Presidential Security Group from a rally they were staging at the foot of Mendiola Bridge to call on Duterte to make good on his “pro-people” pledges and resume formal peace negotiations with communist rebels.
The other activists at the meeting were Elmer Labog of the Kilusang Mayo Uno, Sarah Elago of Kabataan party-list, Cristina Palabay of Karapatan, Christian Tuayon of Bayan-Negros, Windel Bolinget of the Cordillera People's Alliance, Diego Torres of Bayan-Southern Tagalog, Eufemia Cullamat, a lumad from Caraga region, and Antonio Flores of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas.
Reyes said they had originally invited Duterte to their rally but “because of the tight schedule” of Thursday’s presidential inauguration found themselves being asked to the Palace instead.
A video of the meeting taken by Anakpawis Representative Ariel Casilao and posted on social media showed Duterte and the activists seated around a long table.
VIDEO TAKEN BY ANAKPAWIS REP. ARIEL CASILAO OF THE MEETING BETWEEN DUTERTE AND ACTIVIST GROUPS
“I’m ready to accept whatever is to be presented here…” Duterte told the group. He also briefed them on the efforts to resume peace talks, saying they had achieved “5 on our way to 6” on a scale of one to 10 and had “done away with the animosity between government” and what he described as “pressure groups.”
Formal talks with the National Democratic Front are expected to resume in the middle of the month.
The 15-point agenda on economic development, good governance and the fight against corruption, social policy, peace and human rights, and foreign policy, presented to Duterte contains reforms activist groups believe the administration can accomplish in its first 100 days, and was approved by a People’s Summit held at the University of the Philippines Wednesday.
"We discussed a wide range of issues including contractualization, destructive mining, ancestral lands, land reform, the release of political prisoners on humanitarian grounds, increasing the budget for health services and education," Reyes said in a subsequent statement. "He sympathized with the release of political prisoners on humanitarian grounds since he had seen similar cases in Davao before. He is studying the possibility of distribution 6 million hectares of public land to farmers. He is a firm believer of the principle of land to the tiller."
The Bayan leader also said Duterte asked them if it was their first time inside Malacanang. "For most, it was," he said.
As for himself, Reyes sad, "The last time I set foot in Malacanang was in 2001, right after EDSA 2 and just before EDSA 3. That was 15 years ago."
Reyes said another game-changer is likely to happen when Duterte delivers his first state of the nation address next month.
“He agreed that we could come close” to the Batasan complex, where the SONA is delivered before a joint session of Congress at the House of Representatives “because he has never seen rallies and street protests as a problem because of his experience in Davao.”
During past administrations, SONA rallies have invariably been confined to Commonwealth Avenue and attempts by activists to break through police barricades have often led to clashes.
http://interaksyon.com/article/129768/duterte-meets-left-in-cordial-palace-dialogue
Instead of "Duterte meets Left" the article should read "Duterte meets with Communist Party of the Philippines front organizations."
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