NPA fighting force in Agusan del Sur. File photograph by Erwin Mascarinas, InterAksyon.
Communist leader Jose Maria Sison see no integration of New People's Army (NPA) fighters into the military or police force in the event that armed hostilities come to an end as the result of a final peace agreement with the government.
"That's easy," Sison said after reading the question on screen with his laptop during a press conference via Skype Messaging Thursday at Ibon Foundation in Timog, Quezon City.
Sison responded, in Filipino: "If there is authentic, credible agrarian and industrial reforms, there will be no need for fighting anymore. With meaningful livelihood opportunities, our armed force will become forces for economic good, as workers and farmers wherever they want to apply themselves."
He said the decommissioning of the NPA will happen depending on the outcome of the peace negotiations, the preliminaries of which have been scheduled for mid-June in Oslo, Norway.
In a follow-up interview after the press conference, Fidel Agcaoili, a panel member of the National Democratic Front (NDF), declined to give an exact number of the present strength of the NPA when asked by this reporter.
"Ayaw ng military na magbanggit kami niyan e (The military does not like us mentioning numbers)," Agcaoili said, even as he disputed claims by the military that NPA "remnants" are now down to only about 4,000.
"Hindi totoo 'yang figure nila, hindi totoo (Their figure is not true. Not true)," he said.
According to Agcaoili, the preliminary talks will tackle substantive agenda on socio-economic and political settlements, end of armed hostilities, release of political prisoners that is anchored on the Joint Agreement on Security and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), among others.
"Well, a cease fire is doable immediately, depending on the mutual understanding. When we say cease fire it should be mutual and operational as to the disposition of forces, no conduct of offensive operations, duration of the cease fire, and other points, that should be all guided by a cease fire mechanism," Agcaoili said.
"We will see this in a draft proposal. On our part, we will be having only one cease fire committee, which will go around for monitoring and inspections. We've learned our lessons in 1986, where many from our rank and file were eliminated because we created so many committees involving so many cadres, which enabled the military to identify them. We will not do that again this time," he added.
Agcaoili said the NDF is also open to suggestion of third party observers. "The church can be harnessed for this purpose," he suggested.
http://interaksyon.com/article/128619/joma-sees-no-npa-normalization-after-end-of-armed-hostilities
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