NDFP comments on proposal to hold peace talks in UP

From the Philippine Information Agency (Jun 30): NDFP comments on proposal to hold peace talks in UP

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) commented on the proposal of the Yes for Peace – Bayanihan para sa Kapayapaan, Kaunlaran at Kasaganahan to conduct peace negotiations with the government anywhere here in the country.

In an open letter to Professor Joma Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and adviser of the NDFP, Ernesto Angeles Alcanzare wrote, “You may want to seriously consider the University of the Philippines as a venue and as a mediating institution in the peace negotiations as resolved by the UP Board of Regents in 1992.”

Alcanzare was referring to a “Resolution Declaring all UP Campuses a Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality” by its Board of Regents during its 1056th meeting held on 17 December 1992 which resolved further, “that UP shall offer its campus as a possible venue for open and multilateral peace talks between the government and all armed revolutionary groups, and serve as mediating institution in peace talks.”

The UP Board of Regents resolution defined a Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality as: “A society whose constituents have agreed to:

1.   “Develop harmonious internal and external working relationships with each other and with their environment;

2.   “Respect and uphold each other’s right regardless of religious, political, and cultural beliefs in the spirit of openness;

3.     “Create and provide opportunities for satisfying the needs of all regardless of their respective socio-economic status; and

4.   “Serve as mediating parties and offer a venue for the immediate resolution of conflicts among antagonists who have opted to use violence in the pursuit of their respective causes.”

NDFP Political Consultant Dan Borjal, in a statement published online by the NDFP International Information Office objected to Alcanzare’s proposal, “Some rogue elements who do not wish the peace process to succeed can act as ‘spoilers’.”

“The NDFP has learned its lesson from its experience in 1987 when it agreed to hold peace negotiations in Manila. It was marred by the violent dispersal of peasants in front of Malacanang, which came to be known as the Mendiola Massacre. NDFP negotiators and their technical and security personnel were forced to hurriedly withdraw to their base in the countryside,” Borjal said.

 “Conducting peace negotiations in a foreign venue is not something out of the ordinary. Peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians had been held in Oslo, between the Americans and Vietnamese in Paris, between the Colombian government and FARC in Cuba, etc....,” he added.

A “Summary of the FARC-Government Ceasefire and Disarmament Accord” published online and dated 23 June 2016 stated that, “The accord agreed today, for ‘A Bilateral and Definitive Ceasefire, Cessation of Hostilities, and Laying Aside of Weapons,’ closes the fifth of five substantive items on the FARC-government negotiating agenda. It sets out a roadmap for disarming and demobilizing the FARC after a final peace accord is signed. It foresees a swift process: a full turnover of guerrilla weapons within six months.”

For his part, Lawyer Domingo Alidon, President of the 19,000-strong Department of Education National Employees’ Union and a known peace advocate accepted Borjal’s position and said, “His point may be valid and factual but the negotiations between the Americans and the Vietnamese and the Israelis and Palestinians were to resolve conflicts between different nations and therefore of different peoples and not between parties that both claim to represent the interests of the same people. In our case, the sovereign Filipino people!”

Meanwhile, Engr Mama S. Lalanto, al Haj, an Adviser of Yes for Peace, said, “If the peace negotiations between the government and the Communist Party of the Philippines - National Democratic Front of the Philippines - New People’s Army are continued to be held in accordance with what seems to be a hard line position of the NDFP of holding it abroad, can, we, the sovereign Filipino people for whom the armed struggle is waged expect an accord similar to that which was recently entered into by the Colombian government and the FARC?” 

“Of course, Joma Sison’s security and safety as well as those of all peace negotiators and consultants of the NDFP will have to be guaranteed by the government for all these to happen,” Alidon added.

According to a high ranking military officer who asked not to be identified, “The AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) and the PNP (Philippine National Police) are directly under the command of and are responsible to the President and therefore strictly follow lawful orders. I assume that the NDFP have a very high level of trust and confidence in incoming President Rodrigo R. Duterte. Thus, the security and safety of Mr. Sison and his colleagues can easily be guaranteed.”

http://news.pia.gov.ph/article/view/261467246887/ndfp-comments-on-proposal-to-hold-peace-talks-in-up