Jose Maria Sison (middle), founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines. SCREENGRAB FROM TV5
The Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front (CPP-NDF) need to submit the names of their consultants who will be part of the negotiating panel to be issued safe conduct pass when peace talks starts middle of July.
Hernani Braganza, a senior member of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) peace panel, over the weekend said at least 21 consultants and their staff who are presently locked behind bars and declared as political prisoners need to get safe conduct pass from the Joint Agreement on Security and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG),
“We are only given 12 months to finish the job. We, in the peace panel under the Duterte administration are veterans of peace talks and what we need is to continue what we have finish to end the 47 years of insurgency in the country,” Braganza told reporters at the weekly Saturday News Forum at Annabel’s.
He said what they had agreed in the last three administrations must prevail and those agreements which need Congress approval should be followed.
Braganza, a former congressman of Pangasinan, said the progressive bloc in the House of Representatives may sponsor a measure in seeking to grant total amnesty to all political prisoners.
"May mga kailaganng procesong dapat sundin. May mga progressive blocs naman sa Congress. They take the initiative of filing 'yung batas na yun. How long will that take in Congress? Alam mo naman sa Congress kulitan dyan 'di ba? Tignan natin," Braganza pointed out.
Members of the progressive bloc who won in the last elections and will be part of the 17th Congress include the party-lists of Bayan Muna, ACT Teachers, Anakpawis, Kabataan, and Gabriela - who altogether have a total of eight members.
The bloc has yet to decide on whether it should join the supermajority being formed by incoming House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez to facilitate President-elect Rodrigo Duterte's legislative agenda.
Braganza, together with peace panel chairman, Silvestre “Bebot” Bello III and Jess Dureza, went to The Netherlands to convince Jose Maria Sison and Luis Jalandoni to come home to the Philippines to start talking peace.
Another way is by amnesty proclamation by the President, he said, but still this is subject to concurrence by Congress.
He even recalled that this happened in 2010 when President Benigno Aquino III pardoned military and police officers who took part in failed attempts to unseat then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo from 2003 to 2007.
When asked how many political prisoners are now in captivity, the peace negotiator said there were 543.
He said 18 were NDF consultants that were reportedly covered by JASIG, 88 were ailing, and 48 were already in their senior years.
Braganza said both the NDF and the government panels would assess who should be included in the amnesty list.
"When you talk about the JASIG, hindi lang yung mga ilalabas sa kulungan, pati yung mga tao nila that will comprise their experts na haharap sa experts ng mga gobyerno, yung security personnel nila, yung secretariat nila will also be covered by JASIG so that they can also move freely and consult with their constituency," he added.
As agreed by both the government and the NDF panels, formal peace negotiations between the government and NDF will resume in the third week of July in Oslo, Norway.
http://interaksyon.com/article/129571/peace-panel-to-cpp-ndf-submit-names-of-detained-consultants-to-be-given-safe-conduct-pass
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