After 2 rounds, 'uncertainties' dampen initial optimism over talks - Reds

From InterAksyon (Oct 12): After 2 rounds, 'uncertainties' dampen initial optimism over talks - Reds

While acknowledging “some progress” after two rounds of formal negotiations with government, communist rebel negotiators said “uncertainties remain that serve to dampen the(ir) initial optimism” over the peace talks.

A statement from the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, which represents the rebels, noted in particular “the snail’s pace” of efforts to secure the release of more than 400 political prisoners around the country.

At the same time, the NDFP also cited reports of continuing military operations despite indefinite unilateral ceasefires declared by both the government and the rebels as both sides work towards forging a bilateral ceasefire to help advance the negotiations, as well as new human rights abuses.

While the NDFP said NPA units “have been maneuvering to avoid armed encounters,” it noted that “tensions are rising because the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) operations appear more and more to be taking the form of base-denial operations” against the rebels’ mass base.

It quoted Madlos as saying that, “from Northern Luzon to Southern Mindanao,” military units allegedly told civilians “that the ceasefire is no longer in effect to justify their operations and presence in their communities,” citing a report from the NPA’s Agustin Begnalen Command in Abra, and also noting the AFP “using the drug campaign as a pretext” to mount operations.

The activist Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas reported that early this month, police in San Juan del Monte, Bulacan raided the homes of farmers embroiled in a land dispute, arresting and detaining seven and eventually holding on to three of them, who were “vilified as members of the New People’s Army and were charged with drug possession.” (http://www.interaksyon.com/article/133197/bulacan-farmers-in-land-dispute-nabbed-in-tokhang-style-ops---kmp)'

The NDFP also cited the death of peasant leader and anti-mining activist Jimmy Saypan, secretary general of the Compostela Valley Farmers Association, who passed away Tuesday, a day after he was shot by motorcycle-riding gunmen. (http://www.interaksyon.com/article/133187/compostela-valley-peasant-leader-dies-after-shooting)

Before his death, Saypan was active in the CFA’s campaigns against operations by the Agusan Petroleum Mineral Corp. in 12,000 hectares of lumad lands in the province and in demanding the pullout of military units from communities. The CFA had been tagged a rebel “legal front” by the military.

The rebels warned that “cynicism is now growing among some of the NDFP negotiators and consultants as well as among the remaining political prisoners.”

During the recently ended second round of talks in Oslo, Norway, new NDFP peace panel chairman Fidel Agcaoili questioned why no more political prisoners have been released since August despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s pledge in May to issue an amnesty proclamation.

Thus far, only 22 political prisoners, all of them NDFP consultants, have been freed on bail to allow them to participate in the negotiations.

The NDFP did acknowledge “some progress” in the work of both parties’ reciprocal working committees on the three remaining major agenda of the talks -- social and economic reforms, political and constitutional reforms, and end of hostilities and disposition of forces.

Nevertheless, it noted that “a great chasm between the two sides exists in the appreciation of what the NDFP considers the age-old problems of rural landlessness and poverty.”

The next round of talks has been scheduled in the third week of January next year.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/133238/after-2-rounds-uncertainties-dampen-initial-optimism-over-talks---reds