All-out war vs NPA ‘misguided, imprudent’ — think tank

From GMA News (Feb 8): All-out war vs NPA ‘misguided, imprudent’ — think tank

With no formal termination of the peace talks between the government (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), an independent think tank on Wednesday described the declaration of an all-out war with the New People’s Army (NPA) as “misguided and imprudent.”

In a news release, the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) stressed that the all-out war should not have been declared because both panels have not yet decided to completely end the peace negotiations.

“[W]ith both GRP and NDFP officials expressing hints of not entirely sealing the doors to continue the peace talks, all the more is the reason for the armed forces to hold its fire,” CenPEG said.

Prof. Bobby Tuazon, director of CenPEG’s policy studies, said the GRP and the NDF panels should proceed with pushing for a bilateral ceasefire agreement as they have scheduled on February 22 in the Netherlands.

Tuazon said a bilateral ceasefire agreement would lessen armed conflict between the two parties.

“It was fine that both panels earlier declared unilateral declarations of ceasefires as a confidence-building measure to resume the talks. These ceasefires, however, were silent on mechanisms and clear provisions on how both sides will enforce their respective declarations,” the news release read, quoting Tuazon.

Moreover, the bilateral ceasefire will operationalize the Joint Monitoring Committee, which the CenPEG said is critical “because the peace talks involve national forces and center on the important agenda of social, economic, political, and constitutional reforms that may eventually be implemented nationwide.”

“The bilateral ceasefire committee can immediately assign the JMC to probe and resolve reports of ceasefire violations especially those that unfortunately happened since August,” the group added.

Respect agreements
Meanwhile, Prof. Temario Rivera, CenPEG chair, stressed the importance of recognizing and following earlier signed agreements and not putting the results of the earlier rounds of peace talks to waste.

“[The government] must respect all earlier agreements on the peace process and allow all NDFP consultants to participate in the resumption of negotiations without fear of arrest or harassment,” Rivera said.

“As a clear signal of its readiness to resume talks, the CPP-NPA-NDF can put all its armed units on a defensive mode and not to engage government forces unless attacked first,” he added.

Some breakthrough achieved during the previous rounds of peace talks included the agreement on the framework for the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms and a Comprehensive Agreement on Political and Constitutional Reforms.

“This level of talks is unprecedented and it would be unfortunate to allow the gains go to waste,” Tuazon said.

Meeting point
For his part, political analyst Prof. Ramon Casiple said both panels should come in a "meeting point" so that the peace process may resume and a bilateral ceasefire may be achieved.

“Meeting point ay magrelease ng gobyerno ng ilang [political prisoners], hindi lahat, lalo na ‘yung maysakit, matanda,” Casiple said in a Balitanghali interview on Wednesday.

“‘Yung kabilang panig naman, the only way na makabalik sa table ay pumayag sila sa bilateral ceasefire. Hindi na papayag ang gobyerno sa talking while fighting,” he added.

The NDFP has consistently demanded to the government to release some 400 political prisoners still languishing in prisons across the country.

They claimed, however, that the government has failed to grant this demand, causing them to terminate its unilateral ceasefire.

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/598804/news/nation/all-out-war-vs-npa-misguided-imprudent-think-tank