Government peace panel chair, Labor Secretary Silvestre
Bello III thanked the National Democratic Front (NDF) for deciding to extend
indefinitely its one-week unilateral ceasefire to aid the peace process and
achieve a deal within a year.
Closing the week-long peace talks in Oslo ,
Norway Friday, Bello said the resumption
of the negotiations was "a leap of faith" after the last one in 2011.
"But no matter how difficult it was, we choose to
believe and today, we start receiving the dividends of that faith. Our
agreements reached during this round of talks should tell us how far can our
faith bring us and what we can achieve together," he said.
During the past week, both parties agreed on six, instead of
five, major contentious issues that would propel the negotiations.
Aside from the NDF's decision for an indefinite ceasefire,
the panels also re-affirmed previously signed agreements, among them The Hague
Joint Declaration in 1992, Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees
(JASIG) in 1996, and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect of Human Rights and
International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) in 1998.
The Philippine government (GPH) and NDF panels also agreed
to reconstitute the JASIG list, which will be on an encrypted file and will
contain photos and identities of NDF consultants who are still in hiding but
will be immune to arrest as the negotiations are underway.
The JASIG list will contain the names and photos of 54 NDF
"publicly known" consultants and 87 guerilla leaders who are known by
their "assumed names".
Also given a thumbs up during the meeting were the
revitalization of the joint monitoring committee, the submission of a
recommendation to President Rodrigo Duterte on the issuance of an Amnesty
Proclamation, subject to concurrence with Congress, for the arrested,
imprisoned and charged NDF members.
These consultants include couple Benito and Wilma Tiamzon,
Chairman and Secretary-General, respectively, of the Communist Party of the
Philippines (CPP), Tirzo Alcantara and Alan Jazmines.
Other NDF consultants who were present were NDF co-founder
and former Bayan Muna Party-List Representative Satur Ocampo, Vicente Ladlad,
Rafael Baylosis and Randall Echanis.
Both panels agreed to meet again on Oct. 8-12 in Oslo to discuss, among
others, issues on socioeconomic reforms, which they agreed to finish in the
next six months.
Both panels also agreed to activate the Reciprocal Working
Committee on the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms (CASER), and
the Reciprocal Working Groups (RWGs) on Political and Constitutional Reforms
(PCR) and the End of Hostilities-Disposition of Forces (EOH-DOF).
The RCW meetings will be held in Oslo
and those of RWGs in the Philippines .
"We conclude today our first round of talks with much
vigor to accomplish the bigger tasks ahead in peace building," Bello said.
"Let us be steadfast in our peace work until we have
reached a logical conclusion of the armed conflict," he added.
Aside from Bello ,
the government was represented in the meeting by Presidential Adviser on the
Peace Process (PAPP) Jesus Duresa, former PAPP Rene Sarmiento, former agrarian
reform secretary Hernani Braganza, Secretariat chief Carla Munsayac, and lawyer
Sedfrey Candelaria, among others.
NDF chief negotiator Luis Jalandoni led the other party and
was accompanied by CPP founder Jose Maria Sison and wife, Julie, NDF
spokesperson Fidel Agcaoili, NDF peace panel member Coni Ledesma, and NDF
Representative to the Nordic countries Asterio Palma, among others.
The meeting was facilitated by the Royal Norwegian
Government.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=917728
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.