Govt, reds agree on indefinite truce

From InterAksyon (Aug 26): Govt, reds agree on indefinite truce

OSLO, Norway - The Philippine government and Communist guerrillas have agreed an indefinite extension to a ceasefire to facilitate talks on a peace deal, Norway, which is playing the role of intermediary, announced Friday.

Representatives of the government peace panel and the Communist Party of the Philippines' National Democratic Front on Friday signed the indefinite cease fire agreement as the first round of the revived formal peace talks came to a close.

"This is a historic and unprecedented event ... (but) there is still a lot of work to be done ahead," President Rodrigo Duterte's peace adviser, Jesus Dureza, said at a signing ceremony in Norway, which is mediating the talks.

Both sides agreed to implement unilateral cease fires which are unlimited in time, something that has never been achieved before in the peace process.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende described the agreement as a "major breakthrough."

The two panels meet again for the next round of negotiations this October.

As a prelude, the two sides had each agreed to a ceasefire, but the truce commitment by the Communist side was due to end on Saturday.

At stake is the aim of ending one of Asia's longest-running insurgencies.

The Communist Party of the Philippines launched a rebellion in 1968 that has so far claimed the lives of 30,000 people, according to official estimates.

Its armed faction, the New People's Army (NPA), is now believed to have fewer than 4,000 gunmen, down from a peak of 26,000 in the 1980s, when a bloodless revolt ended the 20-year dictatorship of late president Ferdinand Marcos.

They remain particularly active in rural areas, where they are notorious for extorting money from local businesses. They also regularly attack police and military forces, sometimes targeting them in urban areas.

In 2002, the US State Department designated the Communist Party and the NPA foreign terrorist organisations.

Elusive peace

Forging peace with the rebels has been the elusive goal of Philippine presidents since the 1986 "People Power" revolution that toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

The force behind the current talks is Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who took office on June 30 after a landslide election victory.

On Monday, his government said it hoped to reach a peace accord within a year.

Duterte, who calls himself a Socialist, hails from Mindanao, the impoverished southern third of the Philippines where two rebellions -- Communist and Muslim -- have been most active.

He says ending both insurgencies is vital to his plan to curb poverty. He has even sketched the possibility of forming a coalition government with the rebels.

Duterte reputedly has close links to the Communists and is a former university student of Jose Maria Sison, now aged 77, who established the party.

The two sides hope to breathe new life into the process by discussing simultaneously the outstanding issues of social and economic reforms, political and constitutional changes, and an end to hostilities.

Previous peace talks have addressed one issue at a time.

Among the issues are the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law or CARHRIHL, following the conclusion of the first of the talks' four substantive agenda, and what has turned out to be the most problematic, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees, or JASIG, which protects negotiators, their consultants and staff from arrest and prosecution for the duration of the negotiations.

JASIG is actually an important agreement since it would allow negotiators and consultants of both parties to visit their constituencies even in contentious areas to solicit their inputs on the peace process.

Ironically, these major agreements were negotiated and signed under the presidency of Fidel Ramos, the former soldier who helped implement the 14-year Marcos dictatorship until he and then Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile broke away and helped spark the 1986 People Power uprising.

http://interaksyon.com/article/131846/govt-reds-agree-on-indefinite-truce