In Photo: Members and supporters of the underground Communist Party of the Philippines, most of them wearing red shirts and red kerchiefs over their faces, display placards during a brief rally near Malacañang in a show of force two days before the resumption of peace talks with the government on March 31, 2017.
Peace is as elusive as truth. Like in the pursuit of truth, the pursuit of peace is challenging, complex and, at times, impossible. Peace, like truth, knows no compromise, as anything less of it is not truly peace, but consolation, tokenism.
That’s why in the Philippines the government and the National Democratic Front (NDF), the negotiating arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA), have been engaged in peace negotiations for more than four decades now. In a bid to reach a final peace agreement, the government panel and the NDF has held peace talks in Scandinavia, discussing possible reforms that would lead to the laying down of arms of the NPA.
But that’s easier said than done. All the while the NDF seeks socioeconomic reforms, which it claims to be necessary to resolve the root causes of the armed struggle. The government panel, on the other hand, demands bilateral cease-fire, which it deems to be conducive for the continuation of talks.
And under the present administration, no other than President Duterte himself made it clear that a bilateral cease-fire has to be enforced first for the negotiations to carry on. This, for the NDF, is a sign of insincerity.
When Duterte was elected President in May 2016, the Left, undoubtedly, saw a window of opportunity to work with the government. The President, after all, has expressed willingness to work with the Left, given his record of maintaining close relations with communists when he was still mayor of Davao City.
As a goodwill measure, Duterte has appointed five Leftist leaders in the government, namely, Rafael V. Mariano as secretary of agrarian reform; Judy M. Taguiwalo as secretary of social welfare; Liza L. Maza as lead convenor of the National Anti-Poverty Commission; Joel B. Maglunsod as undersecretary of labor; and Terry L. Ridon as chairman of the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor.
On the other hand, the CPP has supported the government’s war on drugs in its early stages, instructing the NPA, its armed wing, to conduct offensives and arrests against big-time drug lords in the provinces.
However, the split cracked open when the war on drugs garnered international attention for claiming the lives of thousands of suspected drug criminals. Blood spilled on the streets, and so in the countryside. The CPP-NPA withdrew its support on the brutal campaign, and the civil war slowly intensified once more between government troops and communist rebels.
Peace negotiations between the government panel and the NDF suffered heavily from these setbacks, as the two panels are caught in the crossfire of events. The realities on the ground took a toll at the discussions in Norway and the Netherlands, with the NPA ambushing government troops here and there and the military bombing communist camps in the countryside.
And so after the burial of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, after the declaration of martial law in Mindanao, after the rejection of Mariano and Taguiwalo in the Cabinet, after the killing of communist rebels by Duterte’s security men in Arakan, Cotabato, the peace talks was cancelled. The termination was expected, like a teapot turned off minutes after reaching the boiling point. The government panel withdrew from the talks in May, and never went back to the table with the NDF.
According to Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process Jesus G. Dureza, the government panel remains optimistic the talks would resume anytime in the future. But like what Government Chief Negotiator and Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said, not now.
“We are always optimistic. Right now, as declared by the President, talks with them [NDF] are cancelled. We, at [the peace process], however, continue our mandate to work for peace,” Dureza told the BusinessMirror.
“We are waiting to see an enabling environment conducive to the resumption of peace negotiations. Our assessment is continuing,” Dureza added.
In a previous text message to the BusinessMirror, Bello reported the government panel is closely monitoring the situation in the countryside. If there is a “lowering level of violence” on the side of communist rebels, then the talks might resume, Bello said.
The CPP, on the other hand, reiterated in mid-September it is still open to returning to the peace table, saying the talks, after all, “is still in Duterte’s hands”.
“As the party and the NDF have often stated, it is the policy of the revolutionary forces to remain open to peace negotiations with any ruling regime that expresses willingness to seriously discuss the roots of the armed conflict, in accordance with previously agreed principles and procedures as stipulated in The Hague Declaration,” the CPP said.
“Thus, the peace negotiations can resume if Duterte will drop his earlier precondition of a bilateral cease-fire, which became the single biggest factor that terminated the talks. The ball is still in Duterte’s hands,” the CPP added.
This statement was echoed by Jose Enrique A. Africa, executive director of think tank Ibon Foundation. In a text message to the BusinessMirror, Africa argued that socioeconomic reforms should come first before the two camps can sign a bilateral cease-fire agreement.
“Putting the bilateral cease-fire first will virtually guarantee that the difficult socioeconomic reforms needed will not be implemented because the compulsion for the [government panel] will be gone. The [government panel] is, I think, also underestimating how sincerity in implementing socioeconomic reforms can significantly increase people buy-in and support for the peace process and an eventual final settlement,” Africa said.
As to the resumption of the talks, Africa urged the two camps to figure it out in backchannel and carry on with the negotiations. The talks, after all, had made significant developments under the Duterte administration, in spite of contradicting views between the government and the NDF.
“The first four rounds were successful in resuming talks with the NDF that the previous Aquino administration did not want, and in doing more work in a year, especially but not only on social and economic reforms, than in the whole decades before this. There was progress because both sides were delivering on their commitments, albeit incrementally and still imperfectly—release of political prisoners, temporary cease-fires and negotiations on substantive issues,” Africa said.
One of the most significant agreements made by the talks under the Duterte administration was the recognition in paper by the government that free-land distribution is a major socioeconomic reform needed to resolve the armed conflict. The agreement was reached in April during the fourth round of talks in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.
“We believe the talks can still continue if only the President chooses to continue—whether out of the urgency to push the far-reaching social and economic reforms the country needs, or to get the revolutionary Left on board his Charter change agenda, or out of political pragmatism to make progress on a major national security issue, or all of these,” Africa said.
Ramon C. Casiple, executive director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform, also believed the talks under the Duterte administration had made a progress the previous regimes failed to achieve.
“The talks, so far, have made progress on all topics, except on the cease-fire,” Casiple told the BusinessMirror. He added it is important to note that “the two sides still express their willingness to talk” in spite of all that’s happen; and that’s a positive outlook for peace.
Because no matter how elusive it might be, how complex it is to understand, how challenging it is to reach, like truth, peace will set the nation free.
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