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News Analysis: Resumption of peace talks between Philippine gov't and CPP dim

Xinhua, July 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

While Philippine President Benigno Aquino III is keen on forging a peace agreement with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) before he leaves office at the end of June next year, the prospects of resuming the stalled peace negotiations between the two sides have remained dim.

Secretary Teresita Deles, presidential adviser on the peace process, said Monday that it is difficult to restart the stalled talks with preconditions.

Deles told the local media that "It was premature to talk about prisoner releases without a full appreciation of the context and parameters of the talks now being proposed."

Deles was responding to remarks made by Luis Jalandoni, chairman of the National Democratic Front (NDF) peace panel that the NDF would return to the negotiating table only if the NDF consultants and political prisoners held in jails across the country on criminal charges would be released.

Jalandoni said that of some of the political prisoners are " peace consultants" whom the NDF insisted were pass holders of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG). JASIG was signed by both sides to allow political prisoners to sit with the NDF panel during the negotiations.

But the government has refused to release the prisoners, saying that they are facing criminal charges, including rebellion, homicide, and murder.

Notable among the prisoners are spouses Benito and Wilma Tiamzon whom the government tagged as top officials of the CPP and its military wing, the New People's Army (NPA). The couple was arrested in Cebu City in Central Philippines in March 2014.

The NDF is the umbrella organization representing the CPP and the NPA in negotiating with the government.

Jalandoni made the remarks during a dinner with Houser Speaker Feliciano Belmonte in Amsterdam last week. Jose Maria Sison, founder of the CPP and now NDF consultant, was also present during the dinner.

Sison, Jalandoni and the other top leaders of the NDF-CPP-NPA now live in exile in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Jalandoni said the rebel peace panel is willing to start negotiating a peace agreement and finish it before the end of President Aquino's term in June 2016. "With the signing of such an agreement (we'll) see if a truce and cooperation are possible," Jalandoni said.

Belmonte said the meeting with the NDF officials was "more like a confidence-building measure".

Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. acknowledged that the recent meeting between Belmonte and the group of Sison in the Netherlands was a good confidence building measure toward peace. "We hope there will be progress in resumption of the peace talks following the initial meeting of Speaker Belmonte with the leaders of the NDF-CPP-NPA in the Netherlands," Coloma said in a radio interview.

He admitted, however, that the government, through the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), must still reconcile some pending issues with the communist side about the possible resumption of the peace talks.

Talks have been suspended a few years ago due to a conflict on the rebels' demand for the release of some of their detained consultants.

Former President Fidel V. Ramos has also called for the resumption of peace negotiations between the government and the local communist group after what he termed as "friendly overtures" with the CPP-NPA during his term.

Ramos, who actively engaged in peace talks with the communist rebels during his presidency, stressed the importance of forging peace that is "inclusive, honorable and just."

The NPA, which has been waging a guerrilla war against the Philippine government for the past 45 years, is considered as one of the world's longest-running communist insurgencies.

The number of NPA combatants, according to the latest figures from the military, has dwindled to about 3,200 and some 1,200 noncombatants from more than 26,000 in the late 1980s due to setbacks in encounters with government troops, surrenders and factionalism. But the resilient guerrillas remains the country's most serious security threat, after the Muslim rebellion in the Southern Philippines.

The war has claimed more than 40,000 lives, according to government figures. Endi