GRP, NDF Panels Scramble to Save Peace Talks From
Collapse
By Interaksyon - May 27, 2017 - 8:39 PM
Part of the GRP panel at the table just as the 5th
Round of peace negotiations was to start in the Netherlands.
(UPDATE 5 – 8:49 a.m. May 28) Scrambling to save the fifth round of
formal peace talks, the negotiating panels of the Government of the
Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the
National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) meeting in The
Netherlands have agreed to continue informal negotiations at 9 am
Sunday, May 28, (3 pm Philippine time).
NDFP panel spokesperson Luis Jalandoni told reporters Presidential
Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza requested for the postponement of the
resumption of their panel-to-panel meeting
originally scheduled at 8pm Saturday (4 am Philippine time).
The parties met at 6:30 in the evening (12:30 am Philippine time) for
the NDFP to submit a written reply to the GRP’s statement that it
would not participate in the fifth round of talks
unless the Communist Party of the Philippines rescinds its earlier
order to the New People’s Army to further intensify its military
operations against state forces.
The NDFP also said the GRP asked them to sign a bilateral ceasefire
agreement for the fifth round to proceed. Reacting to the NDFP’s
written reply, GRP chief negotiator Silvestre Bello
III said the NDFP reply is “worth looking into.”
Both the NDFP and the GRP refused to divulge the contents of the
reply, however, saying they have mutually agreed to keep the current
informal negotiations between themselves.
Their early evening discussion was attended by the Third Party
Facilitator, the Royal Norwegian Government.
The GRP and the NDFP are still trying to save what appeared earlier in
the day to be an imminent cancellation of the round, sources from both
parties said. Bello and NDFP counterpart
Fidel Agcaoili were seen holding backchannel talks in between
panel-to-panel discussions in apparent efforts to save the formal
round.
Earlier, Agcaoili said it is the third consecutive round the GRP
presented conditionalities before the peace negotiations formally
opened.
The GRP has been consistently asking the NDFP for a bilateral
ceasefire agreement since the third round in Rome last January. The
NDFP position, expressed repeatedly, is that such is
only possible when socio-economic reforms as well as political and
constitutional reforms agreements have already been signed and
implemented in accordance with The Hague Joint
Declaration of September 1, 1992.
5th round still possible
Both parties said the fifth round is still possible.
Earlier reports reaching Manila on Saturday, May 27, indicate that the
5th Round of the formal negotiations between the Government of the
Philippines (GRP) and the National
Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in Noordwijk aan Zee, The
Netherlands has been put in suspended animation by a last minute
conditionality that almost scuttled the talks,
now best described as “in recess” as a result.
The respective panels of both sides promptly scrambled to troubleshoot
the negotiation in order to try and salvage the peace talks.
The NDF Negotiating Panel said it was drafting a reply to its
Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) counterpart as
part of efforts to find common ground, untangle the
bind and allow the fifth round of formal peace negotiations to
proceed.
Bello, Agcaoili, The Netherlands
Sylvestre Bello of the GRP panel and NDF’s Fidel Agcaoili (back to
camera) working to keep the peace talks in The Netherlands from
collapsing. Photographed by Kodao Productions
The government of the Philippines had announced it would not proceed
with the scheduled 5th round of talks, through Presidential Spokesman
Ernesto Abella “in the light of the latest
public announcement by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) to
accelerate and intensify its attacks against the government due to the
President’s declaration of martial law in
Mindanao.
“We question the sincerity of the CPP/NPA/NDFP, if they truly are in
pursuit of peaceful coexistence. The Duterte administration would
rather pursue the path of genuine dialogue to
build a nation worthy of its citizens.”
Abella’s statement wrong
GRP chief negotiator Silvestre Bello III, for his part, clarified that
Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella’s statement was wrong.
Abella’s announcement was lifted from Dureza’s
prepared statement read to Filipino and Dutch journalists covering the
talks. Informed of Abella’s announcement, Bello looked surprised but
underscored that such statements should
come only from the government panel present in The Netherlands.
“The fifth round is still a possibility,” Bello maintained. The panels
are set to meet again in a last ditch effort to salvage the scheduled
fifth round, Kodao Productions indicated in a
dispatch as reported by Raymund B. Villanueva.
The CPP order to NPA
The CPP order had been in response to the intensified AFP operations
and widespread human rights violations preceding and following the
declaration of Martial Law in the whole of
Mindanao.
President Duterte justified his Martial Law declaration by citing as
reason the terrorist actions of the Maute Group in Marawi City. But
Lorenzana declared that the NPA was also a
target of AFP military operations.
Silvestre Bello made a subsequent clarification that Duterte had said
that the Mindanao martial law was not aimed against the NPA.
NDF reply
NDFP chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili said their reply will clarify to
the GRP the NDFP panel could not order the Communist Party of the
Philippines (CPP) to retract its order to the New
People’s Army (NPA) to further intensify their offensive operations
against the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine
National Police.
Agcaoili explained the CPP’s directive was a response to GRP Defense
Secretary Delfin Lorenzana’s statements that the NPA was among the
targets of President Rodrigo Duterte’s
Martial Law declaration over the entire Mindanao region.
Agcaoili cited bombings of communities in North Cotabato and Bukidnon
that killed one civilian and injured several others in the past two
days.
“There are NPA units operating in those areas,” Lorenzana reasoned.
He added that the NDF could only recommend to the CPP in much the same
way that GRP’s chief negotiator Silvestre Bello III and Presidential
Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza could not
order the AFP and the GRP security cluster to withdraw their all-out
war policy against the NPA and lift President Rodrigo Duterte’s
martial law declaration over the entire Mindanao
region.
Agcaoili said they have gone as far as they could go in recommending
to the CPP to reconsider its order to the NPA.
GRP’s cease fire demand
Agcaoili revealed the NDFP panel was also told by the GRP panel it
wants a bilateral cease fire agreement signed during the fifth round.
“We have made our position clear that until we
reach an agreement on social and economic reforms as well as political
and constitutional reforms, there could never be a cease fire,”
Agcaoili said.
“We hope they would receive our reply positively so that, hopefully,
we can proceed with the opening ceremony of the fifth round tomorrow
[Sunday],” Agcaoili said.
Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza says the negotiations were put
in jeopardy by the decision of the Communist Party of the Philippines
to order the NPA to intensify attacks in the
face of the declaration of Martial Law in Mindanao.
“We question the sincerity of the CPP/NPA/NDFP, if they truly are in
pursuit of peaceful coexistence. The Duterte administration would
rather pursue the path of genuine dialogue to
build a nation worthy of its citizens.”
Word reaching Manila from The Netherlands, indicated that the fifth
round of formal peace negotiations had, indeed, hit a snag with the
announcement by the government panel of its
conditionality.
Mixed signals
This is the second time the GRP submitted to its counterpart a set of
demands before a formal opening to a round of formal peace
negotiations. For his part, the NDF’s negotiating
panel chair Fidel Agcaoili reacted to the Abella statement: “This is
contrary to what the GRP negotiators are saying here, after they
submitted to us a copy of Dureza’s opening speech
containing such a pronouncement. They [the GRP panel] are now
clarifying that they are they are willing to sit down and find
solutions to the problems. So, like everyone else, the
NDFP is receiving mixed signals from the GRP. But we hope to know the
real score in a couple of hours’ time.”
In a press briefing, the NDF panel said this demand by the GRP is a
new one and it was not included in their April 6 Joint Statement that
the fifth round of talks shall focus on the socio-
economic reforms agenda.
NDF added that a signed bilateral cease fire agreement must only come
after ground rules for its implementation have been forged by the
parties: “We are supposed to be talking while
fighting like the parties have successfully done in the past,
especially during the Ramos regime.”
The status at the moment may best be described as a “recess” while
both sides try to work out whether to proceed or not.
- With Raymund B. Villanueva, Kodao Productions