Philippine Peace Center – Press Statement
19 June 2018

Once again, and for the nth time, we are witnessing the abortion of what would have been the much-awaited resumption of the fifth round of formal peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. The formal talks would have tackled the meat of the negotiations – Social and Economic Reforms that would decisively address the very roots of the armed conflict.

But this time, the reasons being offered by the GRP through various sources from the President and his Spokesperson down to the Negotiating Panel, to the DND and even lower to the Army spokesman, are not only downright confusing, because always vague, often contradictory and patently baseless. They also throw the entire peace negotiations into a darker cloud of uncertainty, threatening even to derail the talks permanently.

Ano ba talaga, ‘te?

It has become starkly clear that there are deeper reasons for the “postponement” than the supposed need for the President to study the documents produced by the four rounds of backchannel talks. . These documents, after all, have been at least three months in the making, with the GRP negotiating panel constantly requesting breaks to check and countercheck with their principals if they are still in line with their marching orders.

No less dubious is the purported aim of “engaging the bigger table”, the public at large, on issues and in discussions to “lend legitimacy to the process”. Have both panels not been doing so since the talks began in 1992? And why desist from holding the formal talks while consultations are ongoing? While it is being packaged as a fresh approach, “engaging the bigger table” is really an old, worn out track – lumang tugtugin at sirang plaka — that had been employed by the Arroyo and Aquino administrations with the intent and end result of never coming back to the negotiating table to discuss the ubstantive agenda, the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms.

More telling is the oft-repeated call to hold the peace talks here in the Philippines instead of a neutral venue abroad, and the proposal to do away with a Third Party Facilitator, the role the Royal Norwegian Government has ably performed and for which both the GRP and the NDFP has hitherto expressed unequivocal appreciation and gratitude.

The fact is that the entire GRP – the President and his Cabinet, Congress, and the Judiciary, know very well that the NDFP would never agree to holding the peace talks in the Philippines. The solemn agreements signed by the GRP and NDFP Negotiating Panels explicitly state that the peace talks shall be held at a foreign neutral venue. This has been strictly observed for the last 26 years. Insisting on holding the talks here is tantamount to calling off the negotiations.

The clear and simple reason is that there is no way peace talks held in the Philippines can be protected and spared from sabotage by the spoilers and enemies of a genuine peace process – those who oppose meaningful reforms that would alter the status quo in favor of the greater majority of the population.

This lesson was learned the hard way in 1986-87, when the peace talks abruptly collapsed after the January Mendiola Massacre. Fourteen were killed and scores wounded when government troops fired at peasants peaceably airing out their demand for land. When the NDFP panel asked the GRP panel if the GRP could assure them of their safety should the talks continue, the GRP panel replied, “We ourselves are not assured of our own safety?!”

After the talks collapsed, hundreds of NDFP personnel who were unavoidably exposed during the talks were killed or captured. Then Defense Secretary Ramos himself boasted that the military’s intelligence stock had increased by at least 40% as a result of the talks.

Finally, the postponement until a “conducive and enabling amosphere” is achieved can now be dismissed as hogwash. In the first three instances that this was adamantly invoked, the GRP categorically pointed to a joint ceasefire as the “enabling condition”. Yet, it has shamelessly and without due and proper explanation withdrawn for the third time from an agreed-upon simultaneous ceasefire to which the NDFP had acceded explicitly and in writing, and was poised to observe.

Evidently, the military feels on the verge (ad nauseam) of dealing the revolutionary movement a deathly blow, and would not want its momentum throttled in any way by a ceasefire of any sort? Has Mr. Duterte then chosen to indefinitely postpone” the formal talks, despite the completion of nearly all preparations he himself had ordered and allowed, to give war, instead, another chance (ad nauseam) to succeed? Were all those preparations a diversion or smokescreen to conceal the real intentions?

Ito na nga ba talaga, ‘te?

The Philippine Peace Center joins other peace advocates, in strongly deploring this latest “postponement”, riddled as it is with crass inconsistency, lacking in integrity and forthrightness, and with thinly cloaked ill intentions.

No government worthy of its mandate would ever treat its people’s aspiration for a just and lasting peace in this shabby and cavalier manner.

We call on all those desirous of attaining genuine peace in our land to join us in demanding the resumption of formal peace talks, honoring all prior agreements, and addressing the roots of the armed conflict.

Carry the preparations for the 5th round to their logical conclusion!

Ituloy ang 5th round!

Press Statement
15 June 2018

KAPAYAPAAN views yet another sudden unilateral suspension by the Duterte administration of the GRP-NDFP peace talks set to take place end of June as a serious indication of its lack of commitment to peace and the political will to address urgent matters pertaining to the people’s welfare.

This recent suspension — irrational, unjustifiable and on flimsy basis — seriously puts the peace process in peril. Dureza’s repeated reference to a “last chance” for the peace process seems to indicate government’s real intention to terminate the peace process. This, at a time when the two panels are on the cusp of signing a coordinated unilateral ceasefire and provisions on agrarian reform and rural development (ARRD) as well as national industrialization and economic development (NIED).

That the suspension comes after a command conference with the Armed Forces of the Philippines shows the power that warmongers wield over the civilian branch of this government. Time and again they have exhibited dominance in government decisions on the peace question. Defense Secretary Lorenzana’s most recent statement cynically casting doubt on the CPP-NPA’s compliance with the Stand Down Agreement discussed in backchannel talks is apparently nothing but another thinly-veiled attempt to scuttle the peace talks.

The suspension becomes more cause for alarm given the efforts of Duterte’s supermajority in the House of Representatives to railroad charter changes and a supposed anti-terror legislation that is clearly meant to quell rebellion through an iron hand. Thus we fear the suspension may be part and parcel of the Duterte administration’s overall scheme to close all avenues for negotiations and dissent. For in truth, the peace talks have provided strong and solid ground for expressing the people’s perspectives on government policies fundamental to national interest.

The Duterte administration has taken the peace talks into a labyrinth. It will surely earn the ignoble distinction of having killed prospects for a peaceful solution to the armed conflict that has been raging in this country for almost five decades.

Peace advocates and all patriotic Filipinos must make sure that the Duterte administration does not put a bullet into the heart of the peace process.#

15 June 2018
Reference: Sharon Cabusao-Silva 09272264493

Christian V. Esguerra, ABS-CBN News
Posted at Jun 14 2018 07:40 PM

MANILA— An “exasperated” Jose Maria Sison on Thursday denounced what he called the government’s “unilateral” decision to postpone the resumption of formal peace negotiations between the government and the communist movement initially set later this month.

The exiled communist leader, who is eyeing a possible homecoming later this year, said the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) was not informed before peace adviser Jesus Dureza announced the postponement.

“I am not only disappointed but exasperated,” the founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines said, adding the government “turned against written agreements” signed during backchannel talks in the Netherlands from June 5 to 10.

In a separate statement, Sison urged the negotiating panels to release the agreements it signed earlier this month.

“I urge the two negotiating panels to release to the public and to the press the written and signed agreements of June 9 and 10 signed by the chairmen of the GRP (government) and NDFP negotiating panel and by the members of their respective special teams,” he said.

President Rodrigo Duterte said Thursday government needed more time before resuming formal negotiations, which were supposed to take place on June 28.

Duterte arrived at the decision following a command conference on Wednesday in Malacañang where he was briefed on developments in the backchannel talks.

Dureza later announced in a palace press conference that government negotiators had been told to first consult the “bigger peace table” involving the public. The peace adviser also cited the lack of an “enabling environment” to resume formal talks.

INCENSED

“That is a lot of bullsh*t,” Sison said when told about the reasons cited by the government.

“Duterte and Dureza want nothing but the immediate capitulation of the revolutionary movement under the guise of an indefinite ceasefire and killing the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations,” he told ABS-CBN News from Utrecht where he has been on self-exile.

“If that is what they like, the revolutionary forces and people have no choice but to single-mindedly wage a people’s war for national and social liberation, especially at this time that the broad united front of patriotic and progressive forces are already isolating and weakening the Duterte regime.”

BACKCHANNEL

NDFP peace panel chief Fidel Agcaoili said a team of government negotiators was set to fly to Utrecht over the weekend to explain the “adjustments” in the negotiations’ schedule.

“Of course we consider this a setback from the schedule that we have already agreed upon,” he told ABS-CBN News.

“But we are ready to receive their team this weekend.”

Agcaoili said the NDFP panel had been told that Duterte wanted to first “study” documents related to the resumption of the peace talks.

Both sides were supposed to sign an interim peace agreement if formal negotiations resumed later this month.

The deal was predicated on agreements on agrarian reform and national industrialization, an amnesty proclamation, and a coordinated unilateral ceasefire.

A stand-down agreement was to be simultaneously declared on June 21, which was a week later than what had been previously agreed upon.

PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
PRESS RELEASE | June 9, 2018

Human rights group Karapatan today said that instead of its repeated efforts to sabotage the peace process between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) through its war-mongering and militarist ways, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) should stop its attacks against civilian communities and abide by previously signed agreements, such as the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).

“Previously, during the unilateral ceasefire period between the two parties from August 21, 2016 to February 3, 2017, Karapatan documented human rights violations perpetrated by the military and police in line with the Duterte administration’s counterinsurgency program, with at least 17 extrajudicial killings of peasants and indigenous peoples, 20 frustrated killings, 109 arbitrary arrests, while 28 were arrested and detained. In this period too, thousands have been killed in the course of the implementation of the government’s war against drugs. The military’s presence, encampment and operations in civilian communities have escalated since then,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay.

Karapatan scored the AFP on the latest string of attacks against civilian communities, including killings of human rights defenders previously harassed and tagged by military personnel as NPA members or supporters. “Especially with martial law imposed in Mindanao, numerous cases of human rights violations have been reported and filed before complaints mechanisms, but these are being brushed aside and whitewashed by Malacañang,” Palabay stated.

On June 6, 2018, Higaonon peasant leader Jose Unahan, a member of the Unyon sa Mag-uuma sa Agusan del Norte-Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and an anti-mining activist, was shot dead in Sitio Tagbakon, Brgy. Culit, Nasipit, Agusan del Norte.

On May 27, Beverly Geronimo, a member of Tabing Guangan Farmers Association and also an anti-mining activist, was shot dead at around 12 noon last Sunday, when she, her daughter and two of their relatives were on their way back home in Brgy. Salvacion, Trento, Agusan del Sur. Two unnamed armed men in civilian clothes fired at them. Geronimo sustained seven gunshot wounds, one in the head, causing her immediate death. Her daughter and relatives survived. Due to her anti-mining activism against large scale mining companies such as OZ Metals and Agusan Petroleum, she had previously experienced threats and harassment, from soldiers of the 25th, 66th, 67th, and 75th Infantry Battalions of the Philippine Army encamped in their community since 2009.

“From May 15-31, 2018, some 160 members of the Dumagat tribe forcibly evacuated from their homes at Sitio Dadiangao, Brgy. Umiray. General Nakar, Quezon Province, due to military operations and encampment of the 80th and 202nd Infantry Brigades of the Philippine Army, 2nd Jungle Fighter Company, and the 2nd Infantry

Division-PA in their community. The military also imposed a food blockade, adding to the misery of the evacuees. This is reminiscent of hamletting style of military operations during martial law in Marcos’ time,” Palabay said.

“In Misamis Oriental, around 35 Higaonon families (or 158 individuals) from Sitio Camansi, Brgy. Banglay, Lagonglong put up a makeshift evacuation center at the Cagayan de Oro City provincial capitol grounds. The residents were forced to evacuate when soldiers of the 58th IBPA occupied their homes. It was the community’s sixth forced evacuation since 2015,” Palabay added.

In five villages in Talaingod, Davao del Norte, more than a hundred soldiers have encamped on communities and occupied Lumad schools since May 29.

“The widespread presence of soldiers in civilian communities offer no security for civilians. Instead, they are the primary purveyors of state terror and rights violations, and they also worsen the climate of impunity. This is the reason why people in communities detest the soldiers. They should pull-out from the communities,” Palabay concluded.

For reference: Cristina Palabay, Secretary General, +639173162831

Karapatan Public Information Desk, +639189790580

Reference: J de Lima
Chairperson, NDFP RWC-SER
Press Statement | May 28, 2018

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines – Reciprocal Working Group on Social and Economic Reforms (NDFP RWC-SER) welcomes the reported possible signing of an interim peace agreement. This is a sign of movement in the stalled peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

“This would be a significant development in the peace process, only if the interim peace agreement includes basic social reforms. The NDFP has always been consistent that social and economic reforms must be the cornerstone of any peace agreement.” said NDFP RWC-SER chairperson Julie de Lima.

De Lima said that the inclusion of the Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ARRD) and the National Industrialization and Economic Development (NIED) in the interim peace agreement would be the most significant step in the peace negotiations. It would be the first steo towards addressing the roots of the armed conflict.”

Bilateral teams of the RWC-SER, have agreed on the common drafts of ARRD and NIED. The still unresolved contentious issues are being referred to the RWC-SERs of the two Parties for resolution before negotiations at the level of the GRP-NDFP Negotiating Panels.

ARRD and NIED are two major sections of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER), the second substantive agenda in in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations. Five other substantive parts of CASER still need to be discussed. These include: Environmental Protection, Rehabilitation and Compensation (EPRC), Rights of the Working People, Monetary and Fiscal Policy and Foreign Economic Trade relations.

“Genuine agrarian reform with rural industrial development and national industrial and economic development that benefits and protects the rights of the working people are among the many issues at the heart of any peace agreement. Ceasefire alone will not resolve the centuries-old problems from which the Filipino masses have struggled to break free,” NDFP RWC-SER chairperson said.

She added that apart from pushing for basic social services, previously-signed agreements, such as the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and the Joint Agreement on safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), must also be complied with as a matter of justice.

Parties are expected to return to the formal negotiating table in June 2018.

By Jose Maria Sison, NDFP Chief Political Consultant
May 24, 2018

Within the so-called Constitutional Commission, there is the drive of certain pro-Duterte elements headed by a retired general to draw up a a draft federal charter that makes easier the declaration of martial law by citing ¨lawless violence¨ or ¨a series of offensives by the New People´s Army¨ as the basis for the declaration of martial law.

Said drive of the pro-Duterte elements is an indication that the threat of martial rule, being declared before or after the charter change, continues to exist and does not augur well for the resumption and success of GRP-NDFP peace negotiations while Duterte is the president.

Instead of trying to scapegoat the NPA and make it the pretext for martial law declaration, state terrorism and fascist dictatorship, the Duterte regime should let the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations to succeed in addressing the roots of the armed conflict and laying the ground for a just and lasting peace through comprehensive agreements on social, economic and political reforms.

*****

Kapayapaan Campaign for a Just and Lasting Peace

Press Statement
May 23, 2018
Reference: Fr. Ben Alforque, Kapayapaan Convenor

We are heartened by recent reports of positive developments in the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines ( GRP ) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

It augurs well for the country as we believe that peace negotiations provide an effective venue for the people — especially those most affected by the worsening political and economic crisis — to articulate their grievances and bring their demands to the negotiating table.

We urge both parties to ensure that the peace talks resume without any preconditions, and with only the interests of the people, and the nation, in mind.

We call on both parties to prioritize the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms ( CASER ) that will address the burdens being experienced by our people brought about by recently-imposed economic policies such as the TRAIN Law. We firmly believe that CASER can help lift our nation out of its social & economic malaise, and can possibly bring the armed conflict to a more peaceful resolution.

We call on both parties as well, to uphold agreements already laid out in the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law ( CARHRIHL ) as bases for building a “conducive” atmosphere for the peace process. Confidence-building measures can be initiated by both sides, the most urgent of which should be the release of political prisoners who have long suffered the injustice of imprisonment due to trumped-up charges and made to suffer subhuman prison conditions. There can be no real social justice nor genuine democracy in this country as long as the reality of political prisoners remain.#

MEDIA RELEASE
May 18, 2018

In a statement of “deep concern” over the alleged terrorist list filed in court by the Department of Justice (DoJ), the Council of Bishops of the Episcopal Church of the Philippines (ECP) urged the DoJ Secretary to “withdraw the list if not the petition altogether” as great risk and threats of harassment looms on the individuals listed including two of the ECP’s members – International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL) Global Coordinator Beverly Longid and the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz.

The ECP statement was released in response to the DoJ petition filed at the Manila Regional Trial Court last February seeking to tag the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) as terrorist groups under the Human Security Act of 2007. The petition includes over 600 names accused of membership in the CPP-NPA. Other than Longid and Corpuz, both known as international Indigenous Peoples (IP) rights advocates who are also Indigenous Bontok-Kankanaey from the Mountain Province, IP leaders also found in the list are Joan Carling, Atty. Jose Molintas, Windel Bolinget, Jeanette Ribaya-Cawiding, Joanna Carino, Datu Isidro Indao, Datu Mandayhon, and Datu Mampadayag.

“Due to my social involvement, I have experienced threats, harassments, and intimidation from suspected State agents,” Longid said in her personal statement. Similarly, the ECP stated that human rights advocates and ECP members accused of trumped up cases reported being subject of harassments making them vulnerable to unjust vexation – something they believe should have ended during the Martial Law years.

Attacks on IP and human rights activists is “a reaction [of the government] to [the] defense of Lumads caught in the massive military operations launched by Rodrigo Duterte” as Tauli-Corpuz pointed out in an interview. Longid also stressed, “Impunity reigns in my country, and the pronouncements and actions of Duterte show his total disregard for human rights, peoples’ welfare and interests, and rule of law, undermining our tight to speak freely and other basic freedoms.”

The ECP expressed that, instead of vilifying and putting people in great risk, the government must push for the peace talks with the National Democratic Front to prosper by addressing the ‘socio-economic issues [that] have spawned the long-drawn conflict in this land’ and put an end to ‘killing each other for another generation’. The IPMSDL reports that numerous cases of IP rights violations, killings, and attacks on culture and ways of life are the result of state military and para-military abuses carried out under the guise of counter-insurgency and anti-terrorism activities.

“The International IPMSDL organization, and I in my personal capacity, is overwhelmed by this show of solidarity to drop the DoJ terrorist list. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the whole Council,” Longid declared regarding the ECP’s statement. “At the same time, we appeal to all to echo the call to dismiss and delist the names in the DoJ petition and stand for everyone’s democratic rights for lawful dissent without fearing for their safety and security.”

Reference: Beverly Longid, Global Coordinator | info@ipmsdl.org

ANC News Channel
April 23, 2018

ANC host Christian Esguerra and guest peace consultant, Rey Claro Casambre, Executive Director of the Philippine Peace Center talking about the prospects on the resumption of the GPH-NDFP peace talks.

See the full video coverage of the interview below:

By: Tina G. Santos – Reporter, Philippine Daily Inquirer
April 09, 2018

Leaders of various religious organizations have expressed support for President Rodrigo Duterte’s plan to resume peace talks with communist rebels.

The Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP), the largest ecumenical formation of church leaders in the country, said it welcomed the recent statement of Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza that the President had directed government negotiators to work on the resumption of peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

“As leaders of churches in the country, we appreciate these developments … We hope that the atmosphere for the resumption of the stalled talks will continue to spread positively,” PEPP said in a statement.

‘Principled dialogue’

“PEPP has always championed principled dialogue over the negotiating table to resolve this 50-year-old conflict,” it added.

The statement was signed by Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, SJ, and Fr. Rex Reyes Jr. of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines; Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez Jr. and Bishop Noel A. Pantoja of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches; and Sr. Mary John Mananzan, OSB, of the Office of Women and Gender Concerns of the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines.

The group called on both the Philippine government and the NDFP to resume formal peace talks, through the third-party facilitation of the Royal Norwegian Government.

“We also call on both parties to fully implement the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law and respect previously signed agreements,” it added.

Joma avoids word war

With the possible resumption of the stalled peace talks, exiled Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison is avoiding engaging the President in another word war.

“I let him go in sounding tough and bellicose. At this time, I prefer to avoid exchanging harsh hyperboles with PRRD (President Duterte),” Sison said in an online interview on Saturday.

He said “let us give a chance to peace negotiations” to emphasize that like the President, he also wanted to revive the peace negotiation straightaway.

“The important thing now is that he allows his negotiating panel to negotiate and make agreements with its NDFP part,” Sison said.

The President has given a two-month deadline for the peace talks to resume.

He said he would want the resumption of the peace talks to be held in the country.

He also declared that he would give Sison and other rebel negotiators the freedom to move around while the peace talks were ongoing.

But in an earlier interview, Sison made it clear that the peace talks should be held in a foreign neutral venue as agreed upon by both parties to ensure the safety and protection of rebel negotiators. —With a report from Delfin T. Mallari Jr.