Kodao Productions
March 9, 2017

NATIONAL Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Negotiating Panel member Benito Tiamzon and consultants Wilma Austria Tiamzon and Vicente Ladlad will soon leave for Europe to participate in the ongoing backchannel talks with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).

In a speech at the National Defense College earlier today, Department of National Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana also announced Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza has left for Europe last night to lead the GRP delegation in the talks for the possible resumption of formal peace negotiations between the parties.

“Yesterday, Secretary Dureza left for Europe again. And, last night, we allowed the departure of Benito and Wilma Tiamzon and Mr. Ladlad to do some back-channelling,” Lorenzana said.

Lorenzana said the government is listening to the public clamor for the resumption of the peace negotiations.

President Rodrigo Duterte announced last Tuesday informal talks are being held to resume the formal negotiations he suspended last month.

“Hang on…Do not spoil. I must admit there’s a back-channelling,” Duterte told reporters in a chance interview.

NDFP Negotiating Panel chairperson Fidel Agcaoili for his part said the six government troopers captured by the New People’s Army will soon be freed as soon as the GRP orders the suspension of military and police operations in areas where the releases are to be held.

Agcaoili said the release of captured GRP soldiers is proof of NDFP’s good faith in the ongoing back-channel negotiations. (Report and photo by Raymund B. Villanueva)

Kodao Productions /news
February 21, 2017

THE National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) assured each other today of their mutual desire for peace in the country, even as scheduled formal negotiations have been cancelled.

In a statement, GRP peace adviser Jesus Dureza announced that President Rodrigo Duterte met with NDFP-nominated members of his cabinet in Malacañan Palace last night.

“The President reiterated his desire and passion (for) bringing about just, lasting, and inclusive peace in the land,” Dureza said.

Dureza said he met with the President, labor and employment secretary and GRP chief negotiator Silvestre Bello III as well as agrarian reform secretary Rafael Mariano, social work and development secretary Judy Taguiwalo and anti-poverty commission lead convenor Liza Masa “until late last night.”

He said the meeting discussed directions and possible next steps in their peace engagements with the Left as well as the Bangsamoro, Cordillerans and others.

“He (Duterte) gave specific instructions on how to deal with the present situation, including possible next steps following the cancellation of peace talks and the unilateral ceasefire declarations,” Dureza said.

NDFP chief peace negotiator Fidel Agcaoili for his part said they are one with Duterte in wanting to lay the foundation for a just and lasting peace in the country.

In an interview, Agcaoili said peace can be achieved through the forging of agreements on basic social, economic and political reforms that would truly benefit the Filipino people.

“Uninformed”

Dureza’s statement, however, was silent about presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella’s remarks at a Palace briefing yesterday enumerating “four conditions” that would convince the GRP to resume formal negotiations with the NDFP.

Abella said the Communist Party of the Philippines and its New People’s Army must stop collecting “revolutionary tax,” ambushing Armed Forces of the Philippines personnel, burning of property, and provocative and hostile actions.

Agcaoili, for his part, dismissed Abella’s remarks, saying the secretary’s list are not preconditions but are actually subject matters the GRP would like to discuss in the crafting of the bilateral ceasefire agreement.

“The NDFP, of course, has its own subject matters for discussion in crafting the bilateral ceasefire agreement,” Agcaoili said.

He mentioned the encroachment of the military and the police on communities, the illegal arrest and detention of legal activists and development workers, the extrajudicial killings of Lumad and peasant leaders, the continuing arrest and detention of Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees- protected persons, the release and amnesty of all political prisoners in accordance with the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, among others.

“Sec. Abella is (also) uninformed or misinformed on the status of the negotiations on the draft agreement on social and economic reforms and the tentative draft agreement on political and constitutional reforms,” Agcaoili said.

“Otherwise he would not say what he stated,” he added.

The GRP and the NDFP are supposed to meet in The Netherlands starting tomorrow to discuss the government’s proposal for a bilateral ceasefire agreement as well as hold the fourth round of formal talks in Oslo, Norway in April. (Raymund B. Villanueva/Featured photo by OPAPP)

130 congressmen want the Philippine government and communists to return to the negotiating table

RAPPLER.COM :  Mara Cepeda
February 21, 2017

MANILA, Philippines – The House committee on peace, reconciliation, and unity approved a resolution calling on President Rodrigo Duterte to continue peace talks with communists.

Voting 8-0-0, the panel gave its nod to House Resolution Number 769, which has been signed by 130 congressmen.

The lawmakers believe the President should continue the peace negotiations because the “Duterte administration [has] reached remarkable and unparalleled headway” compared to past administrations.

“Terminating the same would only put to waste the unprecedented, positive, and substantial gains the peace talks have reached,” said the lawmakers.

“It is highly imperative that this Congress hear the Filipino people’s desire to support the resumption of the peace negotiations. It is just and lasting peace itself that is the very compelling reason to continue the peace negotiations,” they added.

Duterte scrapped the peace talks after the New People’s Army withdrew from a 5-month-old ceasefire.

The government also issued a notice to cancel an agreement giving some rebels immunity from arrest – the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees. (READ: Rebels reject ‘improper’ notice to cancel talks, JASIG)

The President met with leftist Cabinet members on Monday night, February 20, to discuss the breakdown of talks with communist rebels.

Chief presidential peace adviser Secretary Jesus Dureza said Duterte “vowed to work for a strategic shift during his incumbency.” – with reports from Carmela Fonbuena / Rappler.com

Kodao Productions
February 10, 2017

NATIONAL Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Chief Political Consultant Jose Maria Sison asked Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) President Rodrigo Duterte to allow efforts to clear the air in the face of escalating tension between the two parties following the Duterte government’s declaration of an all-out war against the Left.

Sison proposed to his former student “to consult thoroughly with his negotiating panel and the peace advocates in his own cabinet and others outside of his government and encourage and allow back-channelling efforts to clarify misunderstandings and solve immediately the current problems.”

“President Duterte’s announcements to consider the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines), NPA (New People’s Army) and NDFP as terrorist organizations and to terminate the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) have the effect of terminating the entire GRP-NDFP peace negotiations,” Sison said.

“I believe that President Duterte’s reaction should not have gone this far,” he added.

Sison said he can understand the role of President Duterte in reacting as GRP president and Commander-in-Chief as simply performing his duty to speak and act in the interest of his government and express concern for his troops.

“But there should have been a measure of restraint in his reaction in order to preserve the GRP-NDF peace process,” Sison advised.

Sison added that the third party facilitator, the Royal Norwegian Government (RNG), deserves a briefing from each negotiating party to possibly enable the continuance of the peace process.

Earlier, RNG Special Envoy to the Philippine Peace Process Ambassador Elisabeth Slattum urged both the GRP and the NDFP to “protect the peace talks, as it is the only way to move forward towards a just and lasting peace.”

In a statement, Slattum said that “what defines the success of a peace process is the ability and commitment of the parties to stay at the negotiation table and not give up, despite setbacks.”

“What is important now is to protect the peace talks, as it is the only way to move forward towards a just and lasting peace, for the benefit of all Filipino people,” Slattum said.

Successful negotiations so far

Sison cited the gains made so far in the formal peace talks in Norway and Italy as reasons for the continuation of the negotiations.

“The recent third round of formal talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) from January 19 to 25, 2017 has been successful and has scheduled the fourth round on April 2-6 in Oslo,” Sison said.

Sison said there was a fair exchange of views and agreements on efforts to comply with the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) concerning the release of all political prisoners, justice for and indemnification of victims of human right violations under the Marcos regime, allegations of human rights violations under Oplans Bayanihan, Tokhang and Kapayapaan, as well as the approval of the supplementary guidelines of the Joint Monitoring Committee.

There was also an initial discussion of the bilateral ceasefire agreement to replace the unilateral ceasefire declarations, Sison said.

The NDFP’s chief political consultant added that the biggest achievements in moving forward the peace process were the exchange of full drafts of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) by the reciprocal working committees of the GRP and the NDFP, and the complete drafts of the CAPCR by the reciprocal working groups.

“I estimate that it is possible to unify these drafts within 2017. The NDFP has formally offered to GRP to co-found the Federal Republic of the Philippines on the basis of the CAPCR,” Sison said.

Sison said he believes it is possible to implement the CASER and CAPCR through GRP executive actions, legislation and constitutional amendments before the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on End of Hostilities and Disposition of Forces (CAEHDF) in 2020-2021.

“Before then, a bilateral ceasefire agreement is possible, especially after the signing of the CASER and the CAPCR by the negotiating panels in 2017,” he said.

The GRP and NDFP ceasefire committees are scheduled to meet in The Netherlands on February 22 to discuss the former’s proposal for a bilateral ceasefire agreement, the possible discussion of which in Italy last month effectively scuttled by an attack by the AFP against an NPA encampment in Makilala, North Cotabato last January 21.

Talking while fighting

Sison said the clear and significant success of the third round of the formal talks has been overshadowed by the reaction of Duterte to the announcement of the termination of the unilateral ceasefire by the CPP and NPA, effective on February 10, and to the so-called self-defense actions already begun by the NPA in accordance with the terms of its unilateral ceasefire declaration.

“Even if the armed conflict between the armed forces of the two parties has resumed, peace negotiations can and must continue precisely to continue with the forging of the CASER, CAPCR and the bilateral ceasefire agreement and effecting the amnesty and release of all political prisoners within 2017,” Sison said.

“More than 10 major agreements were made during the (Fidel) Ramos regime while fighting went on,” he added.

Duterte’s peace adviser and negotiators—notably Jesus Dureza, Silvestre Bello III, Hernani Braganza, Rene Sarmiento and Maria Carla Munsayac—had been part of various Ramos government negotiating teams with the NDFP.

Sison said the CPP, NPA and NDFP remain committed to the peace process in accordance to the The Hague Joint Declaration and further agreements.

“They wish to pursue with the GRP the bright prospects that started with the first round of formal talks in August 2016 and overcome the peace spoilers that run counter to the progress that has been achieved in the third round of formal talks, Sison said.

We must respond to and strive to fulfil the Filipino people’s demand for a just and lasting peace,” he said. (Raymund B. Villanueva)

ZEA IO MING C. CAPISTRANO
Feb. 06, 2017

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Various non-government organizations across the country are urging President Rodrigo Duterte not to back out from the peace talks with the communists.

They also warned the all-out war approach will affect communities and civilians.

Human rights group Karapatan said Duterte should rethink his statement on the termination of the peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines after the president announced the termination of the peace talks with the NDFP.

Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general said Duterte should be prepared to encounter problems in solving the armed conflict.

“Both Parties have expressed that the road to a just and lasting peace is not an easy one, but has several bumps and roadblocks,” she said.

Palabay added that it is the Army who is sabotaging the peace talks.

“Pres. Duterte should see that one big roadblock is the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) being warmongers and peace saboteurs, within and outside the peace process,” she said citing cases of political killings, enforced disappearances, illegal arrests and detention, threats and harassment in the communities.

“The AFP’s counter-insurgency program Oplan Bayanihan was still in play, with the military’s so-called “peace and development” teams coercing and threatening local government officials and residents as they continued to encamp in peasants’ homes, schools, and barangay halls. This is the reason why the residents, the victims and their families have repeatedly called on the GRP to pull out the AFP troops from their communities and to stop Oplan Bayanihan,” she said.

Palabay said “militarist” approach to ending insurgency will not solve the rebellion in the country.

Karapatan has recorded that at least four peasant activists were killed by state security forces in January this year.

On February 3, Lumad leader Renato Anglao, 42, of the Tribal Indigenous Oppressed Group Association was killed by three men on board a motorcycle.

Karapatan said TINDOGA, an indigenous people’s organization of the Manobo-Pulangion tribe in Barangay Botong, Quezon, Bukidnon, has consistently opposed the entry of agri-business plantations in the ancestral land of the lumad. The group was also accused of supporting the NPAs.

“Ultimately, it is the people who will suffer from the absence of GRP-NDFP official peace talks,” Palabay said.

Meanwhile, the Northern Luzon Peace Network said they are worried that violence will “revisit many communities, particularly those occupied by indigenous peoples.”

“The events in the past few days have been extremely worrying for us, tribal groups, church organizations and nongovernment organizations in the Cordillera and in Cagayan province,” it said in a statement.

“We now appeal to them to not lose sight of the long-awaited gains that a peace agreement will bring, particularly for the country’s poorest sectors,” it added.

Various tribes in Compostela Valley Province also said the six-month unilateral ceasefire declared by both sides brought peace to their communities.

“We, the Manguangan, Dibabawon and Mandaya tribes in Laak, Monkayo and Compostela in Compostela Valley, therefore, call on the government and the CPP-NPA to keep talking. We urge them to build on the gains from the three previous rounds of formal negotiations,” it said.(davaotoday.com)

By: InterAksyon.com – The online news portal of TV5
January 25, 2017 7:34 PM

MANILA – The negotiating panels of the Philippine goveernment and the National Democratic Front agreed to separately discuss the bilateral ceasefire when they meet in February in time for the depositing of identification documents of rebel leaders who are to be covered by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

The agreement was reached at the 3rd round of talks in Rome, which was set to conclude late Wednesday.

Unable to include the joint ceasefire agenda during the opening of the 3rd round of talks in Rome, the GRP got the NDF to finally table it for discussion after a formal submission and acceptance on the part of rebel negotiators, according to a press statement issued by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP).

The meeting for the bilateral ceasefire will be held in Utrecht in February, according to the government’s chief negotiator, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III.

This developed after the NDF committed to respond to the GRP draft bilateral proposal, which they officially received on Tuesday afternoon on the 4th day of the peace negotiations in Rome.

NDF chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili said they will study the draft government proposal and will submit their own draft.

“They received then they initialed the draft and they proposed that, for discussion of our proposed draft, they will have to come back (in The Netherlands) on the 22nd or 24th of February,” Bello said.

The meeting could last up to three days. The government side immediately welcomed the development. “The fact that they agreed to discuss it (bilateral ceasefire) is a positive development of the [peace] process,” Bello said.

Bello said he is confident that the commitment of the NDF to the peace process will continue to hold the separate unilateral ceasefire declaration, which the rebels had earlier hinted they were seriously considering to withdraw from.

“Otherwise, what’s the idea of discussing a bilateral ceasefire?” said Bello.

He said there was never mention about lifting the unilateral ceasefire during the unscheduled meeting following the armed encounter in Makilala, North Cotabato that left one rebel dead.

Bello said the Makilala incident should push both panels to pursue a bilateral ceasefire in order to direct complaints on violations and prompt fact-finding and investigation by a third party monitor.

Unilateral ceasefire

The ongoing unilateral ceasefire is the longest that the armed forces of both contending parties have maintained, now on its fifth month, in the history of the armed conflict between the government and the NDF.

The government has been pushing for a more formal and secure bilateral ceasefire agreement to provide the atmosphere conducive to the peace negotiations.

A bilateral ceasefire can be reached and signed on or before the 4th round of negotiations set in April in Oslo, Norway according to both panels.

Negotiating panels from both sides agreed to expand the agenda of the February special meeting after intense back channeling by panel members from both sides after the NDF initially declined to include the bilateral ceasefire in the agenda of the 3rd round of talks.

New JASIG list

Bello and the rest of the panel are going to the Netherlands next month to witness the depositing of the names and proper identification of a sealed document that will contain the names of 87 NDF leaders who will be immune from government arrests.

The new JASIG list was supposed to have already been deposited as early as October last year but the NDF said some technical problems bogged down the process.

NDF chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili said it was compounded by the unavailability of the bishop who will act as custodian of the JASIG list.

The JASIG list contains the real identification of the NDF consultants who have assumed names and aliases and are to be immune from government arrest.

Bello is the only panel member who will be given access to five random names in the JASIG verification list for verification before it is deposited in a safety deposit box of a still-to-be named bank in The Netherlands.

The list will only be opened by both parties if a listed NDF member is captured by police and government security operatives. The arrest of alleged JASIG covered NDF consultants had led to the collapse of previous talks between the GRP and the NDF.

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Kodao Productions
January 25, 2017

 ROME, Italy—The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and government negotiators are set to end their third round of formal talks today on a successful note with advances on the substantive agenda and new goodwill measures included in the prospective Rome Joint Statement.

NDFP chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili and his Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) counterpart Silvestre Bello III said their joint statement will include the signing of the supplemental guidelines on the Joint Monitoring Committee as well as agreements on the ground rules for future negotiations on socio-economic and political and constitutional reforms.

They also agreed to hold a special meeting in The Netherlands in February 22 or 24 to discuss the GRP proposal for a bilateral ceasefire. In the said meeting, Bello will also witness NDFP’s submission of its reconstituted list of Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees-protected persons with Archbishop Wim Eijk of Utrecht for safekeeping.

“This round is turning out to be a success, despite the apparent sabotage with the killing of the activists in Negros Occidental and Surigao del Norte and the attack on the NPA (New People’s Army) encampment in North Cotabato,” Agcaoili said.

Joma Sison delisting

Bello for his part revealed that the joint statement shall include a request to the United States of America (USA) that NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison be delisted from its terror list.

“We have a basis (for such request), considering he is in the process, the peace talks, which negates the character of a terrorist,” Bello said.

Bello said it is important for Sison to be able to travel outside of Europe in response to GRP President Rodrigo Duterte’s statement he is willing to meet his former professor in any neutral Asian country.

NDFP panel member Benito Tiamzon and consultant Wilma Austria welcomed the move saying it would help in the negotiations.

“We have long been saying that the revolutionary movement, the Communist Party of the Philippines, the NPA, most especially Prof. Sison are not terrorists,” Tiamzon said.

“It is also important that President Duterte is saying he is independent of the US and this is one concrete step showing he really is independent,” Tiamzon added.

Sison has yet to issue a statement on the development.

Painstaking SER negotiations

NDFP socio-economic reforms Reciprocal Working Committee (RWC) spokesperson and agrarian and rural development focal person Randall Echanis said their bilateral meetings with their GRP counterparts have taken a few steps forward.

“For the first time, the GRP has submitted a comprehensive draft and we have agreed that both our drafts would be discussed with a matrix comparing both versions,” Echanis said.

Echanis also said that the Preamble and Declaration of Principles mostly based on the NDFP draft has already been agreed upon by the Reciprocal Workings Committees (RWC).

“We have identified commonalities on the Bases, Scope and Applicability provisions of our respective drafts and these are three important parts that our bilateral negotiations have disposed with,” Echanis said.

Echanis also revealed that the GRP has agreed in principle that there should be free land distribution to farmers, subject to consultations with other government agencies.

“We are for free land distribution while the GRP is for land distribution at least cost to the farmers. We met halfway by saying the compensation should not come from the farmers but from the government,” he said.

“They said the NDFP draft’s use of the word of ‘confiscation’ is unconstitutional. We clarified that land grabbed with use of violence and intimidation should be confiscated without compensation but we have no question with just compensation for landlords whose land was accumulated through just means,” Echanis clarified.

Echanis said the NDFP had been meeting GRP halfway in their negotiations as long as the essence and principle of agrarian reform is not compromised.

The closing ceremony of the third round is expected to be held at three o’clock local time (nine o’clock in the evening, Philippine time).

The fourth round of NDFP-GRP formal peace talks shall be held in April in Oslo, Norway. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

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Kodao Productions
January 21, 2017

ROME, Italy—The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) signed the supplemental guidelines to the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) on the third day of their third round of talks.

Marking the first big achievement of the parties’ negotiations in this city, the agreement pushes forward the joint nature of monitoring and upholding human rights in the Philippines, NDFP negotiating panel chairperson Fidel Agcaoili said.

“Finally now under President (Rodrigo) Duterte, we made the determination to sign the supplemental guidelines that will now govern the operation of the JMC as well as its Joint Secretariat,” Agcaoili said.

GRP negotiating panel chairperson Silvestre Bello III for his part said he is glad that the CARHRIHL can now come into fruition, the first substantive agreement he negotiated and signed with the NDFP in 1998.

The signing of the guidelines is “a concrete dividend of this round of talks,” Bello said.

“The full operation of the JMC with its supplemental guidelines in place should not be difficult under our legal regime that included new and bold laws and statutes upholding human rights and international humanitarian laws (IHL), such as the law against enforced disappearance, anti-torture act, IHL ACT, human security act, Writ of Amparo and the Writ of Kalikasan, among others,” Bello added.

“These Supplemental Guidelines shall additionally guide the work of the JMC in its task of monitoring the implementation of, and achieving the objectives of the CARHRIHL,” the newly-signed document said in its purpose and coverage provisions.

“These Supplemental Guidelines shall cover complaints and information on the Parties’ alleged violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, in the context of the armed conflict, as enunciated under the CARHRIHL,” the agreement said.

The JMC was formed and was made operational at the first two rounds of formal peace negotiations between the NDFP and the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo administration in Oslo, Norway on February 10-14 and March 30 to April 2, 2004.

Its formation was in accordance with the CARHRIHL which became effective in August 7, 1998 after it has been signed by NDFP Chairperson Mariano Orosa and GRP President Joseph Estrada.

The JMC then opened its Joint Secretariat (JS) on June 4, 2004 which has since received more than six thousand reports of human rights violations against both the GRP and the NDFP, with the former getting majority of the complaints.

As of May 23, 2016, the NDFP-Nominated Section of the JS received 4,471 complaints against the GRP and 1,926 against the NDFP.

The NDFP however said that 96 per cent of the complaints against them are “nuisance complaints” filed wholesale last November 8, 2006 by the Judge Advocate General’s Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Most complaints against the GRP and its forces on the other hand were filed by human rights organizations or directly submitted by the victims or their families.

The JMC has never conducted joint activities, particularly in processing and investigating complaints of human rights violations received by both parties, as in the murder of the late NDFP consultant Sotero Llamas.

The signing of the supplemental guidelines in the ongoing round of talks has launched the JMC into full operation for the joint activities, the parties said.# (Raymund B. Villanueva)

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Kodao Productions
January 18, 2017

ROME, Italy–The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) submitted a long list of complaints against the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) for violations of previously-signed agreements which, it said, make the extension of its unilateral ceasefire untenable.

Even as delegates from both parties are starting to fill Holiday Inn-Parco de Medici (venue of the January 19-25 talks in this city) the Left’s negotiating panel formally raised with its counterpart seven GRP violations of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG)

“The prospect for forging a bilateral ceasefire agreement has grown dim,” NDFP chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili in a statement said.

The NDFP Negotiating Panel cited the following cases:

• Betrayal of the Left’s trust through GRP’s request to the NDFP to withdraw the judicial appeals of three JASIG-protected NDFP consultants that eventually made their conviction final. But GRP President Rodrigo Duterte has yet to pardon Eduardo Sarmiento, Emeterio Antalan and Leopoldo Caloza to enable them to participate in the ongoing GRP-NDFP peace negotiations;
  

• The surveillance and harassment by motorcycle-riding men of recently released JASIG-protected consultants;

• GRP’s failure to act on NDFP’s demand for justice for the enforced disappearance of JASIG-protected persons Leo Velasco, Prudencio Calubid, his wife and relatives; Rogelio Calubad and his son; Nestor Entice and his wife; Leopoldo Ancheta; and Philip Limjoco; as well as the murder of Sotero Llamas that were all committed during the time of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo;
  

• The ongoing Armed Forces of the Philippines operations against communities suspected to be under the control of NDFP forces on the pretext of conducting so-called peace and development projects. The NDFP has listed such violations in 43 provinces and 146 municipalities all over the country;

• The killing of innocent people due to brutal, reckless and indiscriminate methods employed by the police in its anti-drug operations;
  

• Failure of President Duterte to amnesty close to 400 political prisoners as he repeatedly promised since May; and

• GRP’s failure to render justice and indemnify victims of human rights violations under the Marcos martial law regime, in addition to its attempt at the political rehabilitation of the Marcoses through the late dictator’s burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

“These violations place into serious question the sincerity of the GRP in its peace negotiations,” Agcaoili explained.

“For if previously signed agreements are not honored, what guarantees does the NDFP have that future agreements would not be similarly violated by the GRP?” he asked.

The GRP has not made secret its desire to forge a bilateral ceasefire agreement as one of the major issues to be discussed in the third round of talks.

“The third round of talks hopes to tackle the still unfinished discussions on the proposed bilateral ceasefire vis-à-vis the issues on the releases of prisoners,” Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza in an earlier statement said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

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By ANTONIO L. COLINA IV – DECEMBER 27, 2016

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/27 December) – Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Monday said he does not doubt that President Duterte would fulfill his promise to release all political prisoners as part of the peace negotiation with the National Democratic Front.

Bello, also the chair of the government peace panel in talks with the NDF, issued the statement in Paquibato District here where he attended the 48th founding anniversary celebration of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

“President Duterte has given word that he will release all political prisoners, and I don’t doubt his word,” he said in Filipino.

Local Government Secretary Mike Sueno and Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III attend the 48th founding anniversary celebration of the Communist Party of the Philippines in the hinterland village of Lumiad in Paquibato District, Davao City on Monday, December 26. Mindanews Photo

He added the GRP panel was working on the release of 17 to 20 political detainees before the year ends.

Around 50 to 70 detainees were earlier promised to be released in time for the International Human Rights Day last December 10.

Bello explained the release has been delayed by the need to follow judicial processes.

He said it would have been easier if the political prisoners were already convicted by final judgment because the President can just pardon them.

“Meron iba kasi may (The others have) pending case against them, so the cases are pending in court. So it will be the court who will decide if they will be given temporary liberty,” he said.

“Ang pangako ng president na palalayain nya lahat pero dadaan sa (The President promised to free all but they have to go through a) legal process. And besides, may sinabi si Presidente na (the President said) he is willing to declare a general amnesty subject to the approval of the Congress. I think this will be an act of the President after a final peace agreement has been signed,” he said.

Last December 6, a statement from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process quoted Duterte as saying there will be no substantial release of political prisoners unless the two parties signed a bilateral ceasefire agreement.

“Produce to me a signed bilateral ceasefire agreement and I will release them within 48 hours. You can take my word for it,” Duterte said.

The President said he would lose all his cards if he releases all political prisoners while still in the thick of negotiations.

But this did not sit well with the communists who said Duterte likened the release to a card game to force the NDFP to enter into a bilateral ceasefire agreement.

Connie Ledesma, a member of the NDF peace panel, alleged that government troops continued to violate the unilateral ceasefire declaration issued in August by Duterte.

She said there has been a clamor within the CPP to lift its unilateral ceasefire declaration.

But Bello said that they have not received reports of the alleged violations.

He said complaints should be addressed to the GRP peace panel, Commission on Human Rights and Department of Justice.

The GRP and NDFP panels will resume the third round of peace negotiations in Rome, Italy on January 18 to 25 to flesh out the Comprehensive Agreement on Socioeconomic Reforms (CASER).

The CASER, described as the “heart and soul” of the peace negotiations, contains the most contentious issues such as agrarian reform, national industrialization, and foreign policy.

(Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)

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