[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJYCGv2xaLI]

Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform
March 15, 2021

by Leon Castro
March 28, 2018
 

Like a poker game that he plays all by himself, whimsically rigging the rules, is how Rodrigo R. Duterte now apparently treats the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations. He has mindlessly cast aside all the hard work that both his government’s negotiating panel and that of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) have painstakingly undertaken.

Twice did Duterte arbitrarily cancel the fifth round of formal negotiations, in May and August 2017. But in both instances (as he had done earlier) he subsequently resorted to back-channel talks and agreed to continue the negotiations.

Up till the last minute, all looked rosy for the peace talks. In two discreet back-channel discussions in October and early November—to which Duterte had given explicit go-signal—the GRP and NDFP panels worked furiously to hammer out three draft documents. They had agreed, at the minimum, to refine and initial the documents at the fifth round and, at the maximum, to finalize and sign them at the sixth round in early 2018. The heads and members of both panels were already in Oslo, Norway, when Duterte’s order to cancel the talks came.

The three draft documents were: a draft agreement on agrarian reform and rural development and on national industrialization and economic development (the prime aspects of a Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms or CASER); a draft Coordinated Unilateral Ceasefire Agreement; and a draft General Amnesty for political prisoners.

Had the fifth round of formal negotiations proceeded and achieved its set objectives, 2017 would have ended with high hopes for continuing peace negotiations. And the Duterte government would have looked good in the eyes of the Filipino people.

Hundreds of hours of meetings cum negotiations by the Reciprocal Working Committees for Social and Economic Reforms (RWCs-SER) went into the drafting of the first document, which could have accelerated the entire peace process towards addressing the root causes of the nearly 50 years of armed conflict and attaining just and lasting peace in the country.

Common agrarian reform and national industrialization drafts

Over seven months of peace talks with four formal rounds of negotiations, the NDFP and the GRP panels were able to forge ahead in crafting common drafts for agrarian reform and rural development and for national industrialization and economic development. They held bilateral meetings during the second, third and fourth rounds—in Oslo, Norway (October 7-8, 2016); Rome, Italy (January 22-24, 2017); and Nordwijk an Zee, The Netherlands (April 4-5, 2017), respectively. In addition, there were no less than 10 bilateral meetings in the Philippines and abroad by the NDFP and GRP RWCs-SER between April 25 and November 17 last year.

On agrarian reform and national industrialization, there were nine sections in the common draft signed in Manila by the RWCs last November 20 and witnessed by the Royal Norwegian Government third party facilitator. These are:

– Free distribution of land to tillers, farmers, farmworkers and fisherfolks and writing off of the

  arrears in amortization payments by earlier land reform beneficiaries;

– The agreement includes coverage of plantations and large-scale commercial farms with leasehold,

  joint venture, non-land transfer schemes (e.g. stock distribution option);

– Immediate and expedited installation of farmer beneficiaries;

– Implementation of agrarian support services on production, harvest, post-harvest, insurance, credit

  and free irrigation;

– Elimination of exploitative lending and trading practices;

– Fisheries and aquatic resources reforms;

– National land and water use policy aligned with agrarian reform;

– Develop rural industries and domestic science and technology; and

– Building of rural infrastructure, such as irrigation, post-harvest, transport, communication, power

  facilities.

Signed on the same day, the NDFP and the GRP RWCs common draft on national industrialization listed 10 agreed-on sections, as follows

– Use of the term “national industrialization”;
– Explicit mention of economic planning;
– Development of specific industries, industrial sectors, and industrial projects;
– Nationalization of public utilities and mining;
– “Filipinization” of minerals processing and trade;
– Regulation of foreign investment;
– State intervention and regulation;
– Creation of workers’ councils;
– Breaking foreign monopoly control of industrial technologies; and
– Financing through higher taxes on the rich and lower on poor, as well as revenues from gambling,

  luxury goods, tobacco/alcohol, and tariffs. The parties also agreed to set up an industrial

  investment fund.

The agrarian reform and rural development and the national industrialization and economic development accords, are parts of the prospective Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) Part III, under the title Developing the National Economy. These are mutually acknowledged by the NDFP and the GRP as the most important aspects of the peace negotiations. When finally approved by the principals and implemented, they are expected to alleviate poverty and inequality in the country—addressing the root causes of the armed conflict.

From both sub-agreements, the social and economic reform negotiations are expected to move on to the next issues, which are environmental protection, rehabilitation and compensation. The other parts of the CASER agenda include the following:

Part IV. Upholding people’s rights
A. Rights of the working people
B. Promoting patriotic, progressive and pro-people culture
C. Recognition of ancestral lands and territories of national minorities

Part V. Economic sovereignty for national development
A. Foreign economic & trade relations
B. Financial, monetary & fiscal policies
C. Social & economic planning

Part VI. Overall implementing mechanism

Part VII. Final provisions

Negotiations on the above issues are expected to be easier and faster, compared with those on agrarian reform and national industrialization which are deemed to be the hardest part of the entire negotiations.

Volatile GRP president

Apparently, all it took for Duterte to mindlessly cast aside these great achievements of the negotiations was his seeing on television militant activists protesting US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Philippines for the Asean summit last November. Were imagined personal slights arising from such protest action against one he probably considered a soul mate, more important to him than assiduously working to achieve peace?

Not long after seeing ASEAN protest videos on television, Duterte ordered his negotiators to cancel “all planned meetings with the CPP/NPA/NDFP.” Subsequently, he issued Proclamation 360 (November 23) terminating the GRP-NDFP peace talks. This was followed by Proclamation 374 (December 5) declaring the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) as “terrorist organizations” under both the Human Security Act of 2007 (RA 9373) and the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012 (RA 10168).

Under the law, the proscription of the CPP and NPA as terrorist organizations doesn’t instantly take effect. The government needs to first file a petition with a Regional Trial Court to proclaim the CPP and NPA as terrorist organizations, which petition will have to undergo hearings before the court can issue a ruling. Yet Duterte’s proclamation and his military minions’ relentless campaign to slander the revolutionary organizations have opened the gates to more human rights violations, as happened in his notorious Oplan Tokhang against suspected drug users and peddlers.

His ordering the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the reactionary government’s intelligence branches to arbitrarily list down suspected officers and members of underground revolutionary organizations and of their alleged aboveground “fronts” can only be interpreted as orders for increased intimidation, abduction, torture and murder of legal democratic activists and other civilians.

In the latter part of 2017, Duterte did these things that expose himself as a fraud and a liar disinterested in peace as well as a tyrant in the exact mold of his idol Ferdinand Marcos.

NDFP determined to fight for just peace

Duterte’s lies and slander against revolutionary organizations, however, failed to gain traction among the Filipino people. The people have become aware of and disgusted over Duterte’s mass murder of suspected drug users and peddlers. More and more have also wisened up to his obvious subservience to capitalist and foreign interests, plunder of the environment, attacks against peasant and national minority communities, and his own family’s connections with underworld groups. And his lies against the revolutionary forces are increasingly being dismissed as hot flashes of a drug-addled mind.

NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison has remarked that the US-directed Duterte regime is daydreaming that it can discredit and destroy the sovereign revolutionary will of the Filipino people by proscribing the revolutionary forces as terrorist organizations, by requiring them to submit themselves to the sham processes of the reactionary state, and by unleashing gross and systematic crimes of terrorism and human rights violations.

The Filipino people and the revolutionary forces, he said, are determined to fight for national and social liberation, people´s democracy, economic development, cultural progress and just peace.

While the Duterte fascist regime may have terminated the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations, Sison pointed out, “it cannot be too sure that it will last long [in power] because the Filipino people and even those in the GRP detest the monstrous crimes of the regime, especially mass murder, corruption and puppetry to the US.” The crisis of the ruling system continues to worsen and the resources of the regime for violence and deception are limited.

xxxxx

kodao.org
February 21, 2021/

The spike in new Coronavirus-19 (Covid-19) cases in Europe late last year frustrated plans for back-channel talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison said a planned trip by GRP emissaries to The Netherlands last December did not push through as many countries in Europe implemented extended lockdowns.

“What (labor secretary) Bebot [Silvestre Bello] said that he and (former Pangasinan Representative and GRP Negotiating Panel member) Nani (Hernani Braganza) planned to come over was true,” Sison said.

Sison confirmed that the planned back-channel talks are with the permission of GRP President Rodrigo Duterte and with the mediation of Royal Norwegian Government Special Envoy to the Philippine Peace Process Idun Tvedt.

During the online Ninth Ecumenical Church Leaders’ Summit on Peace on Thursday Bello revealed that back-channel talks are ongoing between the parties.

Bello said that Duterte is again “very much inclined” to revive the negotiations he scuttled in June 2017.

The former GRP chief negotiator said he is confident formal negotiations can resume within Duterte’s last 16 months in office.

Interim NDFP chief negotiator Juliet de Lima for her part told the online forum that the planned back-channel talks would resume discussions on an interim peace agreement (IPA) that includes agreements on social and economic reforms.

IPA discussions shall also include possible coordinated unilateral ceasefire declarations as well as modes for their implementation, de Lima said.

From lows of 108,000 new daily cases last July, new Covid-19 cases spiked in Europe from November last year to January this year, peaking at upwards of two million new cases daily in mid-November.

European countries have since re-imposed strict lock downs and health protocols.

Sison said no new date has yet been set for Bello and Braganza’s possible trip.

Braganza also told Kodao that until vaccinated, it would be difficult for him and Bello to plan the trip.

“Mahirap umalis na walang vaccination. Iba-iba rin ang rules hinggil sa quarantine,” he said. (It is ill-advised without being vaccinated. Rules regarding quarantines are also different.) # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

By Julieta de Lima
Interim Chairperson, Negotiating Panel of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines
February 18, 2021
 

I am honored to speak at the 9th Ecumenical Church Leaders’ Summit on Peace February 18-19, 2021 commemorating 500 Years of Christianity in the Philippines and celebrating God’s gift of human dignity on the subject of Compelling Visions of Just Peace: The Ethical Imperative of Human Dignity in Social Transformation.

The 9th Ecumenical Church Leaders’ Summit on Peace is a chance once again to express our unity amidst our diversity as the 500 years of Christianity in our country is being commemorated.

In the spirit of Pope Francis, let us seek unity in diversity in dealing with issues that beset society such as when he pontificated: “The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ, all of us, not just Catholics. …Even the atheists. Everyone!” on careerism, on judging homosexuals, on consumerism, on the environment, on marriage, remarriage and divorce and most importantly, on the option for the poor (Evangelii Gaudium) as he strives to make the Church relevant to the lives of the people.

Oppression and exploitation are a systematic violation of human dignity. It is in this regard that I wish to discuss human dignity as the core of the revolutionary process of transforming the oppressive and exploitative society we have in the Philippines towards a life of dignity for the Filipino people.

I share your vision of a just and enduring peace for the Philippines, which means peace beyond the silence of guns to the active presence of justice, right relationships with others and the rest of creation. It is tangible and manifested through food on the table, decent jobs and wages, clothing, shelter, education and access to the basic needs. To me this means Man proposes and God disposes, with the masses not only voicing the will of God but realizing it on earth. We make the plan but it is up to the masses, the people, to make this successful. In other words, our prayers are not enough, these must be substantiated by human effort.

Let me present to you the just demands and just aspirations of the people that have inspired the rise of the armed revolutionary movement in the Philippines. I shall also refer to the willingness of the same movement to negotiate a just peace, so brutally frustrated by the all-out war policy and termination of the peace negotiations by the Duterte regime.

These aspirations and demands are precisely among the objectives of the Program for a People’s Democratic Revolutioni as well as the 12-Point Program of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, which you may find at <https://liberation.ndfp.org/our-program/>

In both documents are the most important objectives of the national democratic revolution in the Philippines, which are to achieve full national independence and people’s democracy. The old democratic revolution of 1896 was anticolonial and led by the liberal bourgeoisie and was aimed at building a bourgeois democratic republic.

It was preceded by the secularization movement of the clergy in the Philippines led by Monsignor Pedro Pelaez, ecclesiastical governor of the Church and continued by native (Filipino) priests, the most famous of whom were the martyred priests Fathers Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos and Jacinto Zamora. Their martyrdom, their Christian sacrifice, inspired the national consciousness and coherence of the Filipino people as single nation of diverse ethno-linguistic communities. It is a historical fact that Spanish colonialism brought Christianity to the Philippines. But it is also a historical fact that the Filipino people have adopted it as a redemptive and liberating moral force in the same manner as one type of society after another has adopted science and technology as a progressive factor in advancing civilization.
Today’s new democratic revolution is led by the working class and is aimed at proceeding to the socialist revolution in consonance with the era of modern imperialism and the world proletarian revolution. The revolutionary leadership of the working class and its vanguard party ensures that the new democratic revolution has a socialist perspective, takes a socialist direction and is the preparation for the socialist revolution.

With the peasantry as the main force of the revolution, it is certain that the main content of the democratic revolution is fulfilled with the satisfaction of the peasant demand for agrarian revolution through free land distribution. And the line is set for agricultural cooperation and mechanization when the stage of socialism is reached.

It is necessary for us to study the different classes in Philippine society in order to know who are the motive forces and friends and who in varying degrees are the enemies of the revolution.

The motive forces of the revolution are the working class, the peasantry, the urban petty bourgeoisie and middle bourgeoisie. The enemies of the revolution are the imperialists and their domestic collaborators: the comprador big bourgeoisie, the landlord class and the bureaucrat capitalists. They are the forces of counterrevolution that wish to perpetuate the semifeudal ruling system of oppression and exploitation.

The comprador big bourgeoisie are the chief financial and trading agents of the US and other imperialist countries. The landlord class perpetuates private ownership of lands and subjects the peasants and farm workers to feudal and semifeudal conditions of exploitation and oppression.

The bureaucrat capitalists are the political agents of the big compradors and landlords but they have become a distinct class by accumulating power and wealth by using their governmental authority. They have gained notoriety as political dynasties wanting to perpetuate themselves in power in order to accumulate private capital and land.

The big compradors, landlords and bureaucrat capitalists are considered the class enemies because they exploit the people, especially the workers and peasants, and they use the semicolonial state to oppress the people and keep them within the bounds of the ruling system through violence and deception.

Within the framework of the broad united front policy and tactics, the CPP refers to these enemy classes as the reactionary classes in order to focus the term “enemy” on the most reactionary clique that is in power. The sharpening of the term is meant to take advantage of the splits among the reactionaries and narrow the target of the revolution to the ruling reactionary clique as the enemy in a given period.

As I explained above, the motive forces and the friends of the revolution are the following: a. the working class as the leading class from the new democratic stage to the socialist stage of the Philippine revolution, b. the peasantry (essentially the poor and middle peasants and the seasonal farm workers) as the main force or democratic majority of the people and c. the middle social strata of the urban petty bourgeoisie and the middle bourgeoisie.

Their needs and demands are expressed in the program of people’s democratic revolution (PPDR). And they participate in the revolution in order to realize this program. Their participation in the revolution spells the growth and advance of the revolution towards victory.

Why are the workers called the leading class of the revolution? The working class is the leading class of the revolution because it is the most advanced productive and political force among the various classes in Philippine society and in the world. It is the class that can sustain and further develop an industrialized economy even without the bourgeoisie. It is indispensable in the development of an industrialized socialist economy.

It is the class that is capable of leading the toiling masses to overthrow the state power of the bourgeoisie and replace it with the state power of the proletariat and fulfil the historic mission of socialist revolution and construction. The working class has the most developed theory for revolutionary change and the accumulated practice of leading successful socialist revolutions, despite the subsequent revisionist betrayal and capitalist restoration in the Soviet Union and then in China. The theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism encompasses philosophy, political economy and social science.

The working class has created the Communist Party as the vanguard party to focus on revolutionary theory and practice on the basis of the revolutionary mass movement. The Communist Party is the instrument of the working class for leading the revolution from the people’s democratic stage to the socialist stage of the revolution.

The peasant class (mainly the poor and middle peasants and traditional seasonal farm workers) is still the most numerous class in the Philippines and comprise the democratic majority of the people. The satisfaction of their demand for land through agrarian revolution is the main content of the revolution.

The protracted people’s war in the new democratic revolution is possible in the Philippines because the peasant class has provided the people’s army with the social and physical terrain, the widest sphere of maneuver for the people’s war against the enemy that is superior in terms of military personnel, equipment and training before the people’s army gains the upper-hand by capturing the weapons from the enemy.

The actual social investigation and class analysis done by the CPP belies the claim of the enemy that the Philippines is already a newly-industrialized country, even without having the capability to produce industrial capital goods. The trick of the enemy is to claim that out of the 45 million labor force or manpower in the Philippines 58 per cent are workers in the service sector and 19.1 per cent are workers in the industry sector. Thus, the working class is now supposedly 77.1 per cent, while the peasantry has dwindled to 19.1 per cent without the need of genuine land reform and national industrialization. Most of the so-called service workers are oddjobbers and are the off-shoot of the semifeudal economy and not the consequence of industrial capitalism.

The CPP is the principal instrument of the working class for leading the national democratic revolution and, subsequently, the socialist revolution. To be able to take this role, the CPP has to build itself as an ideological, political and organizational instrument of the working class. It has to realize the class leadership of the working class in the entire revolutionary movement of the people.

As the ideological instrument of the working class, the CPP is guided by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and has applied this theory on the history, circumstances and revolutionary practice of the proletariat and people.

As political instrument, it has formulated the general line of people’s democratic revolution through protracted people’s war and with a socialist perspective and has done the political work to build itself, the people’s army, the revolutionary mass organizations, the united front and the revolutionary organs of democratic power.

As the organizational instrument, it has built itself under the principle of democratic centralism in order to make collective decisions from the grassroots to higher levels of representation on the basis of democracy.

The CPP established the New People’s Army (NPA) to defend, advance and serve the people’s interests. In upholding human dignity in the Christian and Marxist sense as well as in accordance with the international covenants on human rights and humanitarian conduct in war, the CPP sees to it that as an imperative every fighter abides by the simply-worded three main rules of discipline and the eight points of attention to wit:

Obey orders in all your actions.
Do not take a single needle or piece of thread from the masses.
Turn in everything captured;

Speak politely,
Pay fairly for what you buy,
Return everything you borrow.
Pay for anything you damage
Do not damage crops,
Do not take liberties with women,
Do not ill-treat captives.

The NPA is the Party’s principal mass organization. It is not only a fighting force. It conducts propaganda work for party building, it carries out the agrarian revolution in the countryside, builds and protects rural bases and the people’s government.

In contrast, we do not experience the reactionary armed forces of the oppressive classes observing such a code of conduct. What we observe daily is the abuse of authority and the lack of concern for the welfare of the masses on the part of the armed forces as instrument of the bourgeoisie for protecting their interests as exploiting classes.

The CPP also established and built the National Democratic Front, which seeks to develop and coordinate all progressive classes, sectors and forces in the Filipino people’s struggle to end the rule of US imperialism and its local allies of big landlords and compradors, and attain national and social liberation. The earliest of its current 18 organizations is the Christians for National Liberation, which preceded the NDFP by two years. Its formation was inspired by the anticolonial priests Gomez, Burgos and Zamora martyred in the old democratic revolution as well as by Camilo Torres and liberation theology.

Your concept paper states: “The unpeace in our country has violated, defaced and deformed human dignity in our country and is a constant occurrence.” We must understand that imperialist powers and the local exploiting classes have built an economic system that grabs most of the social wealth creating by the toiling masses of workers and peasants and have developed a system of organized violence to enforce exploitative and oppressive laws and to suppress any critique or movement that is construed as a threat to the fundamentals of the ruling system.

In representation of the revolutionary forces the National Democratic Front has agreed with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines to engage in peace negotiations in order to address the roots of the armed conflict with mutual agreements on social, economic and political reforms in accordance with The Hague Joint Declaration. It is not entirely impossible to agree on these reforms, which are of a bourgeois-democratic character and which have been carried out in a number of East Asian countries, such as in post-fascist Japan and the so-called newly-industrialized countries since the 1970s.

This is the reason why revolutionary and progressive organizations like PEPP persist in campaigning for the resumption of the peace negotiations under all circumstances. They remain optimistic that their efforts would alleviate the dire situation of the masses even under the worst of circumstances.
As you have noted, communities, both in urban and rural areas, live in fear of constant threat – threat from an unseen virus, threat from increasing poverty, threat from arbitrary use of power from those who have sworn to protect them – and other forms of violence from the virus of tyranny.

Because of the violent resistance of the Duterte regime to basic social, economic and political reforms and Duterte’s termination of the peace negotiations, it becomes ethically and morally imperative for the Filipino people to participate and advance the protracted people’s war in pursuit of national and social liberation. It is also for this reason that a people’s armed force is both an ethical and moral imperative for the people to mobilize and defend themselves. Inaction on their part is to allow unpeace to reign in our country. It means allowing a tyrannical, treasonous and corrupt government to trample on the rights and interests and, therefore, the dignity of the people, especially the toiling masses.

The Duterte government unilaterally terminated the peace negotiations with the NDFP when it issued Proclamation 360 in November 2017 and designated the CPP and NPA as terrorist organizations under Proclamation 374 of December 2017. It has since launched an all-out war against the NDF, the New People’s Army, the Communist Party of the Philippines and organizations it accuses as “front organizations”. The breakdown of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations has also led to unbridled ‘red-tagging’ of government critics, and church people and churches were not exempted from this practice by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

Not satisfied with all the repressive measures it had already taken, the Duterte regime took advantage of the lockdown necessitated by the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic to impose further suffering on the people through racketeering and profiteering on the procurement and purchase of medicine, medical equipment, protective, etc and appropriating donations medical aid from governmental and private charitable institutions to line their pockets.

As we celebrate 500 years of Christianity in the country, let us strive ever harder to uphold human dignity and as your concept paper states, put this “at the center of our nation’s life in order for us to get in the right track for our collective journey towards peace”.

Let us strengthen our struggle for peace by striving to oust the tyrant and disable the instruments that victimize the people. We can then hope that upon the tyrant’s ouster or stepping down, a new administration that is patriotic, democratic-minded and concerned with the rights and welfare of the people can arise and is willing to resume the peace negotiations with the NDFP.

At the same time, we do not foreclose the possibility that Duterte is struck by lightning like Saul on his way to Damascus and agrees to resume peace negotiations because of the miraculous combination of prayers for and advocacy of peace by the people and the irresistible demands of the rapidly worsening crisis of the ruling system.

Thank you.

 ###

Part of the GRP panel at the table just as the 5th Round of peace negotiations was to start in the Netherlands.

By Interaksyon

May 27, 2017 – 8:39 PM

(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

Former peace talk consultant Alfredo Mapano (left) pays a visit to Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, then the head of the archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro, after his release from prison in 2016. JIGGER J. JERUSALEM

By: Jigger J. Jerusalem – @inquirerdotnet
Inquirer Mindanao / 07:57 PM December 01, 2020

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—A group of Christian church leaders advocating for peace is questioning the arrest of Alfredo Mapano, former peace talk consultant of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), while he was at work in a government corporation in Misamis Oriental province.

“Is the government program of national reconciliation and rebel reintegration all for show?” said Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) in a statement.

The statement was signed by PEPP conveners Archbishop-emeritus Antonio Ledesma of Cagayan de Oro Archdiocese, Bishop Felixberto Calang of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) Diocese of Cagayan de Oro and Bishop Ligaya San Francisco of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) northwestern Mindanao.

It said the case of Mapano cast doubt on the sincerity of the government’s call for rebels to lay down their arms and return to the fold of the law.

Mapano, who had been working at the Phividec Industrial Authority in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, was arrested by a police team from Bayugan town, Agusan del Sur province last Nov. 27 for a case of robbery in band.

Mapano had served seven years at the Misamis Oriental provincial jail until 2016, when he was freed on bail to serve as consultant in peace talks between the government and NDFP.

At Phividec, he worked first as a corporate social responsibility officer tasked with dealing with informal settlers within the 3,000-hectare industrial estate that hosted big corporations like SMB Brewery, power plants and international ports. He became security officer after that.

PEPP said “while leading a normal life with his family,” Mapano also spent time as “active partner in the government program for national reconciliation” and spoke in different forums on peace.

On several occasions, Mapano quietly facilitated the assimilation of former rebels in society and helped those who are threatened, PEPP said.

The bishops said at the time of the supposed crime committed by Mapano in Agusan del Sur and Bukidnon provinces in 2017 and 2019, he was already working in Phividec.

“It is mind boggling to think that he could be in these far-away places while working in a government office,” PEPP said.

“We view with alarm and concern that Alfredo Mapano, a former peace negotiator and now a rebel-returnee, government employee and active partner of the government program, has become a victim of the government’s hollow promise,” it said.

“Instead of the promised ‘peaceful return to the fold,’ he is once again subjected to political persecution with these latest trumped-up charges filed against him,” PEPP said.

“We urge the government to abide by its promise to accept our rebel brothers and sisters who have decided to return to the fold of the law and offer them a chance to lead a peaceful life and contribute to peace-building,” the group said.

Peace cannot be achieved when even those who have given up violence and have chosen to work for peace are still politically persecuted, the bishops added. 

xxxxx

August 21, 2020 9:53 PM PHT
Michelle Abad – Rappler.com
MANILA, Philippines

‘We are saddened and appalled by the ongoing violence and threats against human rights defenders in the Philippines,’ says the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Friday, August 21, called for “independent” and “thorough” investigations into the recent killings of two human rights defenders in the Philippines.

The OHCHR was referring to agrarian reform advocate Randall “Randy” Echanis and human rights worker Zara Alvarez, who were killed within days of each other. Echanis suffered around 40 stab wounds while Alvarez was shot dead.

“We are saddened and appalled by the ongoing violence and threats against human rights defenders in the Philippines, including the killing of two human rights defenders over the past two weeks,” OHCHR spokesperson Liz Throssel said in a statement Friday.

“We welcome the statement from the Presidential Palace denouncing ‘any form of violence perpetuated against citizens, including activists’ and note that investigations into both cases are underway,” she added.

Anakpawis chair Echanis, 72, was among those accused of killing 67 individuals in the alleged purging within the ranks of the New People’s Army more than 20 years ago in Leyte. They were arraigned for murder before a Manila court in 2015.

Echanis had a long career of advocacy work in fighting against injustice and inequality, stemming from his days as a student.

Alvarez, 39, was imprisoned for almost two years. After her release, she worked as Karapatan’s paralegal and as research and advocacy officer of the Negros Island Health Integrated Program, according to the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Negros group.

Before being shot by a lone gunman in Bacolod, Alvarez asked for protective writs. She died before the court could give it to her.

Both Echanis and Alvarez were among the more than 600 people that the Department of Justice wanted to declare as terrorists in a proscription case filed in February 2018.

Following Alvarez’s murder, her colleague Clarizza Singson received a death threat on Facebook warning her that she would be next.

“The UN Human Rights Office stresses the need for independent, thorough, and transparent investigations into the killings and for those responsible to be held to account. Effective measures must be taken to protect other at-risk human rights defenders and to halt and condemn incitement to hatred against them,” said Throssel.

The OHCHR also called on the Philippine government to ensure that relevant agencies fully cooperate with investigations led by the country’s Commission on Human Rights.

The administration under President Rodrigo Duterte has long been conducting a crackdown on people whom they tag as communists or terrorists. Government platforms were also found to be red-tagging the media.

With the anti-terrorism law in place, human rights groups warn of further dangers this could mean for ordinary people who voice dissent. – Rappler.com

Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform
July 24, 2020

The Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) is deeply saddened over the passing of Fidel Agcaoili, the Chairperson of the NDFP Peace Panel.

May God’s comforting hands be with his family and friends in their time of mourning…

By Jose Maria Sison
NDFP Chief Political Consultant
August 10, 2020

In the strongest terms, I condemn the murder of Randall (Randy) Echanis and his neighbor who were unarmed. Randall was a peaceful social activist. He was a mild-mannered man of 72 years. He had a consistent modest personality with a high level of education and intellect. He had long dedicated himself to his social advocacy and had made tremendous sacrifices for many decades.

Bishop Felixberto Calang
Convenor, Sowing the Seeds of Peace
July 27, 2020

It is our wish that the President’s SONA may contain even the slightest window of opportunity for the resumption of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations. We wish, not hope, because the imposition of the Anti-Terrorism Law is the single biggest obstacle to the revival of the peace process.

We renew our call that in the midst of the Covid 19 pandemic, there be ‘social distancing’ in the battlefield. This will allow the government to focus its full attention and resources on the people’s health, while also allowing the forces of the National Democratic Front to complement this effort. But it is clear that 4 years into the Duterte Presidency, we see a whole-of-state approach, dominated by military and police generals, to the most pressing issues of our time including the Coronavirus pandemic.

Going into the final stretch of the Duterte government, dreams for an independent foreign policy, genuine land reform, and a just and lasting peace— hatched and launched in Davao City in 2016— have been taken over by anti-democratic, anti-national, and anti-people measures and appear to be the legacy that the President seeks to leave behind.

Bishop Felixberto Calang
Iglesia Filipina Independiente
Diocese of Cagayan de Oro

Convenor, Sowing the Seeds of Peace