Reds ready to talk peace

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – A representative of the communist-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) met with incoming president Rodrigo Duterte last Tuesday and both sides agreed to resume peace talks.

Duterte’s spokesman Salvador Panelo confirmed that Fidel Agcaoili, chief negotiator of the NDFP, met Duterte last Monday at the Matina Enclaves.

“The talks have started. They already had a courtesy call led by Fidel Agcaoili. Both sides promised to resume talks,” Panelo told reporters yesterday.

Agcaoili confirmed his meeting with Duterte in an interview with CNN Philippines. He said the meeting was supposed to be held at 6 p.m. last Monday but pushed through at 3 a.m. Tuesday.

Agcaoili said the resumption of peace talks was tackled during the meeting.

“President Duterte issued statements like the resumption of peace talks, the release of political prisoners and his meeting with (Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Ma. Sison),” Agcaoili said.

“It seems that president Duterte does not have any problem with the release of political prisoners, a majority of whom were detained under (President) Aquino,” he added.

Talks between the government and the NDFP were stalled after the two parties failed to reach a deal on jailed rebel leaders. 

President Aquino ended talks with the communists in 2013 over the rebels’ demand for the unconditional release of their detained comrades that his government was unwilling to grant.

The NDFP had demanded the release of rebels charged with criminal offenses, saying they are working as peace consultants and should therefore be immune from arrest.

The NDFP insisted that the releasing of peace consultants is consistent with the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) signed by peace negotiators in 1995.

Government negotiators, however, refused to yield, saying there is no way to validate the identities of the rebels, especially those using aliases.

Earlier, Sison, who has been in self-exile in the Netherlands since 1987, said the prospect for peace talks with the government “seems to be bright” under the Duterte administration.

He also said he is ready to end his decades-long exile if Duterte, his former student, visits him.

On Monday, Duterte said he is ready to give at least four Cabinet posts to the CPP, namely the labor, agrarian reform, environment and social welfare departments.

Panelo said the appointees for the four agencies would not necessarily be CPP members.

“Anybody who shares the ideas of the left is welcome,” he said.

Panelo, however, stressed that Duterte is against violent means of pursuing progressive ideals.

He believes the military would not react negatively to Duterte’s decision to appoint communists in government. 

“They trust Mayor Duterte. They believe in him. In fact, he has received the trust of both the PNP (Philippine National Police) and the military. They will follow the commander-in- chief,” Panelo said.

Panelo also welcomed reports that Duterte is planning to grant a general amnesty to communist rebels.

“The communist rebels are not criminals. They fight for ideologies. The struggle is now an intellectual one. We have to give them a chance to start new lives. They need a new setup for a new order,” he said.

Luis Jalandoni, the communist rebels’ exiled chief peace negotiator, told radio dzMM that the rebels waging one of Asia’s longest running insurgencies welcomed the incoming administration’s peace overtures.

“We applaud the plans and programs announced by president-elect Duterte. We believe these would be key factors to achieving peace,” said Jalandoni.

Netherlands-based Jalandoni said the rebels were expected to shortly exchange delegation visits with the Duterte camp “as part of the process for preparing the resumption of peace talks” as well as to iron out terms of cooperation.

Duterte welcomed plans by CPP founder Sison to end nearly 30 years of exile to take part in the peace talks.

He said the return of Sison, his former political science professor at the Lyceum University of the Philippines, would be important in helping to end the rebellion, which has claimed an estimated 30,000 lives since the 1960s.

Both Jalandoni and Sison said no guerrillas would actually serve in Duterte’s Cabinet prior to reaching a political settlement, when the insurgents hoped to lay down arms and join a coalition government.

“We have relayed to president-elect Duterte that (guerrilla) personnel themselves would not be taking up government posts, but we will recommend a list of qualified, competent and dedicated persons that could fill the posts,” Jalandoni said.

He said this would include nominees to the labor, social welfare, environment and agrarian reform portfolios that were offered to them by Duterte, who takes office on June 30.

Jalandoni also told dzMM the rebels would consider a ceasefire and would ask the Duterte government to release 543 political prisoners.

In a statement, the party said it looks forward to “forging an alliance for national unity, peace and development with the Duterte government based on clearly stipulated principles and policies of national sovereignty and social justice.”

“We view the offer of key Cabinet positions made by presumptive president Duterte as an acknowledgement of the strength and political standing of the CPP and revolutionary forces, its effective representation of the interests of workers, peasants, minorities and the broad masses as well as its work in protecting the environment,” the CPP said.

The CPP said that a labor secretary can only effectively serve the interests of the labor sector when there are laws prohibiting contractualization, promoting unions, establishing a national wage system and substantially raising wages to decent levels.

An agrarian reform secretary “will only be able to serve the interests of the peasant masses when there is a genuine land reform program that upholds the social justice tenet of free distribution of land to the tillers and which prohibits landlords, plantations and contract-growers from grabbing and monopolizing lands.”

“An alliance or coalition between the Duterte regime and the CPP and revolutionary forces can be realized on the basis of such principles as national sovereignty and social justice, which are questions at the core of the current armed conflict,” the CPP explained.

Amnesty

Duterte’s plan to grant general amnesty to all detained communist rebels is the sole prerogative of the chief executive, a group of military officers said yesterday.

However, they pointed out before this could be done all the legal processes should be first satisfied, including the conviction of these detainees.

“It is a bitter pill for the military and police establishments to swallow, but it is the prerogative of the president, being the commander-in-chief,” said one senior officer who refused to be identified.

The officer said in the case of CCP founder Sison, he should acknowledge that he rebelled only against the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, and that he should announce his complete trust to Duterte.

Another senior military officer pointed out that detained communist leaders Benito Tiamzon and his wife Wilma are facing criminal charges that could not be automatically absolved.

“Medyo magkakaproblema dyan, dahil may (there could be problems because of the) civil and common crimes sila (detained rebels),” said.

“It’s his prerogative as president to grant such clemency. But for him to grant an amnesty, the suspect must first be meted with a sentence of conviction, I believe, though I am not a lawyer,” another senior grade military officer said.

But he added that Duterte, being a lawyer, knows what he is doing, as he was also quoted as saying that all cases against the detained communist rebels would be subject to review.

Another officer, whose unit is directly in charge of monitoring national security threats, described Duterte’s plan of action in dealing with the country’s decades-old insurgency problem as an excellent move.

“It’s an excellent gesture (release of all political prisoners) of the new president for the whole political spectrum of our society, in pursuit of national unity and reconciliation,” he said.

He said the plan is similar to the action taken by the late President Corazon Aquino during the post EDSA People Power revolution in 1986, that disrupted the strategic revolutionary objectives of the communists.

Among the first beneficiaries of the Cory clemency was Sison, who soon after his release from prison went into exile. – With Jaime Laude, Christina Mendez, Artemio Dumlao, AFP, AP