Bello thankful for indefinite truce with NDF

MANILA, Philippines (Philippines News Agency) - Government peace panel chair, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III thanked the National Democratic Front (NDF) for deciding to extend indefinitely its one-week unilateral ceasefire to aid the peace process and achieve a deal within a year.

Closing the week-long peace talks in Oslo, Norway Friday, Bello said the resumption of the negotiations was "a leap of faith" after the last one in 2011.

"But no matter how difficult it was, we choose to believe and today, we start receiving the dividends of that faith. Our agreements reached during this round of talks should tell us how far can our faith bring us and what we can achieve together," he said.

During the past week, both parties agreed on six, instead of five, major contentious issues that would propel the negotiations.

Aside from the NDF's decision for an indefinite ceasefire, the panels also re-affirmed previously signed agreements, among them The Hague Joint Declaration in 1992, Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) in 1996, and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) in 1998.

The Philippine government (GPH) and NDF panels also agreed to reconstitute the JASIG list, which will be on an encrypted file and will contain photos and identities of NDF consultants who are still in hiding but will be immune to arrest as the negotiations are underway.

The JASIG list will contain the names and photos of 54 NDF "publicly known" consultants and 87 guerilla leaders who are known by their "assumed names".

Also given a thumbs up during the meeting were the revitalization of the joint monitoring committee, the submission of a recommendation to President Rodrigo Duterte on the issuance of an Amnesty Proclamation, subject to concurrence with Congress, for the arrested, imprisoned and charged NDF members.

Bello said discussions were boosted by the participation of 16 NDF consultants who were given safe passes to travel overseas and join the meetings.

These consultants include couple Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, Chairman and Secretary-General, respectively, of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), Tirzo Alcantara and Alan Jazmines.

Other NDF consultants who were present were NDF co-founder and former Bayan Muna Party-List Representative Satur Ocampo, Vicente Ladlad, Rafael Baylosis and Randall Echanis.

Both panels agreed to meet again on October 8 to 12 in Oslo to discuss, among others, issues on socioeconomic reforms, which they agreed to finish in the next six months.

Both panels also agreed to activate the Reciprocal Working Committee on the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms (CASER), and the Reciprocal Working Groups (RWGs) on Political and Constitutional Reforms (PCR) and the End of Hostilities-Disposition of Forces (EOH-DOF).

The RCW meetings will be held in Oslo and those of RWGs in the Philippines.

"We conclude today our first round of talks with much vigor to accomplish the bigger tasks ahead in peace building," Bello said.

"Let us be steadfast in our peace work until we have reached a logical conclusion of the armed conflict," he added.

Aside from Bello, the government was represented in the meeting by Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (PAPP) Jesus Duresa, former PAPP Rene Sarmiento, former agrarian reform secretary Hernani Braganza, Secretariat chief Carla Munsayac, and lawyer Sedfrey Candelaria, among others.

NDF chief negotiator Luis Jalandoni led the other party and was accompanied by CPP founder Jose Maria Sison and wife, Julie, NDF spokesperson Fidel Agcaoili, NDF peace panel member Coni Ledesma, and NDF Representative to the Nordic countries Asterio Palma, among others.

The meeting was facilitated by the Royal Norwegian Government.