NDF optimistic on ‘striking a deal’ with government

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga , Philippines– The National Democratic Front (NDF) yesterday expressed optimism on “striking an agreement with the government” as it cited President Duterte’s “encouraging gestures that promote the atmosphere of peace.”

According to the NDF Reciprocal Working Committee on Social and Economic Reforms (RWC-SER), whose members are now in Utrecht, the Netherlands in preparation for the second round of peace negotiations in Oslo, Norway from Oct. 6 to 10, there are “positive signs” that both parties would agree on agrarian reform.

This developed as government peace panel member League of Cities of the Philippines president Edgardo Pamintuan stressed that all the reciprocal working groups are functioning well.

“I think it’s all systems go for the next round. We’re ready for peace,” Pamintuan said. NDF consultant and RWC-SER member Randall Echanis said “one manifestation (of success in the talks) is that despite the vacuum on agrarian reform due to the expiration of the government’s comprehensive agrarian reform program in June 2014, the government, like the NDF, has included the issue as one of the talking points.”

“Another encouraging gesture is Duterte’s order to condone unpaid arrears on land amortization of farmer beneficiaries and the moratorium on land use conversion,” Echanis said.

“Writing off unpaid amortizations is a step towards free land distribution,” he said.

Meanwhile, NDF consultant and RWC-SER member Adel Silva said the development of the steel industry would be one of the priorities in the discussions on national industrialization. ?

Socio-economic reforms sought

On Monday, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, concurrent chairman of the government peace panel with the NDF, stressed the need to address the root causes of armed conflict through socio-economic reforms in order to attain peace.

Bello identified extreme poverty, injustice and corruption in government as the underlying factors that breed insurgency and said these concerns must be immediately resolved.

“In order to achieve peace in our country, we should not be signing peace agreements alone but we should be addressing the root causes of conflict,” he said.

He added that the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms (CASER) with the NDF seeks to address these concerns.

CASER – which Bello described as the “heart and soul of the peace process ” – is one of the remaining substantive agenda on the talks, aside from the political and constitutional reforms and the end of hostilities and disposition of forces.

As embodied in the joint statement signed last Aug. 26, both panels agreed to finish the CASER within a period of six months.

CASER and the two remaining substantive agenda are set to be tackled during the next round of peace negotiations in Oslo.

Aside from resolving the root causes of conflicts, Bello also shared the current initiatives of both panels to come up with a bilateral ceasefire aimed at permanently ending the hostilities on the ground.

No surrender of guns

Meanwhile, Luis Jalandoni, the Netherlands-based top negotiator for the NDF, said the organization’s military wing, the New People’s Army, would not surrender their weapons even if a peace deal is reached with the government.

“We don’t think the NPA should be disarmed or the weapons surrendered and destroyed,” he told reporters in Manila. – With Jose Rodel Clapano