Gov’t, Reds may resume talks

MANILA, Philippines - Representatives of the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) are set to meet in the next few days to discuss ways to resume stalled peace talks.

In a statement issued to the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance, NDF peace panel chairman Luis Jalandoni said the meeting was a product of consultations between the two negotiating teams.

“A series of consultations between the NDFP negotiating panel and a high level delegation of the GPH (government of the Philippines) has resulted in a meeting between the two sides scheduled in Utrecht within the next few days,” read the statement.

“The two sides are discussing the possible resumption of peace negotiations after the collapse of talks on truce and cooperation last February 2013.”

The statement did not say when the meeting would start and what topics would be covered.

Jalandoni said the Norwegian government has named a new special envoy to the talks, Elisabeth Slattum, who has experience in peace negotiations in Colombia, Nepal and Haiti.

“She and Mr. Espen Lindbaeck, the deputy director of the Peace and Reconciliation Section of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, came for talks with the NDFP negotiating panel in Utrecht on Oct. 18,” he said.

“This new team of the Norwegian government expressed its willingness to help in the resumption of formal talks and to hold the next meeting of the negotiating panels in Oslo, Norway,” he said.

The NDFP is ready to resume formal talks “on the basis of past bilateral peace agreements in order to address the roots of the armed conflict,” Jalandoni said.

Talks between the government and the NDFP were stalled last year after the rebels demanded the release of communist leaders facing criminal cases.

The NDFP caimed the jailed communist leaders were working as peace consultants and should be immune from arrest.

The arrest of the peace consultants is a violation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees, the NDF added.

However, government negotiators said they cannot validate the NDFP’s claim since some of the jailed rebels are using aliases.

Jalandoni said the NDFP has been implementing “goodwill gestures” to promote the peace talks, like releasing four captured policemen in Mindanao last July.

Government forces had committed “gross violations” of human rights and International Humanitarian Law despite the goodwill measures, he added.

Military officials dismissed the rebel’s allegations as propaganda.