‘NDF peace talks should resume without pre-conditions’

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Incoming government negotiator with communist rebels Silvestre Bello believes that peace talks with the National Democratic Front should resume without pre-conditions.

In an interview yesterday, Bello said peace talks should resume and then the issue of ceasefire or the release of some rebel consultants could be the product of negotiations.

Setting pre-conditions would violate The Hague Joint Declaration, an existing agreement between the government and the NDF, Bello said.

NDF negotiator Fidel Agcaoili said rebels   serving as peace consultants should be freed because it is a government obligation under the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees signed in 1995.

“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 said.

Bello said he has relayed to Agcaoili his position that the release of prisoners should be an offshoot of negotiations.

“I am very confident that the peace negotiation will resume,” he said. “I made it very clear to him that if we resume, it should be without precondition.” 

Negotiations between the government and the NDF hit a snag after the two sides failed to reach a consensus on jailed rebel leaders.

The NDF had demanded the release of rebels charged with criminal cases. They are working as peace consultants and should therefore be immune from arrest, they claimed.

However, the government panel rejected the demand as their identities could not be validated, especially those using aliases.

Communist rebels have been waging an armed struggle against the government since the late 1960s.

The insurgency, the longest-running in the region, has claimed more than 40,000 lives. 

Meanwhile, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas secretary general Antonio Flores expects more than 300 “peasant political prisoners” to be released under the incoming Duterte administration.

“The resumption of peace talks will pave the way for the release of all political prisoners, now reaching more than 500, detained at various jails in the country,” he said.

Flores is optimistic of the intention of incoming president Rodrigo Duterte to seriously continue the peace process by taking significant steps that include the release of all political prisoners.

“Many political prisoners who are detained since the Arroyo administration are peace consultants, activists, farmers and leaders and members of mass organizations,” he said. 

“Peace talks between the National Democratic Front and the government of the Republic of the Philippines were stalled in 2011 when the Aquino government deliberately refused to free political prisoners and implement previous agreements, including The Hague Declaration and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.”