Hopes dim for peace talks with New People’s Army — Bello

MANILA, Philippines — After the New People’s Army (NPA) torched 10 heavy equipment units on Easter Sunday in Davao City, the prospect of resuming talks with communist rebels is getting dimmer.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, who serves as government peace panel chair, said the Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front (CPP-NDF) and the combatant unit NPA failed to prove their sincerity in pursuing peace talks with the government.

“For me, I cannot feel their sincerity because lately they burned equipment in Mindanao. They still lack in sincerity,” Bello said yesterday, noting that President Duterte needs to see this before deciding to talk peace.

He added that he would not recommend the resumption of the talks if Duterte will ask him.

“It has always been the statement of the President that he will pursue talks if the other party shows sincerity in pursuing talks to its logical conclusion. Show sincerity and we will talk again,” he stressed.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) branded the move as “an attack on the people” as Lt. Gen. Benjamin Madrigal Jr., Eastern Mindanao Command chief, ordered his men in the 10th Infantry Division to go after the perpetrators.

AFP spokesman Major Ezra Balagtey said the communist rebels torched the heavy equipment that included four dump trucks and a backhoe, which were used for the construction of the Davao City bypass road in Barangays Callawa, Buhangin and Fatima. 

Nothing but cowards 

Presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio also condemned the destruction, saying the NPA revolution already “undermines our democracy and development through its brand of egregious violence and extremism.”

“The attacks were downright cowardly and indicate that the NPA is nothing but a terrorist group that deserves our collective rejection and condemnation,” Carpio said in a statement yesterday. 

No precondition

Meanwhile, NDF peace panel chairman Fidel Agcaoili said the communist rebels are still open to resuming talks if there is no precondition.

He said in an interview with ANC yesterday that the NDF is still in possession of the draft documents the two panels were about to discuss before the government cancelled the peace talks in November last year.

“No preconditions. We sit down and talk on the basis of the three agreements, drafts we have prepared in October, which should have been discussed in November… By this time, we would have what was offered or proposed by the government – a unilateral coordinated ceasefire,” he added.

The documents, he pointed out, pertain to a coordinated ceasefire, general amnesty for political prisoners and those that were agreed upon by the reciprocal working committees. 

Agcaoili stressed that the government’s efforts in asking the courts to formally declare as terrorists the CPP and the NPA are a hindrance that has to be dealt with in the backchannel discussions.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque earlier said there must be an “enabling environment” before the government returns to the negotiating table.

She noted that it stalled road construction works and delayed the delivery of basic services – health, education, agricultural development and livelihood – in the affected areas, adding that the road projects could change people’s lives people for the better. – Michael Punongbayan, Edith Regalado, Jose Rodel Clapano