Sison to return if there’s progress in talks

MANILA, Philippines — Only “substantial progress in the peace negotiations” between the Philippines and the National Democratic Front (NDF) can convince Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison to return to the country.

“I’m ready to go back to the Philippines as soon as there is substantial progress in the peace negotiations,” Sison said yesterday in an interview with ABS-CBN.

Sison said the government and the NDF, umbrella organization and political unit of the CPP and its armed wing the New People’s Army (NPA), should round up three vital agreements if the fifth round of talks ever resume.

“I think that’s a beginning of substantial progress,” he said.

The three vital agreements are the ceasefire between the government and the NDF, amnesty proclamation and some important portions of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER).

Sison said he wants to return to the country at a proper time and expressed optimism that it might be this year.

He said an interim peace agreement is likely to be signed once formal talks resume on June 28.

“So, by June 14, it’s all ironed out. Of course, I may be proven wrong because everything depends on that joint announcement. But I don’t see any problem because there may be some misunderstanding but this can be solved,” he said.

The rebel group believed that CASER will address the root causes of the armed struggle, with provisions on genuine agrarian reform and rural development, nationalization of certain industries.

“I think within one round, we can finish CASER and that would be a signal for me to return to the Philippines,” Sison said.

Sison went to the Netherlands in January 1987.

“I intended originally to stay here in Europe only for one month. I planned to go to some five universities in European countries. Then I would go to the US. I was eager to go to the US because my close family members are in California and some are in New York. And I had a good speaking tour. Ten speaking engagements which would give me an income of $10,000 and with engagements, I was joking that I was going to earn my pension after imprisonment,” Sison said.

He said the US embassy in the Netherlands kept on telling him to come back after six months, and finally found out the US state department decided to deny him entry. – With Alexis Romero