Peace adviser: Deal with RPA-ABB a good model for localized talks

MANILA, Philippines — The government's peace agreement with a splinter group of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army is a good model for localized peace talks with communist rebels, presidential peace adviser Carlito Galvez said.

In a release from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, Galvez said peace engagements with the Rebolusyonaryong Partido Ng Manggagawa-Pilipinas/Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade-Tabara Paduano Group can be replicated with CPP-NPA units in the provinces.

"In my recent meetings and engagements, particularly about the EO 70, I always cite our dialogues with your group as a product of the success of localized peace engagements," Galvez told members of RPM-P/RPA-ABB-TPG/Kapatiran para sa Progresibong Panlipunan (Kapatiran) at a dialogue in Capiz on Tuesday.

Kapatiran is composed of members of the former rebel group, which split from the CPP-NPA in the 1990s over ideological differences. The group entered peace negotations with the government in 1999 and signed a peace deal in 2000.

OPAPP said it will work with other government agencies to implement a three-year development plan for RPM-P/RPA-ABB-TPG communitis as part of the former rebels' reintegration into mainstream society.

Earlier in March, Galvez said the OPAPP had allocated P500 million for social protection programs, financial, livelihood and employment assistance, as well as housing assistance for 727 former combatants and their families.

"Once we fulfill all components of the agreement, we will be signing an exit agreement by end or 2021 or by early 200, before the President’s term ends," Galvez said.

The Duterte administration has terminated peace talks with the CPP-NPA through the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, which were restarted in 2016 but bogged down in early 2017 over the government's alleged failure to release more political prisoners. The talks were formally ended in November 2017 in response to NPA attacks.

The government has opted to focus on talks with individual CPP-NPA units, an approach that the communist rebels said will not work since the conditions that prompted the decades-long insurgency need to be addressed through socio-economic reforms on a national scale.