If there is one thing President Rodrigo Duterte could be criticized of is his seeming flip-flop on the issue whether to pursue or not the peace talks with communist groups in the Philippines. A self-confessed “socialist,” President Duterte keeps the government’s peace talks policy with the communist groups like a swinging door – it opens and closes because it could not stay closed or opened.
That’s the nearest analogy I could think to describe the government’s peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its military wing, the New People’s Army (NPA) under the umbrella of the National Democratic Front (NDF).
Now going into its first two years in office, the Duterte administration has opened and suspended its peace talks with the CPP-NPA-NDF whose top negotiators are mostly based at The Utrecht. President Duterte suspended the peace talks with the CPP-NPA-NDF three times after incidents of atrocities committed by NPA rebels while negotiations were taking place.
The last incident involved the killing of a young child and his mother caught in what the NPA rebels claimed as collateral damage in their retaliation against alleged military/police abuses. With no effort to hide his rage, President Duterte lashed at CPP-NPA-NDF leader Jose “Joma” Sison for failing to rein their guerrilla warriors from harming innocent children and women.
The CPP founding chairman who has been in self-exile in this European city at The Netherlands refuses to return to the Philippines due to alleged threats to his life – not to mention an outstanding warrant of arrest against him. Thus, the Philippine government has been left with no choice but to agree to hold the peace talks in neutral grounds and third party arbitration by the government of Norway.
That has been the arrangement the Philippine government conducts its peace talks with the CPP-NPA-NDF after it was started during the administration of the late President Corazon Aquino. Subsequent initiatives to strike a peace settlement with them by several administrations – all the way to Mrs. Aquino’s son former President Benigno “PNoy” Aquino III – likewise failed, one after the other.
As recent Philippine history showed, the CPP traced its roots in the agrarian unrest during the 1960’s when young Filipinos were influenced by the communist ideology from China. Then professor from the University of the Philippines, Joma formally organized the CPP in December 1968. The CPP-NPA-NDF grew in numbers and strength during the martial law regime of the late President Ferdinand Marcos when its armed elements supposedly reached 25,000 men and women fighting for the underground revolutionary movement.
Fast forward.
Public pronouncements from government and military officials tell us that the current armed strength of the communist insurgents all over the country have dwindled to just less than 4,000 men and women. If that is so, then how come the government still wishes to resume peace talks with such insignificant number of armed insurgents reduced to extortion, illegal logging and other banditry?
During our Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum last week, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. told us an average of three communist rebels a day are “neutralized” by the government. By “neutralized,” Esperon clarified, three of them are either killed or surrendered.
In fact, Esperon cited, President Duterte started a new tack to bring NPA surrenderees to China to open their eyes on how communism has given in to capitalism.
When he was the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) from 2006 to 2008, Esperon recalled there were an estimated 5,000 NPA rebels. Following his retirement from the active military service, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo appointed him as Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.
Esperon is a veteran and decorated officer for the many counter-insurgency and anti-secessionist wars in Mindanao and elsewhere in the country since he graduated from Class 1974 of the Philippine Military Academy. Thus, he speaks with sincerity in helping push peace settlement with any armed group, be it communist or Muslim secessionist.
In efforts to reach out with all rebel groups, Esperon recalled President Duterte freed some communist leaders and put leftist personalities in his Cabinet to show his commitment to finding a permanent solution to a five-decade-old conflict. However, Esperon stressed, it was no longer the fault of President Duterte when three of them failed to hurdle the confirmation process for reasons undeniably linked to their communist leanings.
A true soldier even as he is already in civilian service of the government, Esperon reiterates his commitment to follow and abide by every decision the President as Commander-in-Chief makes. As National Security Adviser, Esperon pointed out, he gives inputs to help President Duterte to best decide on the course of actions available to the Philippine government to deal with internal and external threats affecting the country.
“Communist insurgency is a longstanding problem that had hindered growth,” the National Security Adviser cited.
“But even as the peace talks with the communist rebels had been terminated by the President last year, this does not mean an absolute end to the peace process,” he pointed out, adding, “We will continue to seek other means to attain lasting peace for the country.”
For now, however, Esperon defends the decision of the Duterte administration for the proscription of the CPP-NPA as foreign terrorist organization (FTO), a petition of which was already filed last month before a Manila court. Some 600 communist-leaning Filipinos, including Joma, are among those included in the FTO list petition.
The CPP-NPA is already in the FTO list in the United States and in European Union. Joma was among those sought to be delisted from that FTO list by the Duterte administration when the peace talks were restarted in 2016. Hence, the Reds’ tag as FTO is back on the table.