NDFP: Safety guarantee for peace negotiators crucial to peace talk

LUCENA CITY, Philippines—The spokesman of the communist-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) urged presidential peace adviser Teresita Quintos-Deles on Monday not to underestimate the importance of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) in the ongoing peace talks that could end the more than four decades of rebellion in the country.

Fidel V. Agcaoili, NDFP peace panel spokesman, reminded Deles on the primary purposes of the JASIG, which would be “to facilitate the peace negotiations, create a favorable atmosphere conducive to free discussion and movement during the negotiations, and avert any incident that may jeopardize the peace negotiations.”

He said Deles was wrong in saying that the JASIG should be seen as “a mere side-table issue” in the peace negotiations.

Agcaoili warned that if the government could not be trusted to comply with the JASIG, it could not also be expected to comply with the agreements on social, economic, political and constitutional reforms, or in any other accord that would allow the parties to enter into a truce.

In a statement sent from his base in Utrecht, The Netherlands, on Monday, a copy of which was e-mailed to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Agcaoili described the JASIG as a “very important agreement” in that it “tests the sincerity and commitment of the parties to the peace negotiations.”

The JASIG, signed in 1995 by the government and communist peace panels, guarantees immunity from arrest to NDFP members, consultants and staff who are part of the peace negotiating team.

However, the JASIG also stipulates that a holder of the safe conduct pass should not engage in criminal activities such as terrorism and extortion or hostile acts against the government for the duration of its effectivity.

The NDFP has been demanding that the government release several rebel leaders still languishing in different prisons across the country, particularly Allan Jazmines and Tirso Alcantara, on grounds that they are JASIG pass holders.

Last week, Luis Jalandoni, NDFP chief peace negotiator, proposed the postponement of the scheduled resumption of formal peace talks this month until after the release of imprisoned rebels.

Deles on Saturday, however, expressed confidence that the peace talks would resume even if the government panel has not committed to release Jazmines and Alcantara.

She said the government has been moving to release a number of imprisoned rebels following Jalandoni’s statement but stressed that this was not intended to meet any conditions or demands from the communist side.

The military, meanwhile, has insisted that Jazmines and Alcantara are not covered by the safety and immunity guarantees of JASIG.

But Agcaoili, too, has been insisting that the government is obligated to free imprisoned rebel leaders, who will participate in the negotiation, as stipulated in the joint communique signed by representatives from both parties and witnessed by Ambassador Ture Lundh of the Royal Norwegian Government last January 18 in Oslo, Norway, during the preliminary talks on the resumption of the peace negotiations.

“The parties may create mechanisms to facilitate discussions on the full implementation of the JASIG. But such mechanisms do not relegate the full implementation of the JASIG to a side-table issue. The claim of Ms. Ging Deles is simply preposterous,” Agcaoili added.

Jazmines, who is alleged by the military as a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines, was captured in February in Baliuag, Bulacan.

A day after the Christmas truce ended, government forces nabbed Alcantara in Lucena City.

Military dossiers had identified Alcantara as chief of the NPA rebels in Southern Tagalog and a member of the CPP-Central Committee.