DAVAO CITY—Moves to hurdle the impasse in the peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) continue despite general pessimism over the failure of both parties to attain a breakthrough.
Lawyer Edre Olalia, secretary general of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), who is also legal consultant to the NDFP peace panel, said that despite bumps on the road, the NDFP had proposed hastening negotiations via a special track running “parallel and complementary” to the regular talks track.
Both parties were about to tackle the second of a four-part agenda—on socio-economic reforms—when major disagreements brought the formal negotiations to a halt last year.
Olalia said the “special track” basically consisted of the NDFP’s earlier proposal for a 10-point alliance and truce with the government, and has been proffered again by the NDFP to hasten the negotiations.
He said an emissary from the Aquino administration was sent to the Netherlands in October to discuss the NDFP’s proposal with the negotiators. The talks are sponsored by Norway and held in Oslo while the NDFP’s leaders reside in Amsterdam.
“There has been movement in terms of discussion, but as to status, I’m not at liberty to say, but at least there’s movement,” said Olalia, who was quick to add that he was merely expressing his opinion as a lawyer and his opinion should not in any way bind the NDFP at the negotiating table.
Asked if the talks had a chance of resuming soon, he replied: “Of course, may pag-asa (there’s hope).”
“The armed conflict will always be there and the solution to the armed conflict is always an urgent matter. The only question is timing, when it’s going to happen,” he said, at a forum organized by the interfaith group Sowing the Seeds of Peace in Mindanao here over the weekend.
The NDFP, however, would be very firm in asserting that it cannot recognize the Constitution to obtain the changes it wants, Olalia said.
“No legitimate revolutionary organization will allow itself to be subsumed under the framework of the party it seeks to change because that will amount to capitulation,” he said.
But there were “subjective factors, and even objective conditions, that will compel either party or both to go back to the negotiating table and probably yield certain nonnegotiable provisions that had stalled the negotiations up to now,” he added.
Iglesia Filipina Independiente Bishop Delfin Callao, a coconvenor of Sowing the Seeds for Peace, reiterated calls to resume the peace talks and put an end to over four decades of communist insurgency.