Secretary Edwin Lacierda. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — The government “is not the stumbling block” to the peace process, Malacañang said Monday after communist rebels blamed government officials for the bleak prospects of a peace agreement.
Secretary Edwin Lacierda said the government has always acted in good faith when dealing with the communist-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines or its military arm, the New People’s Army, but this wasn’t reciprocated.
Lacierda, presidential spokesperson, recalled for instance that the government had pushed for a ceasefire, a move rejected by the Communist Party of the Philippines, and followed international conventions on the conduct of warfare with the rebels.
“We have already proven our provenance when coming to a peace agreement. We would like to have a peace agreement with them but… it is not us which is the stumbling block to the peace process,” he said in a Malacañang briefing.
NPA rebel commanders in Abra province had expressed skepticism that a peace agreement would be forged with the Aquino administration to end the decades-old Maoist insurgency.
They claimed that the human rights violations committed by the government troops in clear breach of the 1998 Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (Carhrihl) have made negotiations for such an agreement difficult, they claimed.
The rebels singled out the military’s counter-insurgency program, “Oplan Bantay Laya,” as the main factor for the rise in human rights violations in communities.
For instance, the May 31 air strikes by the military that hit rice fields and residential areas in villages of Lat-ey and Alligang in Malibcong, Abra, wounded two minors, aged 13 and 17, the Abra Human Rights Alliance said.
Negotiations have been stalled since 2004.
Lacierda disputed the rebels’ claims, adding that for one, government troops never used landmines, unlike rebels who have and would likely continue to do so.
“I think if you look at the history or rather several news reports, several years back, we have not used landmines; we have not violated Carhrihl,’’ he said.
“Number two, in the last proposal of NDF Chairman Joma Sison, he asked for ceasefire; we were very happy with it. Suddenly, they withdrew that offer of cessation of hostilities. So it’s not us who’s stopping it,” he added.
The NPA has come under fire for using landmine in the May 27 ambush of a truckload of policemen in Cagayan that left eight policemen dead. They were en route to a medical examination when waylaid by the rebels, who detonated the landmine before opening fire.
Lacierda said the formal peace process with the rebel group was “stymied’’ by the latter’s insistence on the release of captured rebels as a precondition for the resumption of talks.
Signed by both panels in 1995, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees or Jasig guarantees NDF members, consultants and staff who work with the negotiating team immunity from arrest.
Under the agreement, however, holders of a safe-conduct pass should not engage in criminal activities, such as terrorism and extortion or hostile acts against the government for the duration of the pass’ effectivity.
Lacierda reiterated that the talks were stalled because of disagreements on the verification of the status of 14 rebels that the NDF wanted released.
The floppy disk containing the names of the 14 had been stored in a vault in the Netherlands. A Dutch bishop opened the vault in the presence of government and NDF representatives, and they found the file corrupted.
Lacierda said the CPP-NPA proposed a new list, but the government rejected this since there’s no assurance the new list would carry the names of individuals on the original list.
“The formal process has been stymied because of the insistence on the JASIG list which turned out to be non-existent. They put it in a diskette which has been corrupted. So when it was the turn for both parties to be present before the Dutch bishop opened the vault, it turned out to be a diskette instead of a list of aliases vis-à-vis their real names and their pictures,” he said Monday.
On the rebels’ rejection of localized peace talks, Lacierda said: “I think Secretary Ging Deles also mentioned that when there are peace zones, the locals would always have primacy because it’s their community that is being affected.’’
“If they refused it for what reason… it goes to show the intent of the rebels if they want to really seriously push through peace. We have always been open. We have always stated our position, not subject to conditions,” he added.