What Went Before: On and off talks with the communist rebels

In the last 27 years, the government and the communist rebels have been holding peace talks on and off, with negotiations getting suspended several times.

On April 1, Luis Jalandoni, chair of the peace panel of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), said that the communist insurgents had long been calling for the resumption of peace talks, contrary to statements attributed to government peace negotiator Alex Padilla that the rebels revived calls for a return to the negotiating table only after the arrest of spouses Benito Tiamzon and his wife, Wilma Austria, alleged top leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Jalandoni, in an e-mail statement, said he and Padilla met on Feb. 27 and Padilla at that time knew that the insurgents wanted to resume the talks. The Tiamzons and five other alleged members of the CPP central committee were arrested three weeks later in Carcar City, south of Cebu City.

CPP reversal

The insurgents’ recent call for the resumption of peace talks was a reversal of their statement in December last year.

Last Dec. 26, the CPP, on its 45th anniversary, declared it would no longer pursue the negotiations because of the Aquino administration’s “unwillingness to negotiate a just peace.”

“It has no choice but to wait for the next regime to engage in serious negotiations,” the CPP said.

Reds ‘killed’ talks

Despite the party’s declaration that it would not be returning to the negotiating table during the Aquino administration, the government said late last year that it remained committed to forging peace with the communist insurgents.

According to Jose Ma. Sison, self-exiled founder of the CPP, it was the Aquino administration that decided to terminate peace negotiations, but government peace process adviser Teresita Deles said it was the NDFP, the political arm of the CPP, that “killed” the talks because of its insistence on preconditions before negotiations could resume.

In February 2011, the two parties met in Norway but failed to reach a settlement, particularly on such issues as the release of detained communist insurgents and the declaration of a longer ceasefire. The peace process has not moved since then.

In October 2010, the Aquino administration expressed desire to revive the negotiations with the formation of a new panel to talk with the NDFP and the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the CPP.

Past failures

During the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the peace talks also broke down.

In June 2001, the government unilaterally suspended the negotiations in protest against the assassination, allegedly by the NPA, of Cagayan Rep. Rodolfo Aguinaldo and Quezon Rep. Marcial Punzalan.

In 2002, then Army spokesman Lt. Col. Jose Mabanta said a faction led by Tiamzon, who heads the NPA, opposed peace talks with the government, adding that the leadership struggle was blocking the resumption of peace talks.

In 2004, negotiations were scuttled anew with the NDFP accusing the Arroyo administration of “sabotaging” the talks by pressing for the insurgents’ surrender upon signing of a final peace agreement.

Terrorist tag

Jalandoni said in a 2005 interview that the government wanted the NDFP to sign a “prolonged ceasefire” before the talks resumed, as well as a final peace agreement that would mean the surrender of the NPA.

He also accused the government of being behind the listing of the NDFP as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union in 2002, and of using the terrorist tag to force it to sign the agreement.

Jalandoni said the NDFP would rather wait for a new administration than resume talks with the “crumbling” Arroyo administration.

In June 2006, Arroyo declared an all-out war on the communist rebels and set aside P1 billion for the military and the police to crush the insurgency.

In early 2007, Jalandoni said Norway was again willing to host exploratory peace talks in Oslo, but the Philippine government insisted that the NDFP first agree to a ceasefire before talks could resume.

In July that year, both Jalandoni and Sison rejected a proposal for a three-year ceasefire as a condition for resuming the talks. This aimed to “crush” the communist insurgency without dealing with the roots of the conflict, they said.

Reds’ conditions

Sison said formal talks could resume only after the government did the following: stop extrajudicial killings, abductions, tortures, mass displacement of people and other human rights violations; stop the terrorist blacklisting of the CPP, NDFP and the NPA; and indemnify victims of human rights abuses during the Marcos regime.

In 2008, the government negotiating panel asked the NDFP to agree to a ceasefire as a condition but was rejected anew. The NDFP feared that as soon as it approved a prolonged ceasefire, the Arroyo administration would deem all previously signed agreements superseded, and surrender negotiations would take the place of substantive talks on basic reforms.—Inquirer Research

Sources: Inquirer Archives and opapp.gov.ph