Joma Sison looks forward to meet with Aquino

By: Allan Nawal, Frinston Lim, Nikko Dizon - 10 years ago

Communist Party of the Philippines founding chair Jose Ma. Sison. FILE PHOTO

Jose Maria Sison, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chair, does not discount the possibility of meeting with President Benigno Aquino III to jump-start peace talks with the government, a confidence-building measure reminiscent of the Chief Executive’s secret meeting with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chief Murad Ebrahim.

“My meeting with the President can still happen if there is already a substantive agreement or if the meeting can be inspiring, as a confidence-building measure,” Sison told the Inquirer in a message late Friday afternoon.

Asked if the “friends” of both parties mentioned by Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Secretary Teresita Deles in a statement were working toward his meeting with Mr. Aquino, Sison said, “Yes.”

He said the meeting with Mr. Aquino to discuss the peace negotiations could happen if “there is new substantive agreement or if the booster is needed at a certain point.”

Sought for comment on the possibility of an Aquino-Sison meeting, Deles told the Inquirer in a text message: “There are unlimited possibilities once peace talks are seriously on course.”

The idea of having a meeting between the President and Sison was initially hatched in 2012, after the successful meeting of the Chief Executive with Murad in August 2011 in Tokyo.

It was a secret meeting, which was ultimately described by the MILF as a “great leap forward” in resuming the then stalled peace negotiations between the government and the then Moro secessionist group.

While exactly not smooth sailing after the Aquino-Murad meeting, the peace talks between the two parties led to a peace agreement that was signed in March.

The proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, which will give flesh to the autonomy yearned for by the Bangsamoro people, is now awaiting passage in Congress.

By contrast, the planned meeting between Mr. Aquino and Sison has yet to materialize.

Llamas proposal

Sison on Friday recalled that Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs Ronald Llamas proposed the Aquino-Sison meeting in October 2012, and described it as a “historic meeting.”

Sison said his meeting with Mr. Aquino was tentatively scheduled for April 2013 in Hanoi, but the Amsterdam talks between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), the CPP’s political arm, broke down in February 2013.

“Pero sayang hindi natuloy (Unfortunately, it did not push through),” he said of his planned meeting with the President.

In an e-mail to the Inquirer in June 2013, Sison said “P-Noy has no reason to fear meeting with NDFP representatives directly and personally.”

The government and the NDFP have on-and-off talks over the past three decades, as both parties face differences in ideologies and difficulties in maintaining a truce.

More than 40,000 Filipinos have been killed in the communist insurgency that is one of the longest-running in the world.

Talks after papal visit

As the CPP marked its 46th anniversary on Friday, the Utrecht-based Sison announced that the stalled negotiations could resume in the second week of next month, after the Jan. 15-19 visit of Pope Francis to the Philippines.

In a goodwill gesture amid a Christmas ceasefire, the New People’s Army (NPA), armed wing of the CPP, released on Friday two soldiers held captive for four months in Bukidnon province.

Three more soldiers would be freed by January, according to NDFP spokesperson Jorge Madlos.

Warden in NPA custody

The NPA unit operating in the Davao provinces has admitted that it has in its custody the provincial jail warden of Compostela Valley, who disappeared on Dec. 23 after being forcibly taken by armed men from Panabo City.

Aris Francisco, NPA spokesperson for Compostela Valley, Davao provinces and Agusan, said warden Jose Mervin Coquilla was “arrested outside his house” and would be subjected to “an investigation.”

He was initially taken with his wife Lijobeth, who was freed later.

Francisco said on Friday the NPA decided to take Coquilla into custody “to determine his individual culpability with respect to the complaints lodged against him before the People’s Democratic Government by jail inmates and their families.”

Drug trade in jail

Among the complaints against Coquilla, he said, were “willful negligence in the supervision of inmates and his direct and indirect, overt and covert participation in drug trade and drug use inside the Compostela Valley jail.”

“Coquilla has allegedly siphoned off funds, which are already slashed by high officials of the ruling state prison. According to the complaints received by the NPA, Coquilla’s corruption has resulted in the inadequate medical and health-care and food provision for inmates,” Francisco said in an e-mailed statement on Friday.

He said Coquilla also tolerated the physical abuse of prisoners by jail guards.

Francisco said the jail warden also turned a blind eye to inmates caught using illegal drugs and to jail guards involved in ferreting out drugs inside the prison cells.

“While currently undergoing investigation for his possible involvement in these acts, Coquilla is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt, and as such, is being treated leniently and humanely by the NPA custodial force, for as long as guerrilla conditions warrant,” Francisco said.

Swap

Chief Insp. Levitico Estay, Davao del Norte police spokesperson, said the NPA initially wanted Coquilla to be swapped for a comrade detained at the Compostela Valley provincial rehabilitation in Mankilam village in Tagum City.

Quoting Coquilla’s wife, Estay said the abductors allegedly told her before setting her free that the warden would be freed only if one of their comrades at the provincial jail would be released.

But Estay would not name the person the rebels wanted to swap for Coquilla.

Managed by the provincial government, the jail shares space with the Davao del Norte Provincial Rehabilitation Center in a sprawling prison complex in Barangay Mankilam in Tagum. It holds several guerrilla inmates.

Gov. Arturo Uy urged the rebels to free Coquilla “in the spirit of Christmas.”