MANILA, Philippines–Not a good idea.
Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV has thumbed down a possible meeting between President Aquino and Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chair Jose Maria “Joma” Sison, even as he expressed pessimism about the prospect of successful peace talks given the “mountain of distrust” between the two parties.
Trillanes also said Sison’s self-invite would be distasteful for a head of a sovereign state.
“You’re practically demanding that he meet with you. It should be President Aquino who should initiate (the meeting),” Trillanes said on radio station dzBB.
Trillanes said confidence-building measures should be undertaken before any meeting could take place.
“Otherwise, such a meeting would be a futile exercise,” he told the Inquirer.
Trillanes said that if Aquino really wants the meeting to take place, he would work for it to happen, as what he did when he met quietly with Moro Islamic Liberation Front chief Murad Abraham.
The senator said he would believe that a meeting between the CPP and the government will take place if the invitation would come from the President himself.
“If [the President] really wants it, there would be no need for Joma Sison to announce that he is looking forward to meeting [the President] because it means there is no such schedule,” he said.
Sison’s statements are just propaganda, Trillanes said.
The senator also said that the Aquino administration barely has two years left in its term, and if talks would at all progress, it would be in the next administration.
“That’s good because there would be a clean slate. There would be new personalities and a new beginning,” Trillanes said.
Otherwise, the senator said it would result in a half-baked peace agreement and the state would suffer in the end.
Meanwhile, Senate President Franklin Drilon said he supports the revival of the peace talks with the communist rebels.
Drilon, a former Justice Secretary, said he knows from experience that the negotiations are a complicated matter. Nevertheless, the effort should be made to restart the peace process, he said.
“It is with guarded optimism that we look forward to the achievement of a final settlement. I support the effort to restart the negotiation,” he said.