Ex-negotiator: Political will, sincerity key to peace talks

CITY OF ILAGAN—For the government’s peace talks with communist rebels to move forward, both panels need sincerity and political will, a former government peace negotiator said.

Rep. Silvestre Bello III, who represents 1BAP party-list group and a former member of the government panel negotiating peace with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), said negotiators must not set preconditions so they can meet again for peace talks.

The Utrecht-based Jose Maria Sison, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder and NDFP chief consultant, announced last week that the stalled negotiations could resume in the third week of this month, after the Jan. 15-19 visit of Pope Francis to the Philippines.

Peace negotiations between the government panel and NDFP, the political arm of CPP, have been stalled since 2004, with both parties adamant in pushing their respective preconditions before the start of talks.

In an earlier online interview, Sison said “political will,” for the sake of peace, was the key to end the more than four decades of armed conflict between government forces and the New People’s Army.

“Political will needs to be exercised by the opposite parties in order to reach agreement on the issues toward a just and durable peace,” he said.

Bello, also former justice secretary, said he was confident that the peace talks would resume, noting that hostilities emanating from the 46-year communist insurgency should end.

He dismissed earlier claims made by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, a former Philippine Navy captain, that it would be a bad idea for President Aquino to meet with Sison.

“The good senator does not know what he is saying because he is not privy to peace negotiations. Instead, he has more expertise on war,” Bello said.

He said the President’s meeting with Sison, should it push through, “does not make anything unethical, immoral and it does not even violate a law.”

In Lucena City, the military’s Southern Luzon Command (Solcom) has called on communist rebels to be sincere should peace negotiations resume.

Solcom, in a statement, said it still had high hopes that the insurgency can be addressed through peaceful means. Reports from Villamor Visaya Jr., Inquirer Northern Luzon, and Delfin T. Mallari Jr., Inquirer Southern Luzon