Joma Sison confirms meeting Belmonte

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison meets Speaker Feliciano Belmonte. Photo courtesy of Jon Bustamante.

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison on Friday confirmed meeting Speaker Feliciano Belmonte in the Netherlands.

In an e-mail to INQUIRER.net, Sison described the meeting as that “of a social character, friendly and informal.”

“We discussed a wide range of small and big topics in 3 hours and a half. But the most important topic was the topic of promoting the GPH-NDFP (Government of the Philippines — National Democratic Front of the Philippines) peace negotiations,” he said.

The two parties have been negotiating for peace but talks have been stalled because of various reasons.

“I took the initiative of saying that there is enough time to prepare for the resumption of formal talks and to make the CASER (Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms) and possibly an agreement on truce and cooperation before the end of Aquino’s term,” he said.

However, Sison said he cannot give specific details of their conversation.

Belmonte earlier told INQUIRER.net that the meeting was not about the issues behind the stalled peace talks and was instead “a bridgebuilding and social meeting” with Sison and Luis Jalandoni, the chair of the NDFP negotiating panel.

Belmonte and other Philippine officials were in the Netherlands to attend the hearings of the country’s petition against China before the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal.