Satur Ocampo: No more time for peace talks under Aquino

DAVAO CITY, Philippines—Former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo said he doubted anything significant would come of the peace negotiations between the government and the communist National Democratic Front (NDF) at this time, especially since the Aquino administration has less than a year left in office.

Even if it would be able to restart the negotiations, Ocampo said the administration would have no more time to discuss contentious issues with the NDF.

“They are willing to talk but they have less than a year left,” Ocampo said.

Hope for the resumption of the stalled peace talks were rekindled following last week’s dinner meeting between Speaker Feliciano Belmonte and other Philippine government officials, Communist Party of the Philippines leader Jose Ma. Sison and NDF peace panel negotiator Luis Jalandoni in Amsterdam.

“It was a bridge building and social meeting over dinner with Joma and Jalandoni,” Belmonte had said.

Resumption of negotiations

He said they talked about issues “in the direction of the resumption” of the stalled negotiations.

But Ocampo said that with the time left to the Aquino administration, nothing of significance could possibly be achieved.

He said past administrations, which had plenty of time, hardly made any strides toward ending the decades-old communist insurgency.

Besides, Ocampo said, the government and NDF had yet to agree on salient points to restart the talks.

He said the talks could be restarted under the new administration after next year’s elections, but its success would depend on the attitude of the new President.

The insurgency problem, he said, would only be solved if the new leader realizes that continuing with the old formula of crushing the CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army, will never work.

“And he must seriously address the root cause of the armed struggle,” Ocampo added.

Meanwhile, in Lucena City, the leftist peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) accused Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles of standing in the way of peace talks between the communists and the government.

‘Biggest roadblock’

“It appears that Secretary Deles herself is the biggest roadblock to the resumption of peace negotiations. As long as Deles sits as peace adviser, peace will remain elusive,” Antonio Flores, KMP secretary general, said in a statement.

He said Deles had been peace adviser since the Arroyo administration and it was “time for her to step down.”

On Monday, Deles said the government was looking for ways to restart the peace talks with the communist rebels “on the basis of a time-bound and doable agenda.”

But she said that it would be difficult to resume negotiations with the preconditions demanded by the communists, including the release of NDF members being held for criminal offenses.

Flores said the release of the NDF consultants, who he insisted held Documents of Identification under the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees, “would be mere compliance with the Jasig by the Aquino government and not a precondition for the resumption of peace talks.”–With a report from Delfin T. Mallari Jr., Inquirer Southern Luzon