Solon tagged next peace panel head lists members

Silvestre Bello. INQUIRER.net PHOTO/Nestor Corrales

DAVAO CITY—The man tagged as the next chief of the government’s negotiating panel in peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF) said he would tap individuals who had “institutional memories” of the peace process as members of his panel.

Rep. Silvestre Bello III said among those he would ask to get involved were Peter Laviña, former Davao City councilor who recently headed Duterte’s media campaign; Leoncio Evasco, former rebel priest and Duterte national campaign manager; and former Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan.

He said he would also ask for the help of individuals who took part in negotiations with NDF, like former government panel chair Alex Padilla, former agrarian reform secretary Hernani Braganza and Rene Sarmiento.

Braganza headed a team that held backdoor talks with NDF leaders in The Netherlands.

“Not everyone will have to sit in the panel,” said Bello. “We also need advisers and those who will sit in the technical committees,” he said.

He did not say, though, which of the individuals he mentioned would sit in the panel and which would not.

Bello described Duterte’s offer of four cabinet posts to the Communist Party of the Philippines and NDF as a “stroke of genius.”

“I don’t think the NDF is interested in the positions, but for me, the offer was a stroke of genius,” he said. Germelina Lacorte and Jigger Jerusalem, Inquirer Mindanao