Rody to release jailed Reds even before amnesty

Silvestre Bello. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO/Nestor Corrales

DAVAO CITY—Incoming President Rodrigo Duterte will order the unconditional release of several political prisoners as a “gesture of goodwill” by his administration in upcoming peace talks with the communist-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), according to his chief peace negotiator.

The prisoners will be freed once Duterte formally assumes the presidency on June 30 and even before he signs a general amnesty for all political detainees, subject to Congress approval, incoming Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, who will head the new government peace panel in the talks, said on Tuesday.

Bello was part of the team sent by the President-elect to Oslo, Norway, last week, which met with NDFP representatives led by Luis Jalandoni and Fidel Agcaoili for preliminary talks to clear the way for the resumption of formal negotiations to end one of the world’s longest-running communist insurgencies.

With Bello were incoming peace adviser Jesus Dureza and former Agrarian Reform Secretary Hernani Braganza, who was among the representatives of the Aquino administration to back-channel talks with the NDFP in 2014.

Also present during the meeting were Jose Maria Sison, founding chair of the Communist Party of the Philippines and NDFP consultant, and Ambassador Elisabeth Slattum, Norway’s special envoy to the peace process.

Oslo statement

In a joint statement signed by both parties after the meeting, the Duterte team agreed to recommend the immediate release of all NDFP consultants and other prisoners covered by the Jasig (Joint Agreement on Security and Immunity Guarantees) so they could participate in the peace negotiations.

Jasig, which guarantees protection of NDFP and government negotiators and consultants from arrest during the peace process, was signed by the government and the NDFP peace panels in 1995 to allow them to freely participate in the peace process.

Alleged violations of the agreement, including the arrests of NDFP consultants, were among the major reasons for the collapse of the talks under the Aquino administration.

After the Oslo meeting, the Duterte administration and the NDFP expect formal peace negotiations to resume in the third week of July.

“We seek the release of political prisoners who are reportedly covered by Jasig. Those who are elderly and sick will also be released for humanitarian considerations,” Bello said.

18 NDFP consultants

Bello did not give any names in the initial batch of political prisoners to be released before the issuance of a general amnesty.

But a militant human rights group, Karapatan, had earlier said 18 NDFP consultants were among at least 543 political prisoners held in various prisons in the country.

It identified them as Tirso Alcantara, Emeterio Antalan, Ma. Concepcion Araneta-Bocala, Kennedy Bangibang, Leopoldo Caloza, Pedro Codaste, Edgardo Friginal, Renante Gamara, Alan Jazmines, Ernesto Lorenzo, Ma. Loida Magpatoc, Alfredo Mapano, Ruben Saluta, Eduardo Sarmiento, Adelberto Silva, Jaime Soledad, and Benito and Wilma Tiamzon.

Karapatan said that of the total number of political prisoners, 88 were ill while 48 others are in their senior years.

Bello said the release of the political prisoners would be done without preconditions.

“We are doing it before the proposed amnesty. This will be a gesture of goodwill,” he said.

The peace agenda agreed upon by the Duterte team and the NDFP included the affirmation of previously signed agreements like the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.

Other main points were the accelerated process for negotiations, including the timeline for the completion of the remaining substantive issues—“socioeconomic reforms, political and constitutional reforms, and end of hostilities and disposition of forces.”

The mode of the interim ceasefire, as well as mechanisms and coverage of the agreement, will also be tackled.