Despite some heated moments, the peace panels of the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) have reached agreements on three of five substantive issues they tackled, as they buckled down to formal discussions in Oslo, Norway.
The NDFP is the political arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which has been waging for 47 years an armed insurgency that has claimed more than 37,000 lives.
One of the things the two panels agreed on was a formal commitment to fast-track the process of forging a political settlement during President Duterte’s term, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Opapp) said in a statement on Wednesday.
The panels settled on Tuesday the affirmation of previously signed agreements, the reconstitution of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (Jasig) list, and the accelerated process for negotiations, the Opapp said.
The accelerated process includes the timeline for the completion of the remaining substantive agenda for the talks: socioeconomic reforms, political and economic reforms, and end of hostilities and disposition of forces.
The Opapp said the peace panels took only four hours, from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., to resolve the three key issues.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, who chairs the government panel, said the meeting was a “frank and honest discussion among friends.”
The panel members were candid with each other as they shared the common agenda of peace, Bello said.
Heated discussions
“There were heated discussions, at times, which are normal during negotiations. In fact, we have to call a break on several occasions to cool off. But the general atmosphere was cordial as the session was punctuated by laughter and light banter,” he said in the statement.
Jose Maria “Joma” Sison, CPP founder, on Tuesday night said the talks were “running very well,” as he commended Mr. Duterte’s determination to end decades of armed insurgencies in the country.
In an INQ&A session, Sison said the next round of formal talks would be held to draft the comprehensive agreements.
“I’ve always said that President Duterte is more open to accelerating the peace negotiations. Previous ones were more interested in the capitulation and pacification of revolutionary forces under the guise of protracted ceasefire. Now there seems to be a greater determination on the part of the Manila government to make substantive agreements,” Sison said via Skype.
The panels, in order to accelerate the peace negotiations, agreed to activate the Reciprocal Working Committee (RWC) on the Comprehensive Agreement on Socioeconomic Reforms, as well as the Reciprocal Working Groups (RWGs) on Political and Constitutional Reforms and End of Hostilities-Disposition of Forces.
Within 6 months
The working committee and the working group would proceed with simultaneous discussions on the issues, Bello said. These discussions would be held separately from the formal meetings of the panel and in the venue of their choice.
“We agreed that all RWC meetings will be held in Oslo, but RWG discussions may be held in the Philippines,” he added.
Both panels also agreed to do their best to complete discussions on socioeconomic reforms within six months so that a comprehensive agreement on the issue may be signed at the panel level.
The peace negotiators, in reaffirming peace agreements signed during negotiations starting from the term of President Corazon Aquino, said these were nevertheless “subject to enhancements that may be mutually agreed upon later by both panels.”
“We may need these enhancements in the future as we do not want to be tied down by the rigidity of the past. Learning from mistakes of the previous negotiations, we want to explore all options to move the process fast forward,” Bello said.
As for the Jasig, the panels also would reconstitute the list of NDFP consultants who would be immune from arrest so that they could join the peace process.
The NDFP said the list would include 54 “publicly known” consultants and 87 “assumed names” of guerrilla leaders who remain underground but are involved in consultations for the peace process.
Soldiers will follow
Asked about restive soldiers, especially those displeased with the release of NDFP consultants, Sison said he was confident that the military would play its part in the peace talks and follow the orders of Mr. Duterte as its Commander in Chief.
“In any Army, the first rule is to obey all orders on the command. And so the Commander in Chief of the Philippines, President Duterte, made the decision. The Army, the military, has to follow,” Sison said.
“There has been no objection. Legal processes have been followed. The Jasig has been invoked to justify the releases,” he added.
Detained NDFP consultants, including top insurgent leaders Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, were released last week to participate in the peace talks. The NDFP declared a unilateral ceasefire hours after the release, which the government also reciprocated.
Sison said the NDFP was more optimistic of better results in the negotiations with a President like Mr. Duterte, who he said had a political will that goes along with that of the NDFP.
“The armed struggle has been necessary because of what Duterte himself described as corrupt or rotten character of the system. He recognizes that the oligarchs are servants to foreign powers like the US … . He has a political will that goes along with the political will of the NDFP. It seems that he is determined,” Sison said.
Not a surrender
In spite of their optimism, Sison said communist rebels may stop the talks if the government was interested only in prolonging the truce instead of addressing their demands.
“If, for instance, the Duterte (administration) is only interested in a prolonged ceasefire so it can forget all the demands of the people for social, economic and political reforms, then the revolutionary movement has to reconsider if it will still go on with the peace process,” Sison said when asked about the NDFP’s nonnegotiables.
Reciprocating the NDFP truce, Duterte restored the unilateral ceasefire with communists last week ahead of the ongoing Oslo peace talks.
The President first declared the ceasefire with the rebels during his first State of the Nation Address on July 25, but lifted it five days later as the ultimatum he gave lapsed without reciprocation.
The government said the ceasefire “will last as long as necessary to bring peace in the land” to “provide an enabling environment for the success of the peace talks.”
But Sison noted that participating in the peace negotiations was not equivalent to surrendering and giving up their demands, which he said were very attainable.
“The reforms being demanded are really attainable and if those negotiating on both sides have the interest of the people in mind, what is wrong with national independence and doing away with unequal treaties and agreements? What is wrong with giving more leeway to workers and peasants? What is wrong with economic development through national industrialization and land reform?” he said.
(INQ&A, broadcast live every Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m, via Radyo Inquirer 990AM, INQ 990 Television (Digital Terrestrial Television), and Inquirer.net’s Facebook and YouTube accounts, is a weekly talk show that aims to deliver insightful interviews with the country’s leading newsmakers. Inquirer 990 TV can be viewed through ABS-CBN’s TV Plus, RCA and Godan digital TV boxes.)