Karapatan hits Duterte’s arrest threat vs NDF negotiators

President Rodrigo Duterte gestures as he makes a speech during the oath taking of newly appointed officials in Malacañang on Thursday, June 1, 2017. (Photo by JOAN BONDOC / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Human rights group Karapatan on Thursday said President Rodrigo Duterte’s threats against National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) negotiators violates an existing safety and immunity agreement.

The group was reacting to Duterte’s speech on Wednesday at Sasa Wharf, Davao City when he said he will arrest all negotiators and throw them in jail once they return to the Philippines from the Netherlands. He said this after the Communist Party of the Philippines ordered its military arm, the New People’s Army, to intensify attacks in Mindanao. However, the NDF, the group’s political arm, has already asked the CPP to reconsider its position.

READ: Duterte threatens NDFP negotiators with arrest

“Mr. Duterte, your attempt at a strongman persona, especially predictable after addressing the military, is not helping the already concrete gains achieved throughout several rounds of the peace process,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said in a statement.

“Talking tough, threatening peace consultants with arrests, the continuing non-release of political prisoners and statements that completely disregard the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) are counter-productive,” she said, referring to a safety agreement signed by both the Philippine government and the NDF in 1995.

Karapatan explained that the JASIG “is a document binding to both parties and provides safety and immunity guarantees that protect the rights of negotiators, consultants, staff, and personnel participating in the peace process.”

Palabay added that “the disregard of JASIG as a binding agreement adds to the lack of conducive, reliable and enabling environment for the continuation of the talks, apart from other major detrimental factors such as the continuation of rights violations under the US-driven counterinsurgency program Oplan Kapayapaan and war against drugs which was further legitimized by the declaration of martial law in Mindanao.”

Palabay questioned the government’s sincerity. “Will the GRP simply discard signed and binding agreements at their disposal?” she asked.

“We call on President Duterte to exercise sobriety in his pronouncements which have profound effects on policies and processes on the ground. We reiterate the call for continue the peace talks between the GRP and the NDFP, adherence to previously signed agreements in the peace process and the lifting of the martial law declaration in Mindanao,” she said.

READ: NDF hits Lorenzana calls on CPP to reconsider intensified NPA attacks