3 key facts on justice, truce, labor now shelved

DAVAO CITY—The decision by President Duterte to end peace talks with communist rebels also effectively shelved for good at least three agreements that government and rebel negotiators were preparing to sign between this month and January.

Some members of the government negotiating panel, according to sources in the talks, had already flown to Oslo earlier this week for the signing.

They included Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza and Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, head of the government panel negotiating with National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). They were scheduled to be in Oslo by Thursday.

Already in Oslo

But instead of flying to Oslo, Dureza announced the talks were canceled on Wednesday. He did not reply to queries on reports that some government negotiators, including Hernani Braganza and Angela Librado-Trinidad, were already in Oslo.

Jose Ma. Sison, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chair, told the Inquirer in an online interview that both parties planned to sign the agreements during the fifth round of the talks set from Nov. 25-27 and a sixth round set for January next year.

These agreements were general amnesty for all political prisoners, Coordinated Unilateral Ceasefire Declaration and Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (Caser).

Drafts accepted

Sison said both sides had accepted drafts of the agreement for the first part of Caser, Agrarian Reform and Rural Development and its second part, National Industrialization and Economic Development.

Preparations for the signing were scrapped after Mr. Duterte declared an end to the talks.

Sources from both panels said negotiators were on their way to satisfy one requirement that Mr. Duterte demanded — a truce.

Sison said the end of the talks was “unfortunate.”

The CPP founder defended continued attacks by New People’s Army (NPA) members saying there had been no ceasefire agreement.

Monitoring committee

Negotiators had formed a joint monitoring committee (JMC) to deal with complaints from either side—government or rebels. This, according to Sison, was provided for by a previous pact, Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.

The NDFP, he said, submitted its complaints against the military to the JMC.

Violations committed by the Army, Sison said, “were far worse in scale and severity than those alleged against the NPA.”

“Yet the NDF never threatened to terminate the peace negotiations,” Sison said.

Mr. Duterte expressed anger at what he said were attacks by rebels on soldiers and policemen who were not in combat duty.

Sison said the rebels’ hope could rest on the next President and wished “previous agreements and common drafts would be affirmed.” —Reports from Karlos Manlupig and Allan Nawal