Talks with communist rebels are back to zero

DAVAO CITY—Talks between the government and communist-led National Democratic Front (NDF), brokered by Norway, are back to zero because of the two sides’ failure to break an impasse over a communist demand for the release of political prisoners, a government negotiator said.

“We will have to start again back on square one,” Ednar Dayanghirang said on Monday.

Dayanghirang said the government was not likely to release the prisoners even if the NDF keeps insisting that they are covered by a previous deal called Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity (Jasig).

Dayanghirang said while the government had agreed that some of the prisoners may be released, especially those tagged by the NDF as covered by Jasig, the diskette that the NDF panel submitted to the government panel and which were supposed to contain the names of those for release turned out to be blank.

The diskette was supposed to be kept in a vault in a bank in The Netherlands.

“When it was opened, the government panel only saw a blank diskette,” said Dayanghirang. “So how can we check whether the names the NDF claimed are covered by Jasig are really covered by Jasig?” he said.

Despite the impasse, Dayanghirang said the government was firm in resuming talks with the NDF.

“We’re thinking of attempting something in the early part next year, maybe, to open and attract informal talks again like what we did last December,” he said.

In a statement posted on the NDF website, the Communist Party of the Philippines said it “increasingly doubts” that a peace agreement could be signed within the term of President Aquino because of the stern refusal of the government to release the political prisoners.

“It is becoming increasingly doubtful that the government will succeed in forging a peace agreement with the NDF due to its adamant refusal to comply with its standing obligations, particularly its commitment in January, February and September to release the detained consultants of the NDF covered by the Jasig,” the CPP statement read.

“The release of NDF’s Jasig-protected consultants is a matter of palabra de honor (word of honor) on the part of the government,” the CPP said.

Amid doubts aired by the CPP, Dayanghirang admitted that there was indeed a need for fresh confidence building measures between the two sides to make the talks move.

He also said a third party might be needed to advance the stalled peace talks.

“It might be difficult for the talks to move on with just the government and the NDF talking,” he said.  Germelina Lacorte and Judy Quiros, Inquirer Mindanao