STAYING IN TOUCH A New People’s Army fighter gets connected to the internet at an undisclosed rebel camp in the Cordillera.—EV ESPIRITU
DAVAO CITY—The peace process between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) is now making progress as back channel talks had started, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza said on Tuesday.
“Our team is now in Europe and we are informed that there are initial positive results so far,” he said in a statement.
Dureza said he and Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, who chairs the government peace panel, had already briefed President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday to inform him that efforts to resume peace negotiations with the rebels, through the NDFP, are ongoing.
“We are doing our best to meet the deadline set by the President about the resumption of talks within 60 days,” Bello said.
He said formal talks were to resume by the second week of June.
He said the panels have “apparently” reached an interim peace agreement.
NDFP had declined to comment on Dureza and Bello’s statements.
However, it has maintained its position in favor of the peace process.
Speech at UN
On April 24, Dureza told the 72nd General Assembly of the United Nations in New York that public interest would be the prime consideration in the resumption of talks with communist rebels.
In his speech at the United Nations, Dureza said his message to rebels was that there “is a bigger table outside and that is the public itself.”
He said he would ask the rebels to understand that the government needed to address the concerns of the Filipino people and not just those who resorted to armed struggle to air their grievances.
Dureza said if the government would address only the concerns of rebels “you will have a problem in implementing agreements as what you can see in our country recently.”
Dureza cited as an example the nonpassage of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) by Congress that should have paved the way for the implementation of an agreement signed by the Philippine government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
“Why? Because the public did not bind itself to the agreement,” Dureza said.
Members of Congress, supposedly representing the people, did not approve, he said.
He added, however, that the Duterte administration was “picking up the pieces” with Congress now working to pass the proposed BBL.
Sweeping reforms
He said the government’s peace initiatives could not be about whether the chicken or egg came first because the Duterte administration wanted all reforms under a peace agreement to be achieved in one sweep and not piece by piece.
Dureza also stressed the importance of foreign mediators who facilitated negotiations between Philippine government and rebel representatives.
“It’s going to be quiet talks in the meantime,” he said, adding that announcements would be made only when important deals had been made.
In a press briefing, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque read a statement from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, stressing that the President “wants to give this priority.”
“Secretaries Dureza and Bello informed the President that his clear directives are being relayed and are now the subject of discussions in the ongoing meetings,” Roque said.
Bello said the team would return home soon to personally update Mr. Duterte about the results of the informal back channel talks. —Reports from Karlos Manlupig, Judy Quiros, Julie M. Aurelio and Jeannette I. Andrade