Satur Ocampo gives take on talks

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines— Former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo said President Benigno Aquino III should pay the peace talks with communist rebels the same attention he had given the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).

Speaking on the sidelines of the 5th Congress of the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance where he was a guest on Sunday, Ocampo said: “[The President] should take on [the peace talks with the communist rebels] personally as he has the BBL… His administration has nine months left and unless the government recognizes and upholds previous agreements, the peace talks will not prosper.”

BBL needs to be passed after the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed a peace deal.

Ocampo was a negotiator for the National Democratic Front (NDF) when the talks with the government began during the administration of President Corazon Aquino.

Talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines-NDF formally resumed in Oslo, Norway, in February, hoping to be completed within 18 months, and to complete the “draft comprehensive agreements on… socioeconomic reforms, political-constitutional reforms and an end [to] hostilities and disposition of forces,” said the website of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Opapp).

But the leadership of the CPP-NDF criticized the government for arresting suspected high-ranking leaders of the New People’s Army (NPA) despite its assertion that many of them were protected by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (Jasig).

In an August statement, Alexander Padilla, government peace panel chair, said: “As we have consistently held, Jasig is operative only for those [CPP-NDF-NPA] personalities who are using their real names and those who are recognized by the [government] as participants in the talks. Due to the failed Jasig verification process in 2011, Jasig is no longer operative for those using aliases or pseudonyms.”

Ocampo, president of the Makabayan Coalition, said it seemed Opapp was not interested in pursuing formal talks given the statements declaring Jasig “inoperable.” Kimberlie Quitasol with a report from Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon