Dureza bullish on peace talks

INCOMING Presidential Peace Adviser on Friday expressed optimism that a resolution to the 40-year communist insurgency in the country could be reached under the term of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte.

In a statement, Dureza cited Wednesday’s positive tone after two days of exploratory talks between the incoming government peace negotiators and those of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

There was  “evident optimism and trust” between the two sides, Dureza reported.

“Friday’s signing of the joint statement in Oslo, Norway, will usher in the formal restart next month of what could be another renewed effort to end conflict and bring about the long elusive but cherished peace in the land,” Dureza said.

In the joint statement,  the two panels agreed to expedite the talks, discuss the grant of amnesty to rebels, and tackle the release of political prisoners.”  The two sides agreed to meet again on the third week of July in Oslo, Norway.

Reigniting the peace landscape

“Four years after its breakdown and collapse, we are now on the threshold of a resumption of the stalled peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army and the NDFP,” Dureza said in a statement posted on his  Facebook page.

Dureza was also peace adviser during the time of former President Gloria Arroyo.

“Now, new sparks of the dawning Rodrigo Duterte presidency are reigniting the peace landscape,” he said, in reference to Duterte’s earlier vow to settle long unresolved conflicts in the country, including insurgency and the Moro separatism.

Present during the meeting were Dureza’s fellow appointees to the government peace panel: incoming Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III and former Agrarian Reform Secretary Hernani Braganza.

Bello, a former justice secretary, headed the government panel in talks with the NDFP from 2001 to 2004. Braganza had meanwhile served as a government emissary to the Left, entering a rebel camp in December 2014.