Peace talks with the NDF

EDITORIAL

The sooner the Government of the Republic of the Philippines hastens moves for peace talks with the National Democratic Front, the political arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed component — the New People’s Army, the better.

This, before more government soldiers and elements of the revolutionary army get killed, latest encounter of which was in Abra where three government troopers were slain while five others were wounded.

CPP founding chairman Jose Maria Sison, now in self-exile in Utretch, The Netherlands had proposed an acceleration of stalled peace negotiations between the GRP, the NDF and immediate ceasefire.

But as of press time, last we heard from President Aquino was he would still have to confer with his consultants, some of whom would rather tweet in the internet than attend to important matters like the communist dissident movement which had been a problem of many government administrations for over four decades.

Sison, acting as chief political consultant of the NDF said he had “long proposed the resumption and acceleration of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations, especially with regard to social and economic reforms, in accordance with The Hague Joint Declaration and subsequent major agreements.”

The CPP leader added he had also gone far “to propose a concept of immediate truce and alliance” but ‘on the basis of a mutually acceptable declaration of principles and policies upholding national independence and democracy, confronting the basic problems of the Filipino people and adopting effective measures of social, economic and political reforms.’

Sison insisted, “It is unjust for anyone to expect that the revolutionary forces and the people to simply cease fire and surrender to a rotten ruling system that shuns patriotic and progressive demands and refuses to engage in basic reforms.”

Sison further cited that the Negotiating Panel of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) has repeatedly declared its readiness to resume peace negotiations with the GRP under the Aquino II administration.

The NDF, he said, has also signaled its willingness to receive in The Netherlands or Norway a senior emissary or a team of emissaries of the Aquino administration to discuss the possible course and perspective of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations but still, no formal word from the GRP.

The Aquino II administration can consider seriously the NDF’s proposals for the peace talks as a serious step to attain peace by addressing the latter’s concerns on “basic social, economic and political reforms.”

Pres. Benigno Aquino III earlier challenged the CPP-NPA-NDF to talk peace with government and declare a ceasefire, but the CPP instead urged the government to follow previously agreed documents and the substantial agenda on reforms, the last of which was the cessation of hostilities and disposition of forces.

So far, the government and the NDF have forged the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).

It takes two to tango and the sooner the GRP and NDF agree to talk, that would be one significant step in attaining peace for the country and ending the decades-old communist insurgency.