Local dev’t programs along with peace talks

The 16-day ceasefires declared by the Philippine government and the New People’s Army (NPA)-National Democratic Front (NDF)-Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) ended last Wednesday, January 8. Although there were charges of ceasefire violations by the NPA on the first day of the ceasefires on December 23, 2019, the Christmas holiday truce was generally maintained.

President Duterte has a standing offer to CPP Founding Chairman Jose Ma. Sison to come home from his self-exile in Utrecht, Netherlands, for a one-on-one talk with the President but Sison has not accepted the invitation. The President sent Secretary of Labor Silvestre Bello III and former Agrarian Reform Secretary Hernani Braganza to see Sison personally in Utrecht. They did come up with an agreement for separate ceasefire declarations, but the face-to-face meeting remains in the air.

Meanwhile, the President’s top security adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. has come up with the view that localized peace talks with individual NPA units and commanders would be a better approach to the nearly half a century of rebellion by the NPA.

“We have alternatives to the peace talks,” he said. “We are now pursuing local peace engagements which have resulted in understanding and the mainstreaming of rebels.” He cited the work of the National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict, which seeks to win back NPA fighters through a program of community development.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has expressed a related view – that peace talks are possible even without a ceasefire. “We can fight and talk,” he said.

But he and Esperon said they respect the decision of President Duterte who wants to hold new peace talks with Sison and the other Communist leaders.

The new year certainly holds new hope for such talks, despite the failure of the previous ones, not only during the Duterte administration, but also in previous administrations since the NPA was founded 48 years ago. President Duterte began his administration in 2016 with talks with Sison, a former teacher of his when he was a student at the Lyceum of the Philippines. They appeared to be close to an agreement last year, but the CPP-NDF-NPA negotiators appeared to have made demands that the President could not accept and he announced the “permanent termination” of the talks.

The President, however, continues to hope that a peace agreement is still possible. We must indeed never give up on our hopes for peace with the Communist insurgents in our country. Many officials had earlier felt hopeless about the Moro insurgency in Mindanao, but President Duterte has succeeded in winning over the Moro leaders who now have the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. The peace talks with the Communist leaders must also continue despite the ongoing difficulties.

But, at the same time, the effort to win local NPA leaders through community economic development programs must continue as another front in the overall peace effort, as espoused by Presidential Security Adviser Esperon.