NDF: Uncertainties haunt peace process

CLARK FREEPORT – The third round of peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front is slated in the third week of January, but the NDF said “many uncertainties would haunt the peace process.”

In a statement yesterday, the NDF said while the second round of peace talks held in Oslo, Norway ended with some progress, uncertainties “serve to dampen the initial optimism of NDF negotiators and consultants.”

The NDF cited the delay in the release of all political prisoners; continuous military operations in communities; military men telling civilians the ceasefire has ended; political assassinations of leaders of people’s organizations; and perennial problems like rural landlessness, poverty caused by feudalism and the absence of national industrialization.

The NDF counts more than 400 political prisoners still languishing in jails.

“There is now a growing uneasiness and impatience among the NDF delegation over the snail’s pace in the steps being taken to effect

the release of the remaining political prisoners despite repeated promises and assurances coming from the government panel,” the NDF said.

“The issue of their continued detention came up early in the talks as the new NDF panel chair Fidel Agcaoili cited the pledge made by President Duterte himself last May to issue an amnesty proclamation to speed up their release. So far, the government has released only 22 political prisoners, most of them NDF consultants. There have been no other releases since August,” it added.

Government panel chairman Silvestre Bello III appealed to the NDF to be patient.

In response, Agcaoili said that “if the government could effect the speedy release of the 22 NDF consultants, why the seemingly excruciating difficulty in releasing the rest of the political prisoners?”

The 22 NDF consultants released by the government are protected by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees signed by the NDF and the government in the Netherlands in 1995.

JASIG provides safety and immunity guarantees to protect the rights of NDF negotiators, consultants, staffers, security and other personnel who participate in peace negotiations. “Under pressure from the consistent pressing of the NDF on this issue, the government panel once again promised ‘to do their best.’ But cynicism is now growing among some of the NDF negotiators and consultants as well as among the remaining political prisoners on account of so many unfulfilled promises,” the NDF lamented.

Continuous military operations

The NDF also said they received reports from the field about continuous military operations in the territory of the New People’s Army (NPA).

“According to NPA commands from various regions, the reason why there has been no firefights so far is mainly because NPA forces have been maneuvering to avoid armed encounters. But tensions are rising because the military operations appear more and more to be taking the form of base-denial operations targeting the mass base of the NPA,” the NDF said. NPA national spokesman Jorge Madlos reported that units of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) also tell civilians that the ceasefire is no longer in effect to justify their operations and presence in the communities.

Madlos cited the Army’s 24th Infantry Battalion.

“The NPA’s Agustin Begnalen Command based in Abra said the Army’s 24th Infantry Battalion have been telling civilians in Sallapadan town that the ceasefire has ended,” he said.

“The AFP has yet to observe the advice of President Duterte to be friendly to the NPA… The AFP continues to conduct hostile operations against the NPA, even using the drug campaign as pretext to conduct anti-NPA operations,” he added.

The NDF stressed that to have a stable ceasefire, AFP forces must return to barracks at the level of the battalion headquarters.

Political assassinations

The NDF also lamented political assassinations and attempted assassinations of leaders of people’s organizations.

They cited the case of the secretary general of the Compostela Valley Farmers Association (CFA), Jimmy Saipan, who was killed in cold blood by two motorcycle riding gunmen last Oct. 10.

“Saipan was a lumad antimining activist opposing the exploration by the Agusan Petroleum Mineral Corp. in 12,000 hectares of lumad lands. The CFA has also been conducting dialogue with the 66th IB for the latter to stop occupying their community. The AFP has falsely accused the CFA as a communist front organization,” the NDF said.