MANILA, 9 August — The government peace panel is rushing the completion of a draft of a proposed “final peace agreement” with the communist-led National Democratic Front amid the beating of war drums by the military and communist guerrillas.
“It is with more reason that we should pursue the path to peace,” chief negotiator Silvestre Bello III said.
In a phone interview, Bello said the panel was expecting to finalize by Aug. 16-17 the draft, which will be later presented to President Gloria Arroyo. “This effort is in line with attempts not to exacerbate the situation,” Bello said, referring to the exchange of bellicose statements between the two sides.
Arroyo declared war on communist guerrillas on Monday. On the same day, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said that the president had directed Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes to move troops operating against the Abu Sayyaf to areas where communist rebels were active.
The following day, Jose Ma. Sison, founding chair of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), called on the New People’s Army (NPA) to step up attacks on government and military installations, including power transmission lines and electrical towers.
Negotiations between the government and the NDF was suspended in June last year after the NPA killed Cagayan Rep. Rodolfo Aguinaldo, a former Constabulary colonel accused by human rights groups of torture, summary executions and other rights violations.
Bello said the peace panel, composed of himself as chair and members Agrarian Reform Secretary Hernani Braganza, Riza Hontiveros-Baraquel, Rene Sarmiento, and Chito Gascon, met on Aug. 7 to discuss the draft of the proposed peace agreement.
Asked to describe the prospects of having a political settlement to the 34-year-old communist insurgency, Bello said: “It is pregnant with possibilities.”
Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. shared Bello’s optimism.
De Venecia said it was “only a matter of time” before a final peace agreement with the NDF, the underground umbrella organization that includes the CPP, could be sealed.
De Venecia, who had conducted back channel talks with Sison and NDF chief negotiator Luis Jalandoni in The Hague, said three preliminary agreements could be signed in the next three to four weeks.
“I am confident that the peace talks will succeed and that a final peace agreement will be signed in the next few months,” de Venecia said in an interview.
He said the two panels were in the “final stages” of drafting three agreements. He was referring to political, economic and constitutional reforms. “The signing of an omnibus agreement is only a matter of time,” he said.
Arroyo earlier directed the government panel to craft a single peace pact with its NDF counterpart instead of coming up with a series of agreements based on specific issues.
The NDF rejected the proposal, as it would violate previous arrangements worked out with the Ramos administration on how the talks should be conducted.
So far, the two panels had come up with a comprehensive agreement on human rights and international humanitarian law. This was supposed to be followed by separate agreements on social justice, economic reforms, political reforms and a final one on the disposition of forces.
With the formal talks suspended, the president had designated Norberto Gonzales and Silvestre Afable as her “back channel” negotiators with the NDF. Gonzales is the presidential adviser for special concerns and Afable, a former undersecretary for the peace process, is the head of the Presidential Management Staff.
De Venecia, who talked with Sison only last month, said it was about time the government and NDF panels put an end to the cycle of “fight, talk, fight, talk.”
“This fight, talk, fight, talk should come to an end like Panmunjom so that we can concentrate on completing the agreement and have cessation and demobilization of forces,” de Venecia said.
Panmumjom is the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, where the two warring sides also hold United Nations-brokered talks.
De Venecia said that when a final peace accord was in place, the NPA could be phased out and groups belonging to the extreme Left could emerge as “genuine political parties.”
The two sides, however, should take confidence-building measures to keep the signing of a peace accord on track, according to the Speaker.
De Venecia said the NPA should not carry out its threat to bomb power installations and other government targets.
“This will be the most important confidence-building measure they can take,” he said.
Asked what the government could give in return, he said the provision of socioeconomic and poverty alleviation programs in depressed areas would be a concrete confidence-building step.
Words from Guingona
Meanwhile, Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. warned the government about adopting the US “first strike policy” against terrorists on communist rebels, saying this will lead to more bloodshed similar to the dark years of martial law.
“Might does not make right,” Guingona told the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines yesterday at a breakfast forum. Guingona said the basic premise of the presence of the Americans in the country starting October this year was the training of Filipino soldiers belonging to light reaction companies on how to handle the NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
“I cannot say what is the worst-case scenario but this preemptive strike policy of the United States means that it can launch the first strike against terrorists whether they are on a separate sovereign land or on the islands,” he said.
“In essence, its policy is that the best defense is offense,” he said.
Guingona likened the Filipino rebels to a black sheep.
“I earlier told the president that when there is a black sheep in the family it is the obligation of the father and the family to discipline that black sheep. It is not incumbent on the family to invite a foreigner or a neighbor to join in the disciplining of the black sheep,” he said.
Guingona said no matter how bad the Filipino was he should not be shot at by foreigners. “The preemptive strike policy should not be adopted here,” he said.
He urged the government to pursue the peace process with the NPA instead of working on crushing them. Guingona said poverty was the root cause of strife in the country.
“Five million people are unemployed, five million are underemployed and 30 million people are considered poor in this country. If the poor and victims of injustice feel neglected, it is easy for them to be tempted to join an underground organization,” he said.
