Permanent cessation of hostilities part of GRP-NDF peace talks

MANILA, Philippines - Government and rebel negotiators will discuss an end to hostilities and the 40-year-old communist rebellion when they hold talks in Norway next month, Malacañang said yesterday.

Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process Avelino Razon Jr. said the National Democratic Front (NDF) might have softened its stand because of the dwindling ranks of the New People’s Army (NPA).

On a monthly basis, scores of communist rebels avail of the government’s amnesty program that also includes livelihood assistance in exchange for surrendered firearms, he added.

The Netherlands-based NDF is the umbrella organization of all mainstream communist and leftist organizations in the Philippines, including the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Razon said the inclusion of cessation of hostilities in the peace talks agenda implies the NPA’s eventual disarmament and demobilization.

“Normally, this issue (cessation of hostilities) is placed at the rear (of the talks), but this is a positive development and if they (NDF negotiators) wanted to prolong the negotiations they would have put many other items in the agenda, not that,” he said.

Razon said local peace talks have also helped other NPA guerrillas to surrender without having to wait for a formal peace agreement.

“This (communist insurgency) has been going on for over 40 years and their leaders are not getting any younger,” he said. CPP founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison, who has been on self-exile in the Netherlands since 1987, turned 70 in November last year.

Razon said the government no longer pressed for a ceasefire while the talks are going on and expressed hope that the rebels would not engage in atrocities.

“I don’t think they will do that (attacks) while there are peace talks or it would be a sign of bad faith on their part,” he said.

Razon said the Norwegian government’s role as peace talks facilitator broke the impasse between the government and NDF.

“The facilitation made by the Norwegian government uncluttered many issues,” he said.

“From the ‘13 impediments,’ they became four that are now being addressed by the government, so we are open to resuming the (formal) talks (in Norway),” he said.

Numerous informal talks preceded the move of the government to lift the suspension of the Joint Agreement on Security and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) earlier this week, Razon said.

The talks broke down in 2004 after the NDF withdrew from the negotiations and accused the government of being responsible for the United States and the European Union listing the CPP-NPA as terrorist organizations.

At the time, the government also hit the NDF for allegedly being behind the spate of assassinations of local officials.     – Paolo Romero