2 NDFP peace consultants barred from visiting Tiamzons

MANILA, Philippines - Two of the peace consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines were barred from visiting communist leaders Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria-Tiamzon inside the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City.

In a joint press statement, NDFP peace consultants Randall Echanis and Rafael Baylosis said they waited from 9 a.m. till past noon last Apr. 15 but were not allowed to see or speak with the Tiamzon couple.

The PNP did not even bother to offer an explanation why they were not allowed to talk with their co-consultants in the peace negotiations between the NDFP and the Government of the Philippines, the two said.

"As co-peace consultants of the Tiamzon couple in the GPH-NDFP peace talks, we are lawfully, politically and morally entitled to undertake consultations with other NDFP consultants and the reactionary government of President Benigno Aquino III has no right to prevent us from exercising our duty as peace consultants," the two NDFP peace consultants said.

"We categorically condemn to the highest order this latest political escapade of the GPH and the ruling criminal political syndicate in Malacanang that systematically obstructs the NDFP consultants from exercising their duties and obligations as parties to the peace negotiations and the reactionary state in Manila has no option but to discard this anti-peace talk policy," they said in the statement.

Echanis and Baylosis, two of the regular consultants of the NDFP in the peace negotiations with the GPH since 1990 are also co-chairpersons of the NDFP Reciprocal Working Committee on the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms or CASER—the second substantive agenda of the peace negotiations between the GPH and the NDFP.

"The supposed visit was meant to update and consult the Tiamzons on the CASER draft and other concerns relevant to peace talks.

"...the Aquino government and the Philippine military will practically do everything, anything to sabotage or kill the peace negotiations. The GPH and its military strategists are preventing the NDFP consultants from performing their duties and obligations to facilitate the peace negotiations," the NDFP consultants said.

The two NDFP consultants reminded President Aquino that the peace negotiations between the GPH and NDFP are not solely confined to scheduled formal talks across the negotiating table.

They said these also involve other continuing phases such as consultation, research, study, education, information, advocacy, back channeling, exploratory activities, informal and formal talks.

The NDFP peace consultants stressed that absence, suspensions or impasses in formal peace talks do not mean the whole peace negotiations or processes are automatically absent, suspended or terminated.