OPAPP affirms EO 70 as a barrier to peace talks

In a letter to the editor printed on this page last Oct 22, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, headed by retired AFP chief Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr., sought to dispute the theme of my piece in this space on Oct. 12, titled “Duterte order sets peace process barriers.” It says the OPAPP would like to “provide the Filipino people a clearer, more balanced perspective” on the issues I raised.

The two aspects of President Duterte’s Executive Order 70 (signed on Dec. 4, 2018) I cited as erecting big barriers to progress in pursuing the GRP-NDFP peace talks are: 1) “a mechanism for local peace engagements or negotiations and interventions,” which the National Democratic Front has consistently rejected as divisive rather than unifying; and 2) the means set for addressing the root causes of the armed conflict is through “prioritizing and harmonizing the delivery of basic services and social development packages by the government,” which trivializes the complex issues that the peace talks seek to resolve.

The OPAPP claims that EO 70 aims to “empower communities in most conflict-affected areas and enable them to face the rebel organization head on,” and to “enhance the delivery of much-needed government services to residents in the countryside.” Through the “localized peace engagements”, it adds, “the people in the communities themselves will be the ones to recommend solutions to address the problem and convince rebels to return to the folds (sic) of the law and normalize their lives.”

EO 70, it stresses, “is designed to empower local government units and peace partners in the communities to be at the forefront of efforts to stamp out the communist rebellion.”

“Do you think that giving people in the communities the chance to participate in localized peace engagements [is] a barrier to the peace process?” the OPAPP asks me. It follows up with this statement: “We are pleased to note the government’s efforts have started to show significant positive results. Many local government units with Tapang and Malasakit have declared the communist insurgents as persona-non-grata (sic) in their areas.” These declarations, it concludes, show that the people “have gathered their strength in rising up and rejecting the communist terrorist group’s atrocities and twisted ideology.”

By flaunting this “significant positive results”, the OPAPP in effect affirms what I wrote: that the EO 70 peace framework and mechanism for “local peace engagements” is divisive rather than unifying. In fact it is altogether antagonisitic. My October 12 column piece ends thus: “Is this persona-non-grata campaign part of the ‘local peace engagements or negotiations and intervention’? How can it advance the attainment of inclusive and sustainable peace [which EO 70 purportedly seeks to attain]?”

Saying that my column piece “only proves [my] skewed understanding of the entire peace process [I’ve been writing on the peace talks since November 6, 2010],” the OPAPP asserts that Duterte terminated the peace talks “specifically because of the lack of sincerity on the part of the insurgent group,” adding, “We believe there are no gray areas here.” What proof? It mentions the following:

• “(Duterte) even went the extra mile to appoint leaders of the left-leaning groups into his Cabinet ; acts of goodwill which were reciprocated by planting seeds of distrust and sleeper cells who created more problems than solutions in their agencies…”

Fact: All the three Cabinet appointees – Judy Taguiwalo as DSWD secretary, Rafael Mariano as DAR secretary, and Liza Maza as Presidential Anti-Poverty Commission lead convenor – performed their functions/duties creditably. Notwithstanding the Commission on Appointment’s unexplained refusal to confirm Taguiwalo’s and Mariano’s appointments (Maza voluntarily resigned), no questions as to their competence or integrity have ever been raised. OPAPP’s claims about “planting seeds of distrust and sleeper cells” are sheer lies.

• “While the Philippine government were engaging with them in peace talks, the New People’s Army continued to attack government forces with continued extortion and burning of development equipment and commercial establishments. It also proceeded in recruiting young cadres from prominent schools to its fold, thus rubbing them of their future.”

Facts: The simultaneous unilateral ceasefires declared by the GRP and NDFP at the start of formal negotiations under the Duterte government in August 2016 held for more than five months. Then EastMincom chief Lt. Gen. Rey Leonardo Guerrero ordered AFP troops to “recover” from NPA control hundreds of barangays. The troops intruded into NPA-held areas. If the NDFP or the CPP-NPA were insincere, it could have ordered attacks on the AFP units. It did not; the NPA simply evaded them.

The break in the ceasefire was caused by the GRP, on January 21, 2017 -- while negotiations were ongoing in Rome. AFP soldiers raided an NPA camp in Makilala, North Cotabato, killing one NPA fighter. That impelled the NPA to switch from evasive action to active defense and thwarted the AFP aggression. Consequently, the CPP-NPA announced it would end its unilateral ceasefire effective on February 10, 2017. With the government ending its own ceasefire, and Duterte suspending the peace talks, the armed conflict resumed with ferocity.

As for recruiting young men and women into the NPA, that has been happening since the NPA was established in 1969. Who would be volunteering for such sacrifice but the “awoke” youth? Many of them did sacrifice their lives, acknowledged as martyrs. This has never been an issue in the peace talks.

 For proof of sincerity on the part of the revolutionary forces represented by the NDFP, let’s look at the history of the peace talks from 1992-98 under Fidel V. Ramos, onward to the Duterte regime.

A veritable source is the positive output of the on-off-on negotiations over almost 26 years. Available now is a book, titled The GRP-NDFP Peace Negotiations: Major Agreements and Joint Statements, September 1, 1992-June 9, 2018. It’s a compilation of 34 documents all showing the signatures and initials of the negotiating parties. The book is produced by the NDFP Monitoring Committee in the Joint Secretariat of the GRP-NDFP Joint Monitoring Committee on the CARHRIHL.

In the book’s preface, Fidel V. Agcaoili, NDFP Monitoring Committee chair, wrote:  

“The NDFP-MC hopes that with this publication the people could be informed of the peace negotiations in the Philippines – the ups and downs of a long journey to secure basic social, economic and political reforms in Philippine society that would pave the way for a just and lasting peace in the country.”

But mind this irony: After being named OPAPP head, Galvez mindlessly remarked that more than 20 years of peace talks had produced nothing. Also he said the government has “suspended recognition” of the previously signed agreements pending review by Duterte. Why? Most of the major agreements were negotiated, signed, and approved during the time of Ramos – the only former AFP chief to be elected President.

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