AGRARIAN Secretary Rafael Mariano welcomed the resumption of peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front on Sunday against the backdrop of continuing battle between troops and the rebels in the countryside.
The five-day talks, which Mariano said ensured genuine land reform, would be held in Noordwijk in The Netherlands.
“Peace talks would ensure the implementation of genuine land reform as both panels have agreed on the significance of furthering the discussion on agrarian reform and rural development in crafting the draft of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms,” he said.
The farmers’ struggle was at the forefront of the first three rounds of negotiations after both panels recognized free land distribution as the key to address the roots of armed conflict in the countryside.
“Landlessness remains the main cause of farmers’ suffering and only pro-people policies on genuine agrarian reform would help us achieve national and agricultural industrialization,” he said.
The Department of Agrarian Reform has received 11 reports documenting 16 cases of murder of peasant activists and leaders for the first three months of 2017.
Most victims were indigenous peoples from Mindanao, and had been involved in land disputes with big landlord-oligarchs and mining firms.
In Calapan City, military troops exchanged fire with NPA guerrillas of the Lucio de Guzman Command in Barangay Binli, in Bulalacao town, 250 kms southeast of the capital city.
The NPAs were reported to have suffered four casualties, either killed or wounded during the firefight while two enlisted Army men were wounded in action, Col. Antonio Parlade, commanding officer of the 203rd Infantry Brigade, of the PA’s 2nd Infantry Division, told Manila Standard.
The government casualties were evacuated by an Army ambulance to the nearby Bulalacao hospital. “The operating troops are sustaining pressure on them [NPA], under the group of Virginia Torobias Magadia,” Parlade said.
In Cagayan de Oro City, a school official said the fire that gutted a high school building in a village in Valencia City recently might not be the handiwork of the NPA contrary to the allegation of the military.
According to Mary Jean Subayco, 29, academic head and school secretary of Concepcion National High School in Barangay Concepcion, the cause of the fire was due to “electrical short circuit,” quoting a Bureau of Fire Protection report.
CNHS used to be an annex of the Valencia National High School and has 335 students with 11 teachers, one principal and an administrative staff.
Up north, in Cagayan, members of the CPP-NPA admitted burning the construction equipment in this province and in Quirino, also in the valley.
Victor Servidores, spokesperson of the NPA’s Fortunato Camus Command operating in Cagayan Valley, defended their actions, saying the two construction companies refused to “follow the laws of the National Democratic Front.”
”Anyone who disobeys the law of NDF will be held responsible and will be meted (out) with punishment, Servidores said in a statement published in the armed group’s website.
Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Rembert Baylosis said the rebels burned the heavy equipment of Pulsar Company in Baybayog village in Alcala, Cagayan.
Baylosis said up to six men attacked the Pulsar construction’s station by pouring gasoline to a hauler truck, compactor and two backhoes and took away dour handled radios, two cellphones and an AVR used for communication.
The company is currently constructing roads connecting Alcala to Baggao town.
According to Mariano, the resumption of peace talks would address the growing agrarian unrest and would prevent further casualties after the termination of talks in early February.
The commitment of both panels in achieving a just and lasting peace would benefit farmers the most, he said.
Mariano believes a total halt on the attacks against farmers would be among the urgent results of the peace talks as it would tackle the social injustices prevailing in rural areas.
Among the substantive agenda to be discussed in Norway are social and economic reforms, political and constitutional reforms, and the end of hostilities and disposition of forces.
He said: “Our continuing advocacy to push for the enactment of a genuine agrarian reform law would rectify the inherent flaws, loopholes and defects of previous agrarian reform programs that have exacerbated land monopoly by few landlord-oligarchs.
“We strongly support the continuing commitment of both panels in achieving a just and lasting peace in the country.” With Robert Evaroa, Lance Baconguis and Jessica Bacud