LABOR Secretary and government chief negotiator Silvestre Bello III remains confident of forging a truce with communist rebels around December 10 even after the Communist Party of the Philippines dismissed the possibility because the government has not released political prisoners.
“The talks are ongoing. We continue to talk and hopefully if we reach a consensus. We can have a signing and hopefully for symbolism. We can do the signing of the agreement by December 10, which is the International Human Rights Day,” Bello said in an interview over state radio dzRB.
Bello likewise countered claims made by the CPP that the government isn’t doing anything to release political prisoners.
“Our friends from the NDF-CPP-NPA that the process of releasing political prisoners is already under way. We are doing everything legally possible and they know that the release of political prisoners or detainees should not be a precondition to ceasefire,” he said.
“The reason why we could not have an agreement on joint and permanent ceasefire yet is because we cannot agree on the terms of reference. There are things that we need to agree upon so we can sign [the agreement,]” he added.
On Friday, the CPP issued a statement criticizing the failure of the government to release all political prisoners in accordance with the August 21-26 Oslo talks which, they said, “discourages the revolutionary forces from pursuing negotiations to forge a bilateral ceasefire agreement.”
“The longer the GRP takes to fulfill its obligation to release all political prisoners, the prospects of such an agreement ever being forged become ever dimmer,” they added.
The government and the NDF earlier agreed to transform their separate unilateral ceasefires into a joint, bilateral ceasefire within two months from the signing of their Joint Statement last August 26—but both negotiating panels have to agree further on some terms and conditions, including the definition of hostile acts, identification of battle zones, and members of the team that will monitor the ceasefire’s implementation and compliance.
At a forum in Baguio City, former NDF chief negotiator Luis Jalandoni said Friday that AFP violations “would bring grave danger to the peace talks” in spite of progress already made to reach a “just and lasting peace.”
