GOVERNMENT negotiators launched a new round of talks Monday with communist rebels in Noordwijk aan Zee in The Netherlands, aiming to hammer out an interim ceasefire in moves to end one of the world’s longest insurgencies.
The talks, which got under way in The Netherlands, are due to last until Friday and are the fourth round between the National Democratic Front and Manila.
“We welcome the openness of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines [NDFP] to undertake a forging in this round of talks of an agreement on [a] joint interim ceasefire,” government negotiator Silvestre Bello told a press conference.
The interim truce will “accompany our peace negotiations throughout,” he said, adding it will march “in step with the discussion of the socio-economic reforms that will address the root causes of armed conflict.”
The conflict erupted in 1968 in the impoverished country and peace negotiations have been on and off for about 30 years. They were kick-started again by President Rodrigo Duterte after he took office last June.
The National Democratic Front is made up of several groups, the most prominent of which is the Communist Party of the Philippines, whose guerrilla unit is the 4,000-strong New People’s Army.
Norway had coaxed the two sides back to the negotiating table in August. But little progress has been made in the three previous rounds.
Originally due to be held in Oslo, the talks were moved to the western Dutch town of Noordwijk aan Zee, about 70 kilometers from Utrecht where several rebel leaders live in exile.
The founder of the Communist Party, Jose Maria Sison, who lives in Utrecht, is recovering from a bout of ill-health.
“The negotiations are necessary to address the roots of the armed conflict and to agree on a social economic, political and constitutional reform in order to lay the basis for a just and lasting peace,” he told reporters.
Peace Process Secretary Jesus Dureza assured the public that agreements reached during the talks would be “reflected on the ground.”
“Then it will move us forward. It would be difficult if we signed a peace agreement then found that no one was following it,” he said.
Sison also agreed to draft a joint interim ceasefire with the government.
“A special statement or agreement or memorandum of understanding can also be issued to focus on this interim bilateral agreement,” he said.
The NDFP said it was hopeful that discussions during the fourth round of talks would not be limited to a bilateral ceasefire.
“It is important to stress that the issue of ceasefire should not be pursued as an end in itself. Ceasefires, whether unilateral or bilateral or joint, are just a means to an end,” NDFP lead negotiator Fidel Agcaoili said.
Bello said his panel considers the 4th round of formal talks as appropriate venue to set in place the elements of a lasting peace, including a more binding bilateral ceasefire governed by well-defined parameters.
The panel has formally presented to the NDFP a draft joint interim ceasefire agreement that directs the committees of both parties to “meet immediately, even in between formal talks, to finalize the guidelines and ground rules.”
The draft provides for the crafting of guidelines that will cover the areas such as those governing the presence of armed groups in local communities and creation of buffer zones; on prohibited, hostile and provocative acts including the collection of revolutionary taxes; and undertaking of joint socio-economic projects.
Also contemplated in the proposed agreement are the rules for the immediate release of police and military captives, the release of prisoners listed by NDF, and the formation of a Joint Ceasefire Committee and the prospective role of a third party in ceasefire monitoring and other ceasefire mechanisms in the implementation of the ceasefire, including the handling of complaints and alleged violations.
“The Joint Ceasefire Agreement shall be deemed interim until a permanent ceasefire agreement is forged pursuant to a Comprehensive Agreement on End of Hostilities and Disposition of Forces,” the draft also indicated.
Duterte earlier told government negotiators to come up with a signed document with the communists “establishing the parameters of the peace talks” and there should be a ceasefire agreement to be witnessed by the Norwegian government, which acts as third-party facilitator in the peace talks.
The communist insurgency has left some 30,000 people dead, according to the Philippine Army. But the hope is now to reach a peace deal by the end of 2017.
The talks were delayed by a day, when Duterte said not all the conditions had been met. He has insisted the government will not recognize any territorial claims made by the rebels and that all prisoners held by the guerrillas should be released.
He also called for clear parameters for the ceasefire.
The rebels, inspired by China’s former leader Mao Zedong, have called for land reform to free millions of landless Filipino farm hands from what they call “semi-feudal” bondage. With Maricel V. Cruz, AFP