The communist rebels have given up on the prospect of signing a final peace agreement with the government of President Rodrigo Duterte, saying they would rather support efforts to oust him and wait to resume talks with the next administration.
The founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines and chief political consultant for the National Democratic Front Jose Ma. Sison issued this statement Thursday, days after Duterte canceled the resumption of peace negotiations this month as well as back-channel talks between the two parties.
“Based on the implications drawn from the current impasse, the NDF can no longer negotiate with a government that is headed by Duterte. So long as he heads the government, the Filipino people, especially the oppressed and exploited, cannot expect any benefi t from negotiating with the Duterte regime,” Sison said.
“It is relatively easier and more productive for the NDF to participate in the Oust-Duterte movement and to prepare for peace negotiations with the prospective administration that replaces the Duterte regime,” he added.
While presidential peace adviser Jesus Dureza said the postponement was meant to allow the government to engage a “bigger peace table,” a well-placed source said Duterte reached the decision to “reset” the peace talks following Sison’s several pronouncements on the timetable of the negotiations.
“The President reviewed the recent statements of Joma because it was Joma who was announcing that there will be a week-long ‘stand down order’ between the NDF and the government that will begin on June 21 and that the formal peace talks will resume on June 28. Is he the spokesman of the government? Perhaps Sison thought he already won the war,” the source said.
Sison, however, said the working drafts of the agreements that both panels earlier worked on will not go to waste with the CPP-NDF’s decision to withdraw from the peace talks.
“They can be carried over to the negotiation with the government under a new administration. The room is open for the further improvement of the drafts in the meantime,” Sison said.
“It is well and good if Duterte withdraws finally from the peace negotiations with the NDF. Thus, he deprives himself of the opportunity of creating false illusions that he is for peace. He stands isolated and ripe for ouster,” Sison added.
With the President’s decision to postpone the peace negotiations, five of six rebel leaders with standing arrest warrants who were supposed to participate in the talks have already gone underground.
Sison, however, said Duterte is to blame for the situation. “Duterte has made it impossible for our consultants to present themselves before the proper courts. Duterte removed the safe environment for them to face the court again.”
A Manila court earlier allowed CPP chairman Benito Tiamzon, Adelberto Silva, Randall Echanis, Vicente Ladlad and Rafael Baylosis to leave for Norway for the peace negotiations.
A separate court in Taguig also allowed communist leader Alan Jazmines to join the five as NDF consultants.
Defense lawyer Rachel Pastores of the Public Interest Law Center said it would not come as a surprise if her clients, except for Baylosis who is still under detention, would jump bail and refuse to surrender.
“With the exception of Baylosis, the others are not in police custody. Who can blame them [if they have gone underground]? There is a clear threat to their security and lives. This government has branded them terrorists,” Pastores said.