A BILATERAL ceasefire agreement will be signed by the third week of January, National Democratic Front chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili said Friday as he scored President Rodrigo Duterte’s “inhumane” decision treating political prisoners as mere “trump cards.”
“The NDF has already announced its willingness to sit down with the GRP peace panel and work on a bilateral ceasefire accord and have it ready for signing by the third week of January by the parties’ respective principals,” Agcaoili said in a statement sent to the Manila Standard.
“The bilateral ceasefire can take effect in 48 hours, the time frame within which the President said he would order the release of all the political prisoners.”
Agcaoili made his statement even as the government peace panel negotiating with the NDF upheld its commitment to facilitate the issuance of an amnesty proclamation and the release of detained communist rebels.
Panel members Rene Sarmiento and Angela Librado-Trinidad highlighted the efforts being exerted by the government in fulfilling its obligation to the peace process to the members of the Special Committee on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity of the House of Representatives.
Agcaoili said the NDF’s willingness to engage in a bilateral ceasefire would depend on Duterte keeping his “word of releasing all of the close to 400 political prisoners soon after a bilateral ceasefire agreement is signed.”
“His own pronouncements that he can release political prisoners within 48 hours belie previous statements by the OPAPP and GRP peace panel that they have been working in earnest for the release of 50-200 political prisoners but that the judicial processes require some time to effect the release,” Agcaoili said.
Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison had threatened Thursday to lift the unilateral interim ceasefire it declared last August should the government fail on its promise to release all political detainees by January next year.
In a speech last Monday, Duterte said there would not be any release of some 130 political prisoners before Christmas unless the communist rebels inked a bilateral ceasefire agreement with the government as both panels returned to the negotiating table next week.
“If you can show me a document signed by either the Republic of the Philippines representatives and the communists, then I will release the 130 more … if they are ready to be released, I will release them before Christmastime,” Duterte said during the lighting of the Christmas tree inside Malacañang.
Meanwhile, Duterte’s latest pronouncement that he would ‘lose his cards’ should he proceed with the release of political prisoners right away did not sit well with the communist rebels.
“President Rodrigo Duterte’s allusion to the peace negotiations as a high-stakes poker game is deplorable, as it tragically leads to the inhumane treatment of close to 400 political prisoners as trump cards and the callous sweeping aside of justice by his deft playing hand,” Agcaoili said.
“His latest pronouncement is disturbing and disappointing, being a complete turnaround from the commitments he made to a high-level NDFP delegation last December 2 in Davao City, where he categorically committed to pardoning 40 convicted political prisoners and releasing 130 sick and elderly political detainees before Christmas.”