NDF, church group meet over roots of armed conflict

MANILA, Philippines - The National Democratic Front met with Church officials last week in The Netherlands to find ways to address the root causes of armed conflict. NDF consultants and the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) met Sept. 2, according to a statement posted Monday evening on the Communist Party of the Philippines website. Composing the PEPP delegation were co-convenors Archbishop Antonio Ledesma and Sharon Rose Joy Ruiz-Duremdes, and members Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez Jr., Bishop Efren Tendero, Sister Cres Lucero and Ofelia Cantor. Fr. Michel Beckers of the Norwegian Ecumenical Peace Platform was also part of the group. Representing the NDF were negotiating panel chairman Luis Jalandoni, and panel members Fidel Agcaoili, Julieta de Lima and Coni Ledesma. Also present were CPP founding chairman and chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison, NDFP monitoring committee member Danilo Borjal and NDF panel secretariat head Ruth de Leon. Ledesma and Duremdes presented the role of the PEPP as one of bridge building for peace between the Philippine government and the NDFP. On behalf of the NDFP, Luis Jalandoni welcomed the visit of the PEPP and the role it has assumed. Frank discussions The PEPP and the NDFP held frank discussions on peace negotiations, ceasefire, vision of the NDFP, land reform and national industrialization, and revolutionary taxation. Jalandoni reiterated the position of the NDFP that the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations are ongoing because neither side has terminated the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and that what needs to be done is the resumption of formal talks upon the overcoming of the 13 impediments which had been presented by the NDFP to the GRP in the presence of the Norwegian third party facilitator. PEPP and NDFP agreed that there is an urgent need to resume the formal talks in the peace negotiations and such resumption must be based on prior agreements between the two parties. They also agreed that a just and lasting peace in the Philippines could only be attained by addressing the root causes of the armed conflict. Jalandoni said the NDFP is willing to hold informal talks to prepare the resumption of formal talks as soon as possible in accordance with the existing agreements between the GRP and NDFP. He declared that informal talks should not become indefinite and paralyze the substantive agenda already set by previous agreements. He added negotiations on social and economic reforms should be resumed immediately and should be followed by negotiations on political and constitutional reforms. Also, he pointed out that the question of prolonged ceasefire should not precede the question of substantive reforms and that surrender or even ceasefire negotiations should not replace peace negotiations as defined by The Hague Joint Declaration. He informed the PEPP delegation that the NDFP had proposed to the GRP a 10-point concise agreement on the principles for immediate peace, but the GRP did not respond. Sison pointed out that all the impediments to peace negotiations can be resolved by complying with the existing agreements. He said the GRP and NDFP can overcome the terrorist blacklisting of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), New People's Army (NPA) and himself. The NDFP panel requested the PEPP to call on the GRP to comply with the JASIG and release NDFP consultants Angie Ipong, Elizabeth Principe and Randall Echanis, the surfacing of consultants who have been involuntarily disappeared and the lifting of false charges against the NDFP Negotiating Panel Chairperson and consultants like Vicente Ladlad and Rafael Baylosis. Agcaoili, chairman of the NDFP Monitoring Committee, said the NDFP had been calling for the meeting and operationalization of the Joint Monitoring Committee but the GRP never responded positively. He deplored the GRP's submission of hundreds of false and invalid complaints with the obvious intent of inflating the number of incidents against the forces of the NDFP, thereby mocking the integrity of the Joint Monitoring Committee and proving the attitude of impunity by the GRP. Sison added the basic problem in pushing the resumption of formal talks is the lack of interest of President Arroyo in the peace negotiations, and the heavy hand of militarists like Eduardo Ermita and Norberto Gonzales on the GRP Negotiating Panel. He observed that Arroyo had apparently closed the door to peace negotiations by demanding demobilization, disarmament and rehabilitation as preconditions. He noted that this latest of the GRP preconditions aggravated the previous precondition of prolonged ceasefire which was already a gross violation of The Hague Joint Declaration. - GMANews.TV