Palace: Peace pact first before Aquino-Jalandoni meet

The government would rather sign a peace agreement with the communist-led National Democratic Front (NDF) first before receiving the group's chief negotiator in Malacañang, the Palace spokesman said Wednesday. Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda made the statement after the NDF said it plans to send its chief negotiator — Luis Jalandoni — to Manila from The Netherlands for a courtesy call to President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III next month. "I think it will be better for the NDF to visit the Palace with a signed peace agreement," Lacierda said at a press briefing. "The Palace is inclined to meet the NDF panel [but] the preference is for them to visit us with a signed peace agreement," he added. Last month, Malacanang formed a five-member panel headed by Health Undersecretary Alex Padilla to resume the government's negotiations with the NDF. Peace negotiations with the NDF bogged down in August 2004 when the mainstream communist group accused the government then of not exerting efforts in convincing the US and its allies of removing the CPP-NPA-NDF from their list of terrorist organizations. NDF negotiating panel vice-chairperson Fidel Agcaoili had earlier said the group is thinking of canceling Jalandoni’s courtesy call to Aquino on December because the government did not seem to welcome the idea. Agcaoili made the statement after deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said Aquino will still consult with his peace adviser Teresita "Ging" Deles. "The brutes on the government of the Republic of the Philippines’ side do not seem to appreciate the idea of courtesy call on Noynoy as a gesture of goodwill," Agcaoili said in a statement. He said the Aquino government is also "showing a certain measure of unreasonableness and hostility" to the NDF because of its "failure" to release more than 300 political prisoners put in jail during the previous administration. The NDF also said it was dissatisfied with the Aquino administration’s "extreme slowness" in moving for the resumption of the formal talks between the government and the communists. A date for the formal resumption of the talks have yet to be set. The government of Norway, which had allowed the use of its facilities in earlier rounds of talks, would remain the third-party facilitator in the negotiations. — RSJ, GMANews.TV