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Wanted: A ‘brain trust’ as GPH, NDF resume peace talks

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Inday Espina-Varona, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/news-special1/lifestyle/7/15/emma-leslie-pix111.jpg"/><figcaption><div class="embed-desc">Emma Leslie. <em>Photo courtesy of Center for Peace and Conflict Studies</em></div></figcaption></figure></div><p>Protracted and oft-stymied peace talks between the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front (NDF) need a &quot;brain trust&quot; when negotiators tackle critical socio-economic reforms.</p><p>The release of political prisoners is more than a confidence-building measure, according to Emma Leslie, executive director of the Cambodia-based Center for Peace and Conflict Studies.</p><p> “There are very important consultants in prison … who have very good economic brains,” Leslie said at the book launch of Judge Soliman Santos’ “How Do You Solve the Problem of the GPH-NDFP Peace Process?” Her organization published the book.</p><p>Close to 500 suspected and convicted rebels, including more than 20 NDF political consultants, are in Philippine jails. Around 100 political prisoners are ailing and elderly and appealing for release on humanitarian grounds.</p><p>Leslie said political prisoners like former University of the Philippines (UP) professor Alan Jazmines could “lead the dialogue and discourse around the nitty-gritty of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER).”</p><p>Soldiers <a href="http://news.abs-cbn.com/nation/02/16/11/jazmines-my-arrest-mocks-peace-process" target="_blank">arrested</a> Jazmines in 2011 just hours before the start of formal talks between the NDF and the Aquino government. </p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/abs-cbnnews/a_images/people/others/021511_jasminez.jpg"/><figcaption><div class="embed-desc">Captured former UP Professor Alan Jazmines while detained at Armed Forces&#x27; Northern Luzon Command. <em>File photo/AFP Public Affairs Office</em></div></figcaption></figure></div><p>“Political prisoners’ release is important because it is about equipping rebel groups with the right brain trust that would allow them to be equal at the table,” Leslie told the audience of diplomats and development and peace workers.</p><p>It would bring out “the key minds and people that can make a robust and intellectual conversation around the outcomes that we are looking at,” she added.</p><p>In an interview conducted by email, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder and NDF chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison said the underground movement “consults the leading organs and the mass base before, during and after formal meetings of the negotiating panels.”</p><div><strong> ‘Accelerated’ process</strong></div><p>The election of President Rodrigo Duterte has thawed the two-decade peace process that former President Benigno Aquino III put on ice.</p><p>Sison said that at one time, Aquino’s government “tried to close down the offices of the JMC (Joint Monitoring Committee for the ceasefire) in Cubao.”</p><p>The former administration, he said, told the government of Norway, the third party mediator in the talks, that it does not want any more funds for the government side and so no funds should also go to the rebel side. The JMC office remains open.</p><p>Negotiators are scheduled to meet in Oslo, Norway after Duterte’s first State of the Nation Address.</p><p>Their key task: finalizing the CASER before proceeding to political and constitutional reforms. </p><p>A successful conclusion to the talks would have both parties signing an agreement to permanently end half a century of warfare that has killed an estimated 40,000 rebels, soldiers and civilians.</p><p>Both sides released last month a joint statement pledging to accelerate negotiations.</p><p>The Left seems amenable to a calibrated process instead of a general release prior to peace talks.</p><p>Fidel Agcaoili, one of its negotiators, said they are confident 23 jailed political consultants would be able to join the talks. Among the agreements the government agreed to affirm, he noted, is the Joint Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), which covers a list of rebel negotiators and their staff.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameBorder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LHWLhr2rGtA?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0" width="510"></iframe></figure><p>The Philippine government in 1992 legalized membership in the CPP. State authorities, however, routinely charge rebel suspects with common crimes. These would require courts to preside over release proceedings for some political prisoners.</p><p>NDF leaders remained calm when analysts speculated last month that Duterte could backtrack on his pledge to release political prisoners.</p><p>The buzz came when the President said only safe conduct passes would be issued to CPP founder and NDF senior political consultant Jose Ma Sison, NDF chief negotiator Luis Jalandoni and the jailed couple, Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria, considered the highest-ranking CPP leaders in the country.</p><p>(READ: <a href="http://news.abs-cbn.com/nation/03/22/14/high-ranking-communist-leaders-nabbed-cebu" target="_blank">CPP-NPA chief, wife nabbed in Cebu</a>)</p><p>Duterte was not going back on his promise, according to Government chief negotiator and Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III.</p><p>Safe conduct passes would allow unhindered travel throughout the country for consultations with NDF members and forces, Bello told Kodao Productions.</p><p>Bello added that while the consultants should technically be brought back to detention in between formal negotiations, it would be impractical as the government foresees six months of continuous talks.</p><p> “It may even be a very serious security problem when every time they negotiate, they go out and then they come back,” Bello told Kodao.</p><p>Government and rebel sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said other jailed rebel leaders could also be released as peace talks resume.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/news-special1/lifestyle/7/15/bello-and-people-s-agenda.jpg"/><figcaption><div class="embed-desc">Representatives of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan. Pilgrims for Peace, rights group Karapatan and other groups present the &quot;People&#x27;s Agenda for Change&quot; to Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, government chief negotiator to peace talks with the NDF.</div></figcaption></figure></div><p>Sison dismissed fears, explaining that general amnesty is contained in the talks’ last substantive component, the signing of a Comprehensive Agreement on the End of Hostilities and Disposition of Force.</p><p>“The GRP and NDFP are already considering an interim ceasefire and the release of all current political prisoners through general amnesty in order to generate goodwill and confidence in the peace negotiations,” he told ABS-CBN News. </p><p>“The permanent end of hostilities will be effected by the Comprehensive Agreement on the End of Hostilities after the forging of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms and Political and Constitutional Reforms,” he added</p><p>(READ: <a href="http://news.abs-cbn.com/focus/07/08/16/duterte-ndf-will-defeat-spoilers-peace-negotiator" target="_blank">Duterte, NDF will defeat spoilers</a>)</p><div><strong>‘Socialist’ President</strong></div><p>Leslie sees both sides exercising “pragmatic optimism.”</p><p>“It is important to understand that both panels are working very hard to try and pass these obstacles,” she stressed.</p><p>Santos sees no major problem for the planned amnesty, citing Duterte’s supermajority in the legislature.</p><p>He said prosecutors would play a big role in any executive release related to the peace process. Some issues would need a ruling by the Supreme Court, which lays down judicial policies for the lower courts.</p><p>Duterte, a political strongman and self-confessed “socialist,” put the peace process on equal footing with his campaign against illegal drugs, criminality and corruption during his presidential campaign.</p><p>Months before launching his candidacy, he had already contacted Sison to jumpstart plans to cement a final peace agreement.</p><p>Duterte’s push is influenced by former President Fidel Ramos, a retired military general who made big strides on the peace front with both communist and Moro separatist rebel groups.</p><p>Bello and Hernani Braganza, the head of the government team for economic reforms, are peace process veterans who helped negotiate ten agreements with the NDF.</p><p>The government’s other negotiators -- former Commission on Elections Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, former Davao City Councilor Angela Librado and lawyer Noel Felongco – also enjoy good relations with progressive groups.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/news-special1/lifestyle/7/15/nego-team.jpg"/><figcaption><div class="embed-desc">Members of the government negotiating panel to peace talks with the National Democratic Front. From left: Former Comelec Commissioner and labor expert Rene Sarmiento; lawyer Noel Felongco, an advocate of the rights of indigenous peoples; Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, head of the government peace panel; former agrarian reform secretary, congressman Hernani Braganza and lawyer Angela Librado, a former Davao City councilor and advocate for women&#x27;s and Lumad rights. <em>Photo courtesy of Hernani Braganza</em></div></figcaption></figure></div><p>Representatives of people’s organizations, including the Church-based Pilgrims for Peace, presented Bello on Wednesday with “The People’s Agenda for Change.”</p><p>The agenda outlines proposals on human rights and various reforms, with stress on genuine agrarian reform, national industrialization and a more independent foreign policy for the Philippines.</p><p>President Rodrigo Duterte received the documents in Malacañang on June 30, inviting activists massed on Mendiola Bridge to a meeting right after his inaugural.</p><p>He has since appointed NDF nominees to head the Department of Agrarian Reform, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the National Anti-Poverty Commission and others to take senior posts in the labor department.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CmLkvJgUYAAGgfG.jpg"/><figcaption><div class="embed-desc">President Rodrigo Duterte with militants in Malacañang. <em>Photo courtesy of RTVM</em></div></figcaption></figure></div><p>Read: <a href="http://news.abs-cbn.com/halalan2016/focus/05/18/16/why-joma-sison-backs-critical-left-honeymoon-with-duterte" target="_blank">Why Joma Sison backs critical left honeymoon with Duterte</a></p>

Protracted and oft-stymied peace talks between the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front (NDF) need a "brain trust" when negotiators tackle critical socio-economic reforms.

Wanted: A ‘brain trust’ as GPH, NDF resume peace talks

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Wanted: A ‘brain trust’ as GPH, NDF resume peace talks

Inday Espina-Varona,

ABS-CBN News

Published Jul 16, 2016 01:26 AM PHT

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Rodrigo Duterte

Joma Sison

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