Presidential adviser on the peace process Teresita Deles said the peace talks between the government and the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army- National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) will take place from Feb. 10 to 13 in the Norwegian capital on the third party facilitation offered by the Oslo government.
Deles said she would join members of the government peace panel in Oslo led by Secretary Silvestre Bello III.
Before the GRP panel flies to Oslo, Deles said the government panel offered a "eucharistic celebration" at the 8 a.m. Mass at EDSA Shrine on Ortigas Avenue in Pasig City "for the success of the GRP-NDF formal peace negotiations."
The talks resume almost one year after the attempt made by a three-man "exploratory team" led by Bello to convince communist leaders Luis Jalandoni and Jose Ma. Sison to end their self-exile in the Netherlands and return to the negotiating table after the United States and the European Union included them and the CPP-NPA-NDF on the foreign terrorist organization watchlist.
"I shall continue to pursue the peace talks because it is morally right and is required by our national interest," President Arroyo said. "Meanwhile, the Armed Forces and the police shall continue to enforce law and order."
The President admitted that the country’s peace and order problem still includes the security threats posed by communist rebels — especially in poverty-stricken areas of the country like Quezon province, an NPA stronghold.
She made this candid admission in her brief remarks yesterday before the newly elected officers of the Camp Nakar Press Corps at the Queen Margarette Hotel in Barangay Domoit, Lucena City.
"Peace and order is important for jobs and, here in Quezon, we still have problems on peace due to the communist insurgency," the President said.
"How do we address this problem (of) insurgency? Through the right-hand and left-hand approach. (The) right hand is the full force of the law and the left hand is the hand of reconciliation and the hand of giving support to our poorest brothers so that they won’t be encouraged to join the rebels," she said.
This is why the Arroyo administration has given much attention to the problems of many poor coconut farmers in Quezon by using the P700 million earned from the sequestered Coconut Industry Investment Fund (CIIF or the coco levy fund) to pay for these farmers’ health insurance pending the final resolution of the coco levy case in court, the President said.
She said one of the board members she appointed to the CIIF board was the widow of the Quezon police chief who was killed by NPA rebels last year.
Mrs. Attoyo also said that in the three years of her presidency, the government was able to improve the livelihood of coconut farmers in Quezon, where coconut oil prices have risen from P5 per liter in 2001 to its present price of P16.50 per liter.