Group asks gov’t to stop sabotaging peace process

MANILA, Philippines - The government was asked to stop sabotaging the peace process with communist rebels and to immediately release detained peace consultants.

The rights group Karapatan picketed yesterday the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP). 

Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary-general, said the harassment, arrest and detention of peace consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF) violate the Joint Agreement on Immunity and Security Guarantees (JASIG), an agreement signed between the government and the NDF in 1995.

NDF consultant Ramon Patriarca, who is on a protest fast until Feb. 26, is detained at the Armed Forces Central Command in Camp Lapu-Lapu, Cebu City.

In a statement, Patriarca said the government is effectively stalling the peace talks’ regular course, and the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio Economic Reforms (CASER).

“It continues to violate, with impunity, the 1998 GRP-NDF Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL),” he said.

Palabay said two years ago, the government committed to release most, if not all, peace consultants but until now 13 of them remain in detention, and that Patriarca is detained in a military camp instead of a civilian facility.

Tirso Alcantara has also been detained for almost two years in a military camp, she added.

Palabay said the “escalating violations of CARHRIHL have resulted in 137 victims of extrajudicial killings, 154 cases of frustrated extrajudicial killings and 498 individual victims of illegal arrests.”

“The continuing violations and the prevalent impunity clearly sabotage efforts for meaningful advances in the peace process,” she said.

The detained peace consultants are: Alan Jazmines, Eduardo Serrano, Edgardo Friginal, Eduardo Serrano, Leopoldo Caloza, Emeterio Antalan, Renante Gamara, Jaime Soledad, Danilo Badayos, Pedro Codaste, Alfredo Mapano, Alcantara and Patriarca.