Palace sets conditions for resumption of peace talks with communists

MANILA, Philippines — There is no agreement yet for the resumption of peace negotiations with the Philippine government and the communist rebels, Malacañang said Thursday.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque reiterated the government position that peace talks can resume if the rebels agree to conditions laid out by the administration.

These conditions include declaring an absolute ceasefire, putting an end to a supposed clamor for a coalition government and stopping the collection of so-called revolutionary taxes.

“We are awaiting their response to the government position that we’re willing to resume peace talks subject to those conditions,” Roque said in a press briefing.

In a statement late Wednesday night, Jose Maria Sison — founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines and chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines — acknowledged that "the resumption of peace talks between the GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) and NDFP negotiating panels is needed precisely to deal with substantive issues and complaints."

He said the formal talks will give the panels an avenue to "present conflicting positions and subsequently seek to solve the problems on mutually acceptable grounds."

He said panels had, before talks were scrapped last November, reached "a substantial consensus between the panels on the general principles, on agrarian reform and rural development and national industrialization and economic development." 

Sison also claimed that a draft of an amnesty proclamation for political prisoners was already ready as well as a draft of an agreement on "coordinated unilateral ceasefires" that would be monitored by a joint committee.

A similar committee monitors the ceasefire agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which signed a final peace deal in 2014.

"This draft agreement is in effect the start of a bilateral ceasefire agreement," Sison said.

Braganza tasked to meet with NDFP panel

Former Agrarian Reform secretary Hernani Braganza was tasked by the government to meet with the bargaining panel of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army to relay the government’s position. 

Braganza was also involved in backchannel talks while Benigno Aquino III was president. Peace talks were formally resumed in 2016 under President Rodrigo Duterte.

Roque added that if the resumption of peace talks pushes through, Duterte is willing to allow Sison, who has been living in the Netherlands since the administration of Corazon Aquino, to come home and participate at the negotiating table without being arrested.

Peace talks are generally held in a different country and are facilitated by a third party. The Kingdom of Norway has been supporting the peace talks and has reiterated its support for them.

Sison has said the rebels are "open and ready to resume the peace negotiations."

Roque said, however, that while there is no agreement between the two parties on the resumption of talks, military operations against the NPA will continue.

READ: ‘Sincere’ NDFP ready to resume peace talks, Joma says

Possible withdrawal of terrorist tag

In the same press briefing, Roque also said that withdrawing a petition asking the court to declare more than 600 individuals as terrorists is a possibility, should the peace negotiations continue.

But that, he said, will depend on whether a final peace agreement will be signed.

The panels had been negotiating on agreements like the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms, which are expected to address social and economic conditions that have led to the communists taking up arms. CASER and the Comprehensive Agreement on Political and Constitutional Reforms are only meant to lead to a final peace 

“I think it will be withdrawn if there is a final peace agreement signed but while the peace talk is ongoing, it is still in play,” Roque.

He added that the government can file a manifestation to hold the justice department petition on hold “pending the outcome of the peace talks.

Last Tuesday, Duterte expressed his willingness to talk peace with rebels anew as long as the rebels comply with his “fundamentals” for the resumption of peace talks, which he scrapped last year.