CPP rejects government's proposed 'localized peace talks'
MANILA, Philippines — The Communist Party of the Philippines on Friday turned down the government’s proposal for “localized peace talks” with armed rebels, saying President Rodrigo Duterte is only pretending to pursue peace while he wages war against his people.
CCP’s statement came after Malacañang announced that Duterte would soon issue an executive order providing guidelines for the peace talks, which was agreed by the Cabinet’s security cluster in a meeting on Wednesday.
“[The] so-called localized peace talks are a sham, a waste of people’s money, and are doomed to fail. It is a worn-out psywar tactic to project victory to conceal the continuing failure of the AFP to suppress the people’s resistance and stem the steady growth of the NPA,” the CPP said in a statement.
The CCP said only some local government officials and military officers would benefit from the localized peace talks which they branded as a “money-making racket.”
The CPP also decried the military’s efforts to “conjure the illusion” of “mass surrenderees” where local residents were rounded up in villages occupied by the Armed Forces of the Philippines
These people were then branded in public as surrenderees, the CPP said.
“They have overdone their surrender campaign as they have declared close to 8,000 surrendered since January, after having claimed earlier this year that there are only 3,000 NPA members,” the CPP said.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque in a press briefing on Thursday bared the guidelines approved by Duterte, his security and some other government officials including Senate President Vicente Sotto III and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.
Roque said the localized peace talks would be between a local peace channel and the leadership of local fighters’, which would include a community dialogue.
Under the government’s approved guidelines, Roque said the peace talks would be nationally orchestrated, centrally directed and locally supervised and implemented.
The country’s constitutional integrity and sovereignty would not be compromised as well and the local armed conflict that covers the NPA, its organs of political power and the Militia ng Bayan would be resolved genuinely, he said.
Should there be a ceasefire between government troops and communist rebels, the constitutional mandate of the State to protect public safety, the welfare of its citizens, critical infrastructure, private properties and the guarantee of the rule of law will not be compromised, the presidential spokesman said.
Roque added that the government would also provide full amnesty package to rebels based on disarmament and demobilization and would offer their rehabilitation and reintegration to the society.
Further, he said that the peace talks would be held in “necessary enabling environment” set by the president which include a local venue, no coalition government or power sharing, no revolutionary taxes, extortion, arson or violent activities, and for the fighters to remain in their pre-designated camp areas.
The substantive agenda for the localized peace talks would also be based on the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan and the Philippine Development Program 2040, he said.
The Philippine government terminated the official negotiations with the CPP in November of last year as it accused the CPP, the National Democratic Front and the New People's Army of engaging in acts of violence and hostilities.
Last week, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the government was opting for localized peace processes after the remarks of NDF consultant Jose Maria Sison that the peace talks would now be pointless.
Sison had urged the NDFP, the political wing of the CPP, to participate instead in efforts to oust Duterte. He, however, clarified that the CPP and the NPA, which the NDFP represents in talks, have yet to decide on the termination of talks.
"Mr. Sison, in response to your threats we will vigorously pursue our ongoing localized peace process instead. I am sure that once you are out of the picture, true peace will have a chance to become a reality and you will be consigned to the dustbin of history," Lorenzano said. Philstar.com intern Christian de Lano Deiparine
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