Revival of CPP peace talks proposed

Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. proposed yesterday the revival of the stalled peace talks with the National Democratic Front-Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (NDF-CPP-NPA) "to put an end to Asia’s longest-running Maoist rebellion."

He made the proposal in a letter to Ferdinando Casini, president of the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) and former Speaker of the Italian Parliament, whose help he sought in reviving the peace negotiations with communist rebels.

He sent the letter through IPU secretary general Anders Johnsson, who is currently in Manila as part of a three-member IPU mission that is inquiring into hundreds of unexplained killings and human rights violations here.

"We hope that the visit of the IPU committee on human rights can help catalyze the resumption of negotiations in order to put an end to Asia’s longest-running insurgency," De Venecia told the IPU team.

The mission is led by Canadian Senator Sharon Carstairs, vice chairman of the IPU committee on the human rights of parliamentarians, with Johnsson and committee secretary Ingeborg Schwarz as members.

"With the IPU taking part and exerting its immense moral and political influence, I believe fervently that the chances of talks resuming and succeeding would be greatly enhanced," he said.

Leaders of the CPP-NDF have remained in self-exile in Utrecht, the Netherlands following inconclusive peace negotiations in 2001 that were mediated by the Norwegian government.

Communist leaders refused to return to the negotiations table when the United States classified CPP-NDF as a terrorist organization. The talks were started in 1993.

De Venecia proposed that the resumption of talks should start with a nationwide ceasefire, which would then be followed by 90 days of non-stop negotiations.

The ceasefire should stop the killings and enable the two sides to focus on substantive issues "without being embittered by the high emotions that fratricidal conflicts always arouse," he said.

The IPU, which groups more than 100 parliaments and legislatures around the world, sent a mission here to investigate unexplained killings upon the request of militant party-list organizations led by Bayan Muna.

The Carstairs team will submit its report to the IPU assembly in Bali, Indonesia two weeks from now. – Jess Diaz