NDF peace offer: Terms of surrender for RP!

Did you read the latest peace "offer" by the National Democratic Front (NDF) to end their 35-year Communist struggle? That is if the Philippine government under Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) would agree to their call for a joint coalition government with …. Helloooo the NDF! That offer came from that ex-priest Fr. Luis Jalandoni all the way from the Netherlands!

The NDF gave a 10-point plan, which supposedly brings workers, peasants and minority groups to be represented in the coalition government. All this including land that would be awarded to the farmers via the land reform program and oh yes, that the Philippine government will no longer pay its foreign debts, while military spending would be severely reduced.

In return, Fr. Jalandoni says that there will be a truce between the Communists and the Philippine government. He added, "We challenge and urge the government to discuss these points and agree on them with the NDFP immediately." He added, "The civil war ends and a just peace begins as soon as the Philippine government co-signs this 10-point concise but comprehensive peace agreement."

Of course, Fr. Jalandoni warns of a larger "Civil War" if the President refuses to accept his terms. If you ask me, Fr. Jalandoni is totally detached from today's reality. First of all, the Communist insurgency has never reached the level of a Strategic Stalemate that we would call it a "Civil War". I've monitored the Communist insurgency for many years and it is the first time that the communist leaders are using "Civil War" which I suspect is a sudden change of tactics. When the peace talks were unilaterally called off by the NDF, the Communists thought that Arroyo Presidency was down and finished. But as we all know, that hasn't happened. GMA is still in power.

With the Peace Talks off, that meant the canceling of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), a privilege which guarantees protection from arrest or prosecution of nearly 100 communist leaders and personnel involved in the negotiations. The cancellation of the privilege will take effect this Sept. 3rd. That means the Communists are once more on the run or in hiding, just like Fr. Jalandoni and Joma Sison.

Now where's the Civil War there? In my book, a Civil War is an open state of hostilities between the people of a nation, like what happened in the United States, in France or in Spain. I call the NDF offer nothing but a "bluff" and I find it sickening that the President's Adviser on the Peace Process, Mr. Rene Sarmiento, would welcome the communists' renewed interest to resume talks. Worse of all, he even appears to accept the idea of a coalition government as a "possibility".

If you read the unilateral peace offered by the rebels in Sri Lanka, Aceh or the IRA in Ireland, there is a unilateral offer to lay down their arms, something Fr. Jalandoni obviously failed to mention. That's because the Communists aren't sincere at all. Their demand to reduce military spending means a weakened military (Gads, our military is already weakened by lack of weapons, materiel and corruption) would be easier to overcome and soon, if we would be so stupid to fall for this trick, the Philippines would be under a Communist form of government.

Fr. Jalandoni says, "Our proposal is responsive to the demands of the broad masses of the people for basic reforms. Only the rabid puppets, oppressors, plunderers, and brutal violators of human rights are opposed to the 10-point peace agreement." Well, I'm four square against their 10-point proposal which for all intents and purposes is close to a conditional surrender of the Philippines to a loud minority group. So Fr. Jalandoni or his minions can name me all the names they can cook up, but let me say it here again, that the Communists are nowhere near any "strategic parity" that the Philippine government has no choice but accept their terms of surrender.

Last Monday, I met former city mayor Franklin Quijano of Iligan City. He told me that they are coming up with efforts for a localized peace talks with the Communists and that seems to be working because they are talking directly with the people on the ground, who are not under the control of their masters hiding in the Netherlands. I fully agree with his idea that local government should initiate their own peace talks where it can be done. This way, the solutions to this conflict can be localized, and nothing would be left for those decision-makers-in-hiding in the Netherlands.

Communist rebels have been fighting the Philippine government since the late 1960s, thus it is considered one of the longest-running leftist insurgencies in Asia. But today, they're nothing but mere bandits and murderers.

* * *

For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila's columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com