Renewal of NDF talks in limbo

There was a fire on our street past the other midnight. The electric cable had burst into flames, melting the rubber insulation the entire length of the block, searing the trees, and threatening to jump into the homes.

The neighbors woke each other up in bayanihan and helped two endangered households evacuate. We called the Meralco power company hotline 16211 for assistance. Call receptionist Danna logged it as Reference No. 75889, and promised that help would come within two hours at the latest.

We called the Commonwealth Avenue (Quezon City) fire station and begged for quicker action. Told of the nature of the fire, dispatching Fire Officer Emelito Samonte said we should call Meralco instead. We explained that the blaze was moving up the street and imperiling more residences, so they had better stand by in case things get worse. Still he wondered why we “didn’t know” that electrical fires are for Meralco to handle. We asked to speak to his chief. He refused at first to identify Sgt. Hermenio Raboy, then relented and said he’ll see what he can do.

An hour later a fire truck arrived. By then the subdivision utility man had propped up bamboo poles to push the burning wire away from the trees and houses. The five-man fire crew just watched, saying they were unequipped for electrical fires, but berated the utility man for using flammable wood as a tool. We asked why it took them an hour to respond. Team leader Garcia growled that they had come from another fire, and we shouldn’t treat them like we were paying their salaries. The neighbors noted that, for men who claimed to have just fought a blaze, their clothes were dry and hair all gelled up.

The fire snuffed itself out after another hour. The fire truck left. As of this writing, 14 hours later, still no Meralco crew had arrived. And in the papers the Malacañang spokeswoman was quoted as saying casualties were inevitable in any calamity. Thanks for the reminder.

* * *

Reader Ernesto T. Iglesia backs my suggestion that Filipinos try exporting more products “exclusive” to the archipelago. He has been bottling calamansi juice and extract for eight years, selling mostly to school canteens and hotel restaurants. The products use no preservatives or artificial coloring and flavoring, he says, but last at least three months refrigerated because “cooked” at the right heat and duration. Needing partners to expand to Metro Manila and eventually abroad, Iglesia can be contacted at (0906) 2434303 or (0999) 5560511; e-mail or Facebook: [email protected].

* * *

The Philippine government and the National Democratic Front have set a goal of June 2012 to complete their peace negotiations. But till now GPH panel head Alexander Padilla is wondering if the NDF is sincere in talking amity. It’s not so much because his NDF counterparts undiplomatically have been assailing him, as if mindless of the resulting rancor at the peace table. It’s more because they appear to Padilla to be using the talks only to win concessions to further their “people’s war.”

The communist insurgency in the Philippines is, at 43 years, the world’s longest (and lone) running. The on-again-off-again peace effort, at 24 years, is also the most protracted. Padilla heads the fifth panel ever convened since 1987. Past attempts to end war had collapsed due to what the GPH views as NDF intransigence. The latter would condition the renewal of talks on the release of jailed comrades from the Communist Party of the Philippines. At the same time it would exploit the relaxed military operations to mount raids by the New People’s Army.

The present lull in the talks is no different, it seems. In recent weeks the NPA has attacked police stations, abducted jail officers, and ambushed Army patrols in all six provinces in the Bicol region: Masbate, Camarines Norte and Sur, Albay, Catanduanes, and Sorsogon. Last week closer to Manila, suspected rebels burned a dozen Victory Liner buses in Tarlac, reportedly for not paying “revolutionary taxes.”

Facilitated by Norway, the GPH and NDF had agreed in Oslo last February on timetables to tackle three tough items. These are: socioeconomic reforms, constitutional-political reforms, and cessation of hostilities. A dozen past agreements also were reaffirmed. That’s as far as they got. Sessions set for last June and August were scuttled when the NDF decried the arrest of certain CPP-NPA cadres wanted for homicide. Supposedly they were NDF peace consultants and hence exempted from police-military actions. President Noynoy Aquino freed some to show goodwill, striving to finish the talks that his mother Cory had begun. But the NDF wants all “political prisoners” out, or else no deal. The October session may not go on as well, Padilla frets.

Padilla notes two big differences in the government’s parallel negotiations with the NDF and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The GPH-MILF talks are proceeding under a formal ceasefire. Too, certain compelling forces, like the Organization of the Islamic Conference, want peace in Mindanao once and for all. The NDF is under no pressure, except perhaps from the advancing age of its leaders, to sign a peace pact. It refuses to forge a truce that could tempt commanders to leave their jungle lairs and surrender.

All is not lost. Aides advise Padilla to live with the good cop-bad cop roles of NDF panel chief Luis Jalandoni as soft speaker and vice Fidel Agcaoili as tart critic. Padilla himself is amazed that “ideologue” Jose Maria Sison, CPP founder and NDF consultant, is the “most reasonable.” Sison’s ideas had untangled deadlocks and short cut procedures since the Aquino admin resumed contact last December. Of note, Padilla says, is Sison’s proposal for NPA fighters to be hired by the state as forest guards in case of a peace settlement.

* * *

Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ, (882-AM).

E-mail: [email protected]