Friends of peace

Now that the I’s were dotted and the T’s crossed, the full story can be told how the peace negotiations of the government with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) will soon get back on track. The looming resumption of formal negotiations was announced in a Joint statement issued on Nov. 23 at the end of the exploratory peace talks held in Oslo, Norway.

It took quiet “shuttle diplomacy,” confidence-building measures and goodwill on both sides, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU), told us last week at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay. At the outset though, Galvez credited the private sector-led peace initiatives with the NDFP. According to Galvez, the Norwegian government got impressed by the presentation of retired Army General Emmanuel Bautista at the Peace Forum in Oslo representing the Ayala Group of Companies.

While in Oslo, Bautista got the unexpected break of meeting with Europe-based NDFP leaders who, like him, were attending a Peace Forum in Oslo last year. One of them was the late Jose “Joma” Sison, who was then the “chief political consultant” of the NDFP.

Sison, however, died on Dec. 16, 2022. Sison founded and led the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) espousing Maoism as its philosophy. The CPP, along with its armed wing  the New People’s Army (NPA), eventually merged under the umbrella of the NDFP.

Bautista “seized the opportunity” of raising to Joma the possibility of starting afresh on peace talks with the government under the new leadership of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM), Galvez narrated. The Philippine government and the NDFP abandoned the peace negotiations during the admininstration of former president Rodrigo Duterte.

Flying back to Manila, the 65-year-old Bautista immediately reached out to former acting defense secretary Jose Faustino Jr. A graduate  of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Class 1981, Faustino was designated in “acting” capacity when PBBM first took office at Malacañang in June last year.

Galvez took over from Faustino in January this year as “acting” senior defense secretary. Bautista went to see Galvez to renew the peace initiatives. Incidentally, Galvez turned 61 years old yesterday. He is a graduate of PMA Class 1988.

As retold to him by Bautista, Galvez disclosed, Joma and his fellow NDFP leaders were very receptive to restarting the peace talks. Perhaps, Galvez surmised, Joma appreciated where Bautista was coming from in the push for a peace agreement with the communist insurgents groups.

After all, Bautista is the soldier-son of a general treacherously killed while trying to reach out for peace with the Moro separatist rebels in Patikul, Sulu in October 1977. His slain father was the late Gen. Teodulo Bautista, the commanding general of Army’s 1st Infantry “Tabak” Division when he and 34 of his men were killed in an ambush by elements of the Moro National Liberation Front in what came to be known as the Patikul massacre.

Following the footsteps of his late father, the young Bautista became commanding general of the Philippine Army in November 2011 before he retired from the military service. Acknowledging the peace breakthrough, PBBM asked Bautista to lead the government panel in the exploratory talks with the NDFP in Oslo. And the rest, as we say, is history.

With explicit instructions to quietly conduct the exploratory peace talks, PBBM made sure it will bear fruit away from distractions of politics and other interlopers, if not spoilers of peace.

PBBM sent no less than Special Assistant to the President Antonio Lagdameo to join Galvez to fly to Oslo as the designated official representatives of the Philippine government. Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide stood as among the witnesses to the Joint Statement signed at Oslo Town Hall, the birthplace of the Nobel Peace Prize.

“Norway is honored and humbled to be a part of this (peace process) journey,” Eide spoke for the Norwegian government.

Speaking in behalf of the NDFP as concurrent Senior Adviser, former priest Luis Jalandoni cited with great optimism their going back soon to the negotiating table with their counterparts from the Philippine government. Also in the panel were Julieta de Lima as the interim chairperson of the NDFP negotiating panel, Coni K. Ledesma and Asterio B. Palima as members.

“After seven years, we are back in Oslo, bringing a deja vu of renewed hope while missing those who are no longer with us or who cannot be with us today,” Jalandoni noted, in obvious reference to Joma in particular.

“We must express recognition of the sincere efforts of retired GRP General Emmanuel Bautista. We worked together with his team in the course of almost two years to achieve what we have today,” Jalandoni pointed out. Jalandoni hailed the initiative of Bautista, who he described “was positively welcomed and highly appreciated” by Joma who pushed this at the NDFP.

As “facilitators” of the exploratory peace talks, Kristina Lie Revheim, Special Envoy to the GRP-NDFP Peace Process of the Royal Norwegian embassy, attested how the whole negotiation proceeded without the usual kinks that marred past attempts. “You have been through some tough discussions, yet you have always treated the other side with respect and sincerity – and more often than not, the room has been filled with laughter and kindness,” she noted.

“On behalf of the facilitation team, I promise that we will strive our utmost to provide the support you need all the way across the finishing line. We look forward to the next phase of the journey. And now before the storm of media attention hits us next week, let’s celebrate your achievement,” she concluded in her brief remarks.

True enough, a “storm of media attention” hit the new peace initiatives, with a lot of differing voices for and against it.

Thankfully, peace has a lot friends, including many from across the globe supporting the arduous trek to final peace settlement with communist insurgent groups.