For peace talks to continue moving forward, GRP President Duterte must reject the insistence of the militarists to prematurely push a bilateral ceasefire agreement even before agreements on substantive issues are forged. Discussions on the more crucial socio-economic issues, which the GRP panel also consider as the meat of the negotiations, should not be preempted.
The fourth round of formal peace talks between the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) formally opened this morning at Noordwijk, The Netherlands, with both Parties expressing determination to resolve current problems and move the talks forward.
The NDFP Reciprocal Working Committee on Social and Economic Reforms has expressed utmost concern and alarm with the series of extra-judicial killings of farmers and peasant activists actively engaged in agrarian struggles.
In the agreed schedule released by the panels late this afternoon, the talks stretching from 3 to 6 April will include four bilateral meetings of the Reciprocal Working Committees of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (RWC-CASER) and three bilateral meetings of the Ceasefire Committees.
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) did not proceed to issue a declaration of interim ceasefire yesterday, after the GRP announced that it will not issue a similar ceasefire declaration. The issuance of ceasefire declarations was supposed to be done reciprocally as agreed upon by the NDFP and GRP in the their March 11 statement Joint Statement.
Because the GRP negotiating panel is coming to the Netherlands for the fourth round of formal talks, the NDFP negotiating panel is willing to be flexible and is open to discussing with its counterpart what kind of bilateral ceasefire agreement is desired by the GRP in place of the unilateral ceasefire.
We, representatives from the GRP Negotiating Panel and the NDFP Negotiating Panel held informal talks on 10-11 March 2017, in Utrecht, The Netherlands, with the Royal Norwegian Government acting as host and Third Party Facilitator, and agreed as follows:
The Negotiating Panels of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), together with their respective delegations of negotiating bodies, consultants, advisors, resource persons, cooperators and staff successfully held the third round of formal talks in Rome City from January 19 to 25, 2017. The third round was facilitated by the Royal Norwegian Government (RNG) in cooperation with the Italian Government.
Bilateral talks between the reciprocal working committees on socio-economic reforms (RWC-SER) of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) ended today, with agreements already reached on the Preamble and Declaration of Principles, and common ground found in the Bases, Scope and Applicability (Part II) and Desired Outcomes (Part III).
The peace forum, which featured speakers from the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) tackled salient points in the draft Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms (CASER) currently being negotiated by both parties in the third round of the peace negotiations now being held in Rome.