Closing speech for the fourth round of peace negotiations

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Noordwijk an Zee, The Netherlands, 6 April 2017
By Fidel V. Agcaoili
Chairperson, Negotiating Panel of the NDF

Her Excellency Ambassador Elisabeth Slattum, Special Envoy to the Philippine Peace Process, and her team of facilitators from the Royal Norwegian Government,
Compatriots in the Negotiating Panels and Delegations of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP),
Esteemed guests and friends,

We are concluding a successful fourth round of formal talks. I will not mince words when I say it has been a difficult four days of peace negotiations. We came to this fourth round of formal talks determined as ever to push the forging of substantive agreements on basic reforms, specifically the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms so that both we in the NDFP and the GRP can firmly address – and redress – the chain of issues that lie at the roots of the armed conflict.

But to break the two-month impasse in the peace negotiations that resulted from the lifting of both sides’ unilateral ceasefires, we have decided to exercise maximum flexibility while staying firm on principles and work with the GRP Negotiating Panel to sign an Agreement on Interim Joint Ceasefire. Yesterday, on April 5, 2017, the two parties signed the agreement outlining the objectives, guidelines and ground rules for crafting the interim joint ceasefire agreement.

The document we signed yesterday is not yet a ceasefire agreement but it is a significant step toward making an interim joint ceasefire agreement. Our respective ceasefire committees are expected to immediately flesh out the terms and mechanisms for the interim joint ceasefire agreement. Their work will not be a walk in the park in view of the many concerns relating to escalating militarization and human rights violations in communities.

But what is important is that we continue to talk even while fighting, in view of the absence of any ceasefire declaration. What is important is that we do not lose sight of the substance of peace, which is not equivalent to the silencing of the guns.

It is good that in this round of the negotiations, the Reciprocal Working Committees of Social and Economic Reforms have firmed up free land distribution as the basic principle of genuine agrarian reform. Both parties have agreed to accelerate the forging of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms and formed bilateral teams to work on the draft in a neutral venue in Manila.

The NDF looks forward to further steps by our counterpart to overcome serious obstacles that hamper the progress of the negotiations, which relate to the enforcement of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law or CARHRIHL and the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees or JASIG as well as the standing commitments contained in the previous Oslo and Rome joint statements of the negotiating panels.

Before I end, on behalf of the NDF Panel, I thank again the Royal Norwegian Government for its untiring support for the peace process in the Philippines. The road to peace is not a straight line, and we commend Ambassador Elisabeth Slattum and her team of facilitators for working hard to connect all the dots together to move the peace process forward.

Maraming salamat po. Thank you.

Opening speech for the fourth round of talks in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations

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Noordwijk an Zee, The Netherlands 3 April 2017
By Fidel V. Agcaoili
Chairperson Negotiating Panel of the NDF

Your Excellencies from the Royal Norwegian Government, specifically Special Envoy Ambassador Elisabeth Slattum and her team of facilitators,
Compatriots in The Netherlands and the Negotiating Panels and Delegations of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP),
Esteemed guests,

I think it is significant to note that the fourth round of formal talks in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations opens on the heels of the 48th founding anniversary of the New People’s Army (NPA). On March 29, just four days ago, the NPA, the armed force of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which is an allied organization of the NDFP, marked its 48th year of revolutionary armed struggle.

Today, we have new generations of Filipinos, spread across the country, taking up arms to address the same basic problems that have hounded our history as a people – poverty, inequity, injustice, oppression. The resilience of the NPA is as much a testament to the inexhaustible participation and support of the people as it is an indictment of the failure of the system and its successive governments to address the socio-economic roots of the armed conflict.

This is why the NDFP Negotiating Panel comes to this fourth round of formal talks determined as ever to push and accelerate the negotiations in the hopes of forging a comprehensive agreement on social and economic reforms by the end of 2017.

The NDFP’s chief political consultant, Prof. Jose Ma. Sison, has already raised key points of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms or the CASER in rela- tion to a roadmap for the peace process.

I share Professor Sison’s positive views and reiterate the wisdom of securing the approval of the CASER ahead of any bilateral ceasefire agreement, unless both agreements can be signed simultaneously. It is important to stress this as the issue of ceasefire should not be pursued as an end in itself.

Ceasefires, whether unilateral or bilateral, are just a means to an end. Its main purpose is to create conditions conducive to reaching agreements on basic re- forms that are satisfactory to both sides.

However, let me note that the NDFP rues the GRP’s sudden announcement not to restore its unilateral ceasefire, which is an unexpected departure from the March 11 backchannel agreement. Yet the NDF Negotiating Panel, in the spirit of flexibility and openness, desirous of fostering a positive climate for continuing the peace talks and building on the gains achieved in the last three rounds, is willing to discuss with its counterpart what kind of bilateral ceasefire agreement is desired by the GRP in place of the unilateral ceasefire.

The NDFP believes it is possible to have a bilateral ceasefire agreement that conforms to the position that simultaneous and reciprocal declarations of unilateral ceasefire can be agreed upon and bound by a Memorandum of Understanding that shall be issued at the end of the fourth round of formal talks.

We trust and hope that our counterparts in the GRP side will be as open and resolute in ad- dressing the long drawn-out issues concerning the implementation of an already existing agreement – the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law or CARHRIHL.

These outstanding issues concern the promised release of 19 ailing and elderly political prisoners; the continued detention of six NDFP consultants—four arrested under the Arroyo regime and two under the Duterte government; the unresolved cases of enforced disappearance and murder of JASIG-protected NDFP personnel during the Arroyo regime; escalating military operations that terrorize communities under the guise of peace and development projects of Oplan Bayanihan; human rights violations and lack of due process in the anti-drugs campaign; and the political rehabilitation of the Marcos family, among others.

In relation to escalating militarization in the countryside, 46 farmers have already been killed under the Duterte administration, according to the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilip- inas. Fifty percent of these killings were perpetrated following the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ implementation of an “all-out war” policy on February 2, or a rate of one farmer killed every two days.

On the other hand, the NDFP welcomes the progress made in the issue of compensation for victims of martial law and hopes that the process of indemnifying the victims can be further accelerated to ensure that justice is rendered to the victims.

Before I end, on behalf of the NDFP Panel, I sincerely thank the Royal Norwegian Govern- ment for its continuing and crucial support to the peace negotiations, especially as these took a difficult turn in the last two months. It was a wrenching experience for the NDFP consultants in the Philippines as they faced intensified harassment and imminent arrest, with one consultant actually being jailed. We commend the RNG for walking the extra mile to push the backchannel talks and put the peace process back on track.

Today, we welcome back arrested NDFP consultant Ariel Arbitrario into our fold, and we hope that no more such arbitrary incidents will recur to obstruct the advance of the peace process under the Duterte administration.

We look forward to fruitful discussions in the next four days in the common effort to find solutions to seal an enduring and just peace for our country through mutually acceptable comprehensive agreements on necessary reforms.

Thank you, and a good morning to all.

PEACE NEGOTIATION: Promotion of Lasting Peace and Justice

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Photo by Leah Perez (fb)

UNITY, Mindanao Peoples Peace Agenda

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Peace negotiators Bebot Bello from the GPH panel and Fidel Agcaoili of NDFP are both present in the ongoing Peace Forum dubbed as UNITY,Mindanao Peoples Peace Agenda at Almendras Gym, Davao City.
By KILAB Multimedia

Left “guardedly optimistic” on Duterte

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The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) is “guardedly optimistic” with its discussions with president-elect Rodrigo Duterte.

Back in Manila from his meeting with Duterte in Davao City early Tuesday morning, NDFP spokesperson Fidel Agcaoili said today they are negotiating with Duterte with open eyes.

“(We are still in the) getting-to-know phase.  But this is something new,” Agcaoili said.

In comparison, Agcaoili said the Benigno Aquino government’s negotiating panel is difficult to negotiate with.

“Right at the very start of the negotiations (with the Aquino government), we knew we were two (opposing) sides. The GPH (Government of the Philippines) panel even said The Hague Joint Declaration (THJD) was a document of perpetual division,” Agcaoili said.

The 1992 joint agreement by the GPH and the NDFP laid the sequence of the negotiations with human rights, socio-economic reforms, political and constitutional reforms and, finally, disposition of forces discussed in that order.

The first substantive agreement, the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), was signed in 1998.  The peace talks panel failed to sign any more agreement since.

Agcaoili said that their discussions with Duterte is “…a welcome situation.”

They are waiting for the mayor’s emissaries to arrive in Utrecht, The Netherlands where the NDFP International office is located, Agcaoili said.

“We need to prepare the groundwork for the resumption of the formal peace talks as we wait for the release of political prisoners,” Agcaoili said.

The NDFP intends to include long-time consultant Allan Jazmines in its negotiating panel if released by the Duterte government.

Agcaoili revealed that Duterte told him he plans on issuing a general amnesty order for all political prisoners, numbering more than 500.

Silvestre Bello III, named by Duterte as the government lead negotiator with the NDFP, still has to confirm to Kodao if former GPH panel members Hernani Braganza and Efren Moncupa have accepted their nominations.

Earlier, Bello told Kodao that he also intends to invite Rene Sarmiento and Sedfrey Candelaria to his team.

“We are hopeful that changes would happen under the Duterte government.  Even if just the peace talks would return on track, it would already be substantial,” Agcaoili said.

He revealed that he is set to return to Davao before Duterte’s proclamation as winner of the 2016 elections for the presidency on June 20 to continue his talks with Duterte.  (Report and photo by Raymund B. Villanueva)

Reply to Questions from a Representative of a Liberation Movement in Latin America

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1. Context of peace negotiations between National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Philippines (GPH)

There is an ongoing civil war in the Philippines between the the NDFP and the GPH. The NDFP represents the forces of workers, peasants, the poor, and the patriotic and progressive elements fighting for national and social liberation. The GPH represents the forces of the local ruling classes of big landlords and compradors supported by foreign monopoly capitalists. The civil war has been going on for the last 46 years, and is a continuation of the first democratic revolution against Spain in 1896 and the Philippine-American war in 1898.

In effect, two states exist in the Philippines: the revolutionary one, representing the people’s democratic government that has effective control over an extensive portion of the population and territory with democratic organs of political power in 71 out of 81 provinces in the country; the other, the counterrevolutionary Manila government, representing the foreign and domestic oppressors and exploiters.

To attain a just and lasting peace in the country, it is necessary to transform the semi-feudal and semi-colonial Philippine social system into a sovereign, democratic and just society through the implementation of, among others, genuine land reform; a program of national industrialization that is free from the dictates of neo-liberal globalization; an enlightened social policy that provides just wages, better living conditions, free education, health care and housing to the people; and an independent foreign policy that relates on sovereign equal terms and mutual respect with all states and nations and is in solidarity with the oppressed and exploited. Without these changes, the Philippines will remain poor, backward, agrarian, dependent and undeveloped – where abject poverty, unemployment and gross inequality rule, where there is widespread hunger, disease and malnutrition, and where illiteracy and homelessness prevail. These very conditions are the roots of the armed conflict.

2. Description of the peace negotiations: participants, length, reaction of society, agreement achieved and signed and if there is a ceasefire during the talks

The peace negotiations between the NDFP and the GPH is governed by the framework agreement called the The Hague Joint Declaration which was signed on 1 September 1992 in The Hague, The Netherlands. The Hague Joint Declaration provides for the following: that the peace negotiations shall be held to resolve the armed conflict; that the objective of the negotiations shall be the attainment of a just and lasting peace; that the peace negotiations must be in accordance with mutually acceptable principles of national sovereignty, democracy and social justice and that no precondition shall be made to negate the inherent character and purpose of peace negotiations; that the agenda of the peace negotiations shall be human rights and international humanitarian law, socio-economic reforms, political and constitutional reforms, and end of hostilities and disposition of forces; and that the peace negotiations shall be carried out through the reciprocal working committees to be created by the Parties that would meet, negotiate and work in sequence on the drafts of the four items of the agenda under the guidance of their respective Negotiating Panels. The two Parties have already signed and approved the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) in 1998, the first item in the agenda.

After The Hague Joint Declaration in 1992, other important agreements have been signed, such as the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG, February 1995) and its amendment agreements, which provide for the safety and immunity guarantees of the negotiators, consultants, staffers, security and other personnel in the peace negotiations; Agreement on the Ground Rules of the Formal Meetings of the Negotiating Panels (February 1995); and the Joint Agreement on the Formation, Sequence and Operationalization of the Reciprocal Working Committees (RWCs) of the Negotiating Panels (June 1995) and its amendment agreement.

The formal participants in the peace negotiations include the negotiating panels of both sides, their respective consultants and staff, as well as their respective reciprocal working committees and their consultants and staff. The negotiations have been held in mutually acceptable foreign neutral venues abroad (Belgium, The Netherlands and Norway) and have been going on since 1 September 1992 with long periods of impasse, suspension and one formal termination (in 1999), all done by the GPH.

There is no ceasefire between the parties while the peace negotiations are ongoing. The ceasefire will be discussed and settled in the last item of the agenda on the end of hostilities and disposition of forces. But there have been short-duration unilaterally-declared or coordinated ceasefires by the Parties during the Christmas season, Holy Week, periods of disasters (typhoons, earthquakes, etc.) and releases of prisoners of war.

The peace negotiations have been welcomed by the people at large and are supported by people’s organizations of workers, peasants, women, youth and students, urban poor indigenous peoples, civil-society groups, human rights institutions, religious and lawyers’ groups, academe, and patriotic and progressive groups and personalities.

3. What is the agenda of the peace negotiations? How was the agenda established? What were the difficulties? What effects did it have internally in the group, on the society, the political elite in the country?

As mentioned in paragraph 1 of number 2 above, the agenda of the peace negotiations have been established in the framework agreement called The Hague Joint Declaration. These are: human rights and international humanitarian law; socio-economic reforms; political and constitutional reforms; and end of hostilities and disposition of forces. These four items in the agenda are to be discussed, agreed upon, signed and approved in sequential order.

As previously mentioned, the first item has already been signed and approved in 1998. The CARHRIHL is guided by, among others, the UN Declaration on Human Rights, the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This Agreement is important in ensuring that while the armed conflict is going on, the two parties are bound to respect human rights and international humanitarian law in the conduct of war.

The agenda on socio-economic reforms is the meat of the peace negotiations because it addresses the roots of the armed conflict. To be taken up in this agenda are the longstanding issues of landlessness of the majority of the people (land reform and rural development), poverty and unemployment (national industrialization), national sovereignty and independence (against the policy of neo-liberal globalization, foreign interference and domination, etc.), enlightened social policy (free health, education, housing, etc.), and an independent foreign policy, among others.

The third item on political and constitutional reforms shall be the consequence of the agreement on socio-economic reforms. It shall define the political and constitutional structure and arrangement in accordance with the agreements reached on socio-economic reforms, for instance, the adequate and full representation of the workers and peasants who compose the majority of the Filipino people in decision and policy-making and governance.

The fourth item on the end of hostilities and disposition of forces shall define the agreement on the process of ending of the armed conflict and delineate the disposition of the armed forces of both parties.

Since 1998, the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations have been bogged down on the second item of the agenda. The ruling classes (economic and political elite) have shown great resistance in continuing and finishing the negotiations to address the roots of armed conflict, despite the general consensus and clamor by the people for basic reforms in the social system to end massive poverty, inequality and corruption in government.

The two Parties have already submitted their respective drafts on a comprehensive agreement on social and economic reforms and have formed their respective Reciprocal Working Committees (RWCs) to negotiate and work on the tentative draft of the agreement. The RWCs have already succeeded in forging a common draft on the Declaration of Principles. The GPH has adamantly refused to talk about land reform and national industrialization. It considers these matters as “loaded” categories, even though these are undoubtedly bourgeois democratic – and not socialist – demands that were carried out in countries that managed to industrialize in the post World war II period such as South Korea and Taiwan, as well as in England and other countries of Europe before the so-called Industrial Revolution and the US in the aftermath of the American civil war.

4. How has been the participation? Direct or Indirect? How was the participation of the different groups of the society? What about the participation of the popular classes?

These questions have partly been answered in the last paragraph of number 2 above. At any rate, there have been direct and indirect participation by the people in the peace negotiations. For instance, the CAHRIRHL has been disseminated, discussed and studied by the revolutionary movement both in the cities and countryside through the movement’s organs of political power, mass organizations, committees, and the guerrilla fronts and units of the people’s army. Even the mercenary reactionary army has purportedly used the CARHRIHL to educate its troops and security forces on human rights and international humanitarian law.

In urban centers, people’s organizations and civil society groups engaged in human rights and peace advocacy have regularly been holding seminars, forums, mass actions (pickets, rallies, demonstrations) in support of the peace negotiations and the need to address the roots of the armed conflict while pushing for the thorough implementation of the CARHRIHL.

There are still many things to be done to rally full support from the people for the struggle to attain a just and lasting peace in the Philippines. The NDFP is committed to pursue the peace negotiations in order to fulfil the national and democratic aspirations of the Filipino people.

Thank you.

Commentary on Padilla Statement

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By FIDEL V. AGCAOILI

Spokesperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel

05 September 2014

 

On the occasion of the observance of the so-called 11th National Peace Consciousness Month by the Government of the Philippines (GRP/GPH), Alex Padilla, Chairperson of the GRP/GPH Negotiating Panel, issued a statement posted at the website of the Office of the Presidential Assistant on Peace Process (OPAPP) and reportedly released on 01 September 2014.

 

On behalf of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), I submit hereunder a paragraph-by-paragraph commentary on his statement.

 

But first, let me state that the statement is a clear documentary evidence that the GRP/GPH is not interested in pursuing peace negotiations with the NDFP but is hell-bent on seeking the capitulation and pacification of the revolutionary movement.

 

His message is a sleek, hypocritical and mendacious statement that totally negates The Hague Joint Declaration and other agreements solemnly made between the GRP/GPH and the NDFP before OPAPP Secretary Teresita Deles was able to do her work to sabotage the GRP/GPH-NDFP peace negotiations during the Arroyo and Aquino regimes.

 

Paragraph-by-Paragraph Commentary

 

Message of Alexander Padilla, government peace panel chair for talks with the CPP/NPA/NDF:
On the observance of the 11th National Peace Consciousness Month

[Released on September 1, 2014]

Posted on opapp.gov.ph

 

Peace is a collective aspiration.  It is not the task of government alone.  It is in solidarity that we aspire for peace; it is also in solidarity that we should work for peace.

 

Comment:  Lip service.  Solidarity with whom and for whom?  The NDFP cannot have solidarity with the exploiting classes and their political agents who use state terrorism to preserve and aggravate foreign domination, landlordism and bureaucratic corruption and who make a pretense at peace negotiations to demand the surrender of the revolutionary forces and the people at the outset and to ignore the demand of the people for basic economic, social and political reforms as the foundation of a just and lasting peace.

 

We celebrate this year’s National Peace Consciousness Month aware of the gains of our Government’s peace processes with the different armed groups in the country, but deeply cognizant of the need to move forward in our negotiations with the Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army/National Democratic Front (CPP/NPA/NDF).

 

Comment:  What gains?  OPAPP has turned into a pork barrel racket the recycling of the AFP paramilitary groups like CPLA and RPA-ABB which surrendered to the first Aquino regime in 1986 and the Estrada regime in 1999, respectively.  OPAPP has waste-basketed the 1996 peace agreement with MNLF and is on the way to doing the same thing with agreements signed with MILF.  Deles and Padilla have proclaimed The Hague Joint Declaration as a “document of perpetual division” and declared the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) as “inoperative”, practically terminating the peace negotiations.  It has wantonly violated the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).

 

This year’s theme “Nagkakaisang Bayan para sa Kapayapaan,” encourages every Filipino—rebel, soldier, student, housewife, professional—to transcend ideological boundaries and respond positively to our people’s yearning for peace.

 

Comment:  Once more lip service to peace by a brutal and corrupt regime wishing the pacification of the resisting oppressed and exploited people.

 

Time and again, we have asked the CPP/NPA/NDF to join us in searching for fair and peaceful solutions to the issues that divide us.  We have asked them to engage in talks that have a clear agenda and time-table, to talk not just for the sake of talking, but to reach specific agreements that will lessen if not eradicate the violence on the ground.

 

Comment:  It is a big lie for the US-Aquino regime, the OPAPP or anyone to express or imply that there is no clear agenda and no calculable time for making comprehensive agreements.  These are in The Hague Joint Declaration, The Joint Agreement on the Formation, Sequence and Operationalization of the Reciprocal Working Committees and additional pertinent documents.

 

In fact, the first item of the 4-point substantive agenda was finished in a matter of a few months in 1998 and approved by the principals.  Only three items are left.  But since then every reactionary regime has systematically blocked the negotiation for a comprehensive agreement on social and economic reforms.

 

What the reactionaries are merely interested in is going through the motion of initial negotiations, spreading the rumors of peace, demanding the capitulation and pacification of the people and revolutionary forces and day dreaming about confusing and destroying the revolutionary strength of the people.

 

They always prematurely ask for indefinite ceasefire to avoid the prior negotiations for social and economic reforms and the needed political and constitutional reforms to implement the social and economic reforms.

 

History has shown that it is through earnest dialogue, not armed violence, that we can create peace.

 

Comment:  A just and lasting peace is impossible in the Philippines if US imperialist domination, landlordism and bureaucratic corruption persist in the Philippines.  The Filipino people will never cease to use all possible and necessary means to end their oppression, exploitation, poverty and misery, especially now that they have the Communist Party of the Philippines, New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines as their instruments for national and social liberation.

 

Government’s doors have always been open to peaceful dialogue; we have not lost hope that we and the communist rebels will return to the table.

 

Comment:  The NDFP has always affirmed that the peace negotiations are going on in principle so long as no side in the negotiations gives a formal notice of termination to the other side in accordance with the JASIG.  It is the GPH/GRP side that has refused to sit at the table on the basis of The Hague Joint Declaration and other existing agreements, despite the clamor of the people and the peace advocates.

 

On this Peace Consciousness Month, let us take the time to reflect on our individual roles in creating peace in our families and communities, and pushing for and sustaining the gains we have already made in creating peace in our country.

 

Comment:  In response to the clamor of the people for justice and peace, the GPH/GRP should return to the negotiating table, end immediately its gross and systematic violation of human rights, and OPAPP should stop being a mere psywar adjunct of the military and a very corrupt part of the pork barrel system, pretending to distribute scores of billions of pesos under such tricky names as Conditional Cash Transfer, PAMANA and the like.  In fact, the main beneficiaries of such largesse are the corrupt bureaucrats, military officers and their local agents, including the purported social democrats and Akbayans in the OPAPP and the phony Anti-Poverty Commission.

 

There is nothing stronger than a nation uniting under a singular aspiration.

 

Comment:  The Filipino nation must unite to realize their common aspiration for national and social liberation and to move against every reactionary regime that serves foreign domination, landlordism and bureaucratic corruption.###

NDFP Negotiator Denounces Surveillance and Harassment

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by Fidel V. Agcaoili
Spokesperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel
05 August  2013

NDFP Panel Member Fidel V. Agcaoili denounces the brazen surveillance and harassment conducted against him by two motorcycle-riding men last Monday along EDSA while en route to Quezon City.

At about 1:30 p.m. on 29 July 2013, a man riding a blue motorcycle had been observed evidently following him and his companions while riding a van officially designated for the NDFP Nominated Section in the Joint Secretariat of the Joint Monitoring Committee.  Along the way, the man was joined by another rider on board a red motorcycle.  Both continued to follow Agcaoili’s vehicle even after they had taken evasive moves in an attempt to convey to the motorcycle-riding men that they had been noticed.

To evade any potential untoward incident that would prejudice his safety and security and that of his companions, they decided to enter a private subdivision along EDSA in Makati.  At the gate of the subdivision, they informed the guard about the two motorcycle-riding men tailing them.  The guard blew a whistle to alert his companions who were about to accost the two when the latter turned around and counter-flowed against the traffic.  They were stopped by two guards at the end of the queue of cars.  But the two slipped away before they could be questioned and identified.

In a letter to the GPH Negotiating Panel, Agcaoili protested the surveillance and harassment conducted against him by the two motorcycle-riding men as a blatant violation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).  Only GPH personnel would have the temerity to do what they did.

As a member of longstanding of the NDFP Negotiating Panel, Agcaoili is protected by the JASIG from surveillance and harassment, among others, and is allowed free movement to conduct consultations and even meet with GPH officials.

Agcaoili is in town to conduct consultations, meet with friendly forces open to the resumption of the peace negotiations, and get the real sense of the GPH Principal regarding the same.  His being subjected to surveillance is a deliberate violation of the JASIG and clearly manifests the GPH’s contempt and lack of respect for all previously signed agreements with the NDFP, particularly the JASIG.

Once again, the NDFP firmly demands GPH’s faithful compliance with the JASIG and to desist from any and all actions that would contravene its objectives aimed to “facilitate the peace negotiations, create a favourable atmosphere conducive to free discussion and free movement during the peace negotiations, and avert any incident that may jeopardize the peace negotiations.”

This latest incident may be tantamount to eventually sabotaging the peace negotiations indefinitely. The NDFP finally raises its serious concern that this incident, on top of the continuing multifarious violations of the JASIG by the GPH, would further aggravate the current impasse in the peace negotiations which was practically killed by the intransigence, bellicosity and capitulationist intentions of the GPH.#

NDFP-Monitoring Committee
Reference:
Ms. Issa Dumanjug-Palo
Head of Secretariat
NDFP-Nominated Section
Joint Secretariat
Tel.: 7239156
Tel/Fax: 7251457

Deles Wants Permanent End to the Peace Negotiations

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by Fidel V. Agcaoili
Spokesperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel
12 June 2013

Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles claims that the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), representing the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), New People´s Army (NPA) and all revolutionary forces in the peace negotiations, has designed the peace talks to be unending.

In fact, what Deles wants is a permanent end to the peace negotiations. From the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regime to the present one of Benigno S. Aquino III, Deles has had one singular aim in the peace negotiations between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the NDFP – the capitulation and pacification of the revolutionary movement.
But because she could not get her way, she has been sabotaging the peace talks, even proclaiming the so-called sovereign right of the US to intervene in Philippine affairs in the ¨terrorist” listing of the CPP, NPA and Prof. Jose Maria Sison, the Chief Political Consultant of the NDFP Negotiating Panel, after coming from a round of negotiations where it was agreed that the two Parties would call on the international community ¨to refrain from any action that may impede or impair the peace process¨.
Now, with her preposterous claim, Deles is practically calling as foolish all previous presidents, especially Fidel V. Ramos and Joseph Estrada, and her predecessors in the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), especially Ambassador Howard Dee and former Justice Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III, for having been “hoodwinked” by the NDFP into signing and approving more than 12 agreements, including The Hague Joint Declaration, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).
This is the reason why Deles´ negotiating panel refuses to abide by signed agreements, declaring The Hague Joint Declaration, the framework agreement in the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations, a ¨divisive¨ document, and the JASIG ¨inoperative¨ in securing the release of JASIG-protected persons.
The practice of Deles in backtracking from previously signed agreements is happening too in the peace negotiations between the GPH and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). An initialed annex document to the Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro (FAB) on wealth sharing has been changed unilaterally by the GPH after undergoing review by the OPAPP. And four MILF members have been arrested for illegal possession of firearms despite the ceasefire agreement. Hopefully the MILF would see through the warmongering ways of Deles in seeking to maintain the violent reactionary state that brutally exploits and oppresses the Filipino people in general and the Bangsamoro in particular.#

Aquino is Hypocritical about Peace Negotiations and Plans to Terminate these Next Year or Earlier

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By Fidel V. Agcaoili
Spokesperson of NDFP Panel
Negotiating with the GPH (GRP)
19 May 2012

We in the Negotiating Panel of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP deplore recent statements made by GPH President Aquino against the NDFP and its Chief Political Consultant Prof. Jose Maria Sison. He made such recent statements in an interview with Radyo Bombo and this has been further circulated by certain newspapers.

Aquino practically accuses the NDFP of insincerity as the obstacle to peace. He exposes himself as the hypocrite who pays lip service to peace but is in fact obsessed with carrying out a brutal war under the US-instigated Oplan Bayanihan. He is not at all interested in serious peace negotiations but only in demanding the surrender and pacification of the revolutionary forces and people.

What is more insincere, hypocritical and deceptive than Aquino and his military minions calling their psywar, intelligence and combat operations “€œpeace and development operations”€. He used the formal talks in Oslo last year to start attacking the The Hague Joint Declaration as “€œa document of perpetual division”€ and to trash the other agreements, like the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), as worthless.

He condones the violations of JASIG and the CARHRIHL by the Arroyo regime.  He refuses to investigate the extrajudicial killing, torture and illegal detention of JASIG-protected consultants of the NDFP.  He keeps in prison more then 350 political prisoners, who have been accused of being rebels and yet charged with common crimes in violation of CARHRIHL and the Hernandez political offense doctrine.

We have already received reliable information from palace insiders that Aquino plans to terminate negotiations with the NDFP next year or earlier, especially if he succeeds in controlling all three branches of the government and in making a peace agreement with the MILF.  We are not surprised that he has started to attack our chief political consultant Prof. Sison who has tried hard to find ways of facilitating and accelerating the peace negotiations and instituting truce or long-term ceasefire on a mutually acceptable basis.

It is now clear to the NDFP that it is not only OPAPP secretary Ging Deles and GPH negotiating panel chairman Alex Padilla who are blocking the regular track of peace negotiations but it is Aquino no less who is blocking both the regular track and the special track which offers the possibility of truce and alliance on the basis of a general declaration of common intent for the benefit of the people. ###