NDFP RWC-SER alarmed with escalating killing of farmers engaged in agrarian struggles

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Reciprocal Working Committee on Social and Economic Reforms (RWC-SER) has expressed utmost concern and alarm with the series of extrajudicial killings of farmers and peasant activists actively engaged in agrarian struggles.

The fourth round of talks is underway when reports came in on the killing of farmer-activist Danilo Nadal, 37 years old, a member of Hugpong sa Mag-uuma sa Pantukan (HUMAPAN). Based on initial reports, Nadal was shot and killed while on board his single motorcycle in Barangay Tibagon in Pantukan, Compostela Valley last April 2. Nadal reportedly sustained ten gunshot wounds. He is active in land struggles and campaign against human rights violations and militarization of peasant communities. Perpetrators are suspected agents of the 46th IBPA operating in Compostela Valley.

He is the 11th farmer killed in Compostela Valley, bringing to 47 the number of farmers, indigenous people and workers killed under the Duterte administration.

This latest incident of agrarian-related killing happened days after farmers called the government’s attention on the successive killings of peasant leaders and farmers which escalated after the termination of the unilateral ceasefire agreements and as a direct result of Armed Forces of the Philippines’ all-out war declaration against the CPP-NPA that also indiscriminately targets and harms civilians.

Violations of the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights and International Law (CARHRIHL) including but not limited to political killings, human rights violations and massive evacuation of peasant communities due to intense military operations will be raised as ‘urgent matters of concern’ by the NDFP panel to its GRP counterpart during the formal talks.

RWC-SER Consultant Randall Echanis said there is a need to accelerate discussion on the provisions of CASER’s agrarian reform and rural development to address landlessness and agrarian unrest.

The NDFP RWC-SER will propose the free land distribution of the following: lands targeted by government for distribution, big landholdings and land estates including haciendas that are under the control of private individuals or entities, disputed lands with local agrarian reform and peasant struggles and lands already occupied by farmers through various forms of land cultivation and collective farming activities.

Echanis said the breaking up of land monopolies and free land distribution are just, necessary and urgent corrective measures to the centuries-old social injustices suffered by farmers as a result of exploitative relations of production. During the third round of talks, the GRP agreed on principle to free land distribution but both reciprocal working committees are expected in this round to work intensively to come up with a common agreement.

Fourth round of talks focus on socio-economic reforms, ceasefire

NDFP Media Office | Press statement
3 April 2017

The fourth round of talks between the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) will focus on socio-economic reforms and ceasefire.

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 series of RWC-SER meetings are aimed at reconciling the NDFP and GRP drafts on the section on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development, covering the contentious issues of land distribution.

In his opening remarks, NDFP chief political consultant Jose Ma. Sison called on the panels to rectify Philippine land reform laws which he branded as “bogus” due to their limited scope and land amortization requirements which could not be afforded by landless tillers.

Sison said that land that has been grabbed from indigenous peoples and poor settlers, especially in logged-over areas should be distributed for free, and so should idle or abandoned lands. However, he clarified that landlords who did not acquire their lands through land-grabbing can be compensated in cash and industrial bonds.

As early as the third round, the GRP had declared that it agreed in principle to the free distribution of land.

The ceasefire committee meetings will tackle the NDFP’s counter-proposals to the GRP’s draft bilateral ceasefire agreement. A meeting on the bilateral ceasefire agreement scheduled for 22 February failed to push through after the peace talks’ cancellation earlier that month.

In addition to CASER and ceasefire, there is a meeting scheduled on the status of implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) signed in 1998. The NDFP has raised several concerns regarding the CARHRIHL, including escalating militarization in the countryside that has resulted in the killing of more than 40 peasant leaders and activists under the Duterte government.

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

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.

Remarks at the opening ceremonies of the 4th round of formal talks in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chief Political Consultant, NDFP Negotiating Panel
Noordwijk aan Zee, The Netherlands
03 April 2017

Her Excellency Elisabeth Slattum, Special Envoy to the Philippine Peace Process,
Hon. Secretary Jesus Dureza, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process
Hon. Secretary Silvestre Bello III, Chairperson, Negotiating Panel of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP)
Comrade Fidel V. Agcaoili, Chairperson, Negotiating Panel of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)
Dear compatriots in the GRP and NDFP Panels and Delegations
Distinguished guests and friends from various countries,

As Chief Political Consultant of the National Democratic Front in the peace negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines, I welcome you to this opening ceremony of the 4th round of peace talks as agreed upon in the 3rd round of talks in Rome on January 25, 2017. I thank you for your attendance and for your interest in the process to resolve the 48-year long civil war in the Philippines and establish a just and lasting peace.

We all are highly appreciative of both the GRP and NDFP principals and their respective negotiating panels in their determination to pursue the peace negotiations for the benefit of the Filipino people and in accordance with their own demand for peace, national unity and reconciliation. We have therefore been able to overcome some challenges, communication glitches and hitches.

President Duterte has been gracious to let the GRP negotiators go to the backchannel talks of March 10 and 11 in Utrecht and now to the fourth round of formal talks. The NDFP is most interested in the soonest possible forging of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms to respond to the people’s demand for substantive reforms. By its own public pronouncement, the GRP is most interested in obtaining a bilateral ceasefire agreement with the NDFP.

This is soon possible if President Duterte can put forward the amnesty and release of all political prisoners listed by the NDFP. The GRP and NDFP Negotiating Panels can validate and bind declarations of unilateral ceasefire as the interim bilateral ceasefire agreement in the Joint Statement to be issued at the end of the fourth round, pending the forging of a single joint ceasefire agreement co-signed by the conflicting parties. This joint ceasefire agreement, more elaborate and more stable than the interim bilateral ceasefire agreement can be immediately consequent to the signing of CASER by the two Negotiating Panels.

We are desirous that through the peace negotiations we can create and develop the conditions to build a strong sovereign and independent nation, with expanded democracy and social justice for the oppressed and exploited people, enjoying the bounty of economic and social development through genuine land reform, national industrialization, ample social services and benefits, and solidarity with all peoples and countries.

The GRP-NDFP peace negotiations are necessary to address the roots of the armed conflict and to agree on the social, economic, political and constitutional reforms in order to lay the basis for a just and lasting peace. We are clearly advancing within the framework set by The Hague Joint Declaration on September 1, 1992. I mention the date to let you anticipate and prepare for the 25th anniversary of this historic document.

The GRP and NDFP have availed of and reaffirmed the major agreements that have been forged within the framework of The Hague Joint Declaration in order to overcome problems and even disruptions and impasses in the peace process.

So far, the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) as the first item in the substantive agenda had been approved and signed by the GRP and NDFP principals since 1998. It is within the broad framework of international law, especially the International Bill of Rights and the Geneva Conventions.

I continue to be optimistic that within this year, it is possible for the GRP and NDFP Negotiating Panels to forge and sign the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) and the consequent joint ceasefire agreement. I have read and studied the drafts of the proposed agreements from the GRP and NDFP and I have also examined the comparative matrices. I observe that there are enough concurrences and similar positions as common ground for forging the agreements. But I wish to stress as a matter of principle that the people demand that CASER be a step ahead of the joint ceasefire agreement, unless these agreements can be signed at the same time by the panels and then by the principals.

The Comprehensive Agreement on Political and Constitutional Reforms (CAPCR) can be forged and signed by the panels within three months after CASER because the drafting is already done in advance by the Reciprocal Working Groups on CAPCR. As I stated previously, the NDFP is willing to co-found the Federal Republic of the Philippines with the GRP and cooperate in making the necessary amendments in the 1987 GRP Constitution, provided provisions are retained to prevent dictatorship, dynasties and corruption, uphold national sovereignty and territorial integrity, respect human rights, realize social justice and ban foreign military bases, forces and weapons of mass destruction.

The Reciprocal Working Committees on CASER can proceed to unify their respective drafts at an accelerated pace during rounds of formal talks and work meetings of bilateral teams between said rounds. After signing by the panels and principals, the ultimate common draft should be the guide and framework of executive orders and legislation to carry out genuine land reform, lay the foundation of national industrialization, ensure the protection of the environment and wise utilization of natural resources, uphold the people’s rights, improve the wage and living conditions, expand the social services (especially free public education at all levels and free public hospitals and clinics) and develop international economic relations within the context of an independent foreign policy.

All previous land reform programs in the Philippines are bogus because the scope is limited and the landless tillers cannot pay for the redistribution price. It is necessary that this early the negotiating parties find out how much land has been grabbed under various pretexts for so many decades from the indigenous people and poor settlers, especially in logged over areas.

Such land can be returned for free to millions of rightful owners and their successors who also need to be provided with credit, technical assistance and infrastructure support to increase production and cooperation in agriculture and related occupations like handicraft, animal husbandry, poultry, fishing, forestry, horticulture, arboculture and food processing.

Idle or abandoned agricultural lands are almost always the result of violent conflict between the landgrabbers and the dispossessed tillers and must be returned to the latter as the rightful owners. In cases of land expropriation, landlords who did not acquire their lands through land-grabbing can be paid in cash to a certain extent and in larger part in industrial bonds for investing in the industries.

The backbone of feudalism and land-grabbing by bureaucrats and corporations must be broken. It is a matter of social justice that such principle of voluntary sale by the landlord under the 1987 GRP Constitution as well as the equivalence of just compensation to fair market value under EO 228 (July 17, 1987) must be nullified. The stock distribution option in the CARP law must be struck down as a device of corporate swindle, as we have seen in Hacienda Luisita and elsewhere.

With increased agricultural and related production and development in the rural areas, the domestic market for industrial production expands in a self-reliant economy. We can begin in earnest to break the vicious cycle and chronic crisis of underdevelopment, unemployment and poverty. The pattern of exporting raw materials, semi-manufactures and cheap labor, importing finished products and depending on foreign loans and portfolio investments from abroad to cover trade deficits must be broken. We must lay down the foundation for our national industry, process our own natural resources and prevent the extreme and rapid loss of these and the devastation of our environment.

We must reclaim our economic sovereignty, conserve our national patrimony and carry out an independent investment and trade policy, realize the substance of national sovereignty, put in the principal position the combination and cooperation of the public sector and the private sector of Filipino entrepreneurs and managers and put into full play the Filipino scientists, engineers, technologists and mass of workers. We resort to foreign suppliers of capital goods and a minority of foreign investors only to effect needed technology transfer within reasonable periods of time.

The GRP and NDFP must cooperate to achieve the social, economic, political and constitutional reforms that the people need. These require the agencies, documentation and public funding that the GRP can provide. They also require the GRP and NDFP to form a Joint Social and Economic Council to ensure the implementation of CASER. The most important role of the NDFP and its revolutionary components is to avail of their long intimate relations with the people and their ability to further arouse, organize and mobilize the people for the adoption and implementation of reforms, especially against the forces of imperialism and the local reactionaries.

I hope that my remarks can somehow help to illuminate and accelerate the forging of the CASER and CAPCR. If these are indeed signed by the principals soon enough, we might even be able to see their initial two years of implementation before the signing of the End of Hostilities and Disposition of Forces by the principals.

Thank you.

On non-declaration of ceasefire, peace talks and AFP crimes

Communist Party of the Philippines
April 1, 2017

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.

In an earlier statement, the CPP had expressed willingness to comply with this agreement. In response, GRP President Duterte said he had to consult with national security and military officials about issuing a reciprocal ceasefire declaration. It can only be surmised that he heeded the advise of AFP officials on the matter.

Support for fourth round of talks even without ceasefire
The CPP fully supports the scheduled 4th round of NDFP-GRP peace negotiations slated for April 2-6 despite the non-issuance of ceasefire declarations by either side. The Party looks forward to fruitful discussions and positive steps towards forging an agreement on socio-economic reforms as well as political and constitutional reforms.

The CPP anticipates that the question of free land distribution to the tillers, the most pressing social justice issue in the country, will be fully addressed in the talks. The CPP also anticipates intense discussions and debates on the people’s demand for national industrialization, as well as expansion of public services, versus the insistence of the GRP to pursue the neoliberal policies of liberalization, privatization and deregulation.

Rally against AFP intensified attacks on civilians
The CPP anticipates heightened attacks by the AFP against civilians in light of Duterte’s non-declaration of ceasefire. Over the past three days alone, the AFP have carried out the following fascist crimes against civilians:

On March 29, 100 soldiers of the 58th IB entered Sitio Camansi, Barangay Banglay, Lagonglong town, Misamis Oriental and encamped in the Lumad community. Thirty six families (187 individuals) were forced to evacuate and seek sanctuary in Cagayan de Oro.

On March 30, elements of the 9th ID entered Sitio Traktora, Bagong Silang, Sipocot, Camarines Sur and without provocation strafed several people who were at the waiting shed, killing resident Renel Mirabeles and severely injuring Joseph Sagario and Regie Loprandado. Another civilian, Erick Madrona, was accosted and later accused of being a member of the NPA. To cover-up the attack against the civilians, military PR officials churned out the fake news that the shooting of the civilians was an encounter with the NPA.

In another incident on March 30, elements of the 203rd Infantry Brigade used helicopters to drop at least 16 bombs on sitios Karumata and Kalungbuyan, in Barangay Benli, Bulalacao town, Oriental Mindoro endangering the lives of the Hanunuo Mangyan communities in the area.

Also on March 30, soldiers of the 28th and 66th IB killed a peasant resident of Tagbinonga, Mati City, Davao Oriental, after they encountered the NPA in the area. The peasant was on his way to the town center to sell copra when he was waylaid by AFP soldiers. In press releases, the AFP claims the peasant was a member of the NPA, something which his family disputes.

The Party calls on the people to rally and protest the extrajudicial killings, aerial bombings, occupation of communities, forcible evacuations, hamletting and other fascist criminal attacks perpetrated by the AFP against the peasant masses. Expose the AFP for propagating lies and fake news to cover up their crimes.

NPA is duty-bound to defend the people
In light of AFP intensified attacks against civilians, the New People’s Army (NPA) is duty-bound to punish the perpetrators of these fascsit crimes and carry out offensives to disable the AFP from carrying out further attacks and armed suppression against the civilians.

The NPA must take full initiative in order to defend the people’s interests, protect their livelihood and the environment against destructive enterprises and ensure that economic ventures comply with policies that uphold the people’s welfare.

The NPA must continue to help the people wage struggles for genuine land reform, fight feudal exactions and various forms of oppression and help them raise agricultural production.

The NPA must open its doors wide open in order to accomodate the large numbers of people who want to join the armed struggle in their aspiration to attain justice and work to end the prevailing social system.

NDFP willing to be flexible regarding bilateral ceasefire

NDFP Media Office
Press Statement
Fidel V. Agcaoili
Chairperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel
31 March 2017

The GRP’s last minute announcement not to restore its unilateral ceasefire constitutes an unexpected departure from the March 11 backchannel agreement where both parties agreed to simultaneously reinstate their respective unilateral ceasefires before the start on April 2 of the fourth round of peace talks. The NDF and the GRP agreed to this measure in the interim in order to move the talks forward and improve the atmosphere for negotiations after the impasse last February.

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.

The NDFP believes it is possible at the soonest time 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 the Joint Statement at the end of the fourth round of formal talks.

The NDFP is one with the GRP in desiring to resolve the serious concerns that have been raised in relation to the previous six-month unilateral ceasefires, mindful that addressing these issues is crucial to ensuring that any ceasefire agreement in the future would be more effective.

Meanwhile, both parties will continue to hammer out a single joint ceasefire document that will take a longer time to forge in conjunction with the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms (CASER) and the amnesty and release of all political prisoners as listed by the NDFP.

The NDFP is fully prepared to craft a draft common agreement with the GRP on socio-economic reforms before the end of the year.###

Reference:
Fidel V. Agcaoili
0031641324348

UTRECHT JOINT STATEMENT

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:

Closing statement of NDFP Negotiating Panel Chairperson Fidel Agcaoili

January 25, 2017

Dear countrymen in the Negotiating Panels and Delegations of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, Her Excellency Ambassador Elisabeth Slattum, special envoy to the peace process and her most able team of facilitators, esteemed guests, good afternoon.

Today, we acclaim the successful conclusion of the third round of the peace negotiations. We have reviewed and discussed the full implementation of the CARHRIHL, the first agreement in the four items of the substantive agenda. We have earnestly begun the hard work of reconciling the two parties’ draft of the comprehensive agreement on socio-economic reforms as well as the tentative draft of the agreement on political and constitutional reforms. We have signed an agreement to supplement the Operational Guidelines for the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) of June 2004, and the ground rules on the conduct of the formal meetings between the RWC-SER of the GRP and the NDFP that will hopefully facilitate the drafting of the CASER to meet the set deadline this year.

There is basis for forging ahead in the peace negotiations.

There are, however, outstanding issues that have yet to be resolved.

Even as the two panels were negotiating, news came in about the extrajudicial killing of a peasant and a Lumad leader, the death of an NPA Red fighter in a gunbattle initiated by the AFP in violation of its own ceasefire, and the arrest of a suspected NPA guerrilla who was accused of violating a still unrepealed martial law-era decree. The continuing militarization of the countryside must end. The people have been demanding the pullout of GRP military and paramilitary forces from their areas. They deem the NPA as their true army and are urging the Red fighters to withdraw from their unilateral ceasefire so that the latter could defend communities beleaguered by the AFP.

And of course, there is the festering issue of the continuing incarceration of 392 political prisoners.

The non-release of political prisoners again deserves particular emphasis. Among the almost 400 political prisoners are three NDFP consultants who should have been released in August last year to enable them to participate in the peace negotiations. Their continuing imprisonment is a violation of the JASIG.

Also among the detainees are more than a hundred ailing, elderly, long-held and women detainees whose release has been promised, not just once but several times by President Rodrigo Duterte and members of the GRP peace panel. The physical and psychological stresses resulting from conditions of severe congestion, lack of medical attention and inadequate food have already taken their toll on 14 political prisoners who have died in detention, 13 under the regime of Benigno Aquino III and one under the present administration.

The issue becomes even more urgent considering that many, if not all of the political detainees have been charged with common crimes in violation of the CARHRIHL and the GRP’s own jurisprudence concerning political offenses.

We have said it before and we say it again. The release of political prisoners is not simply a goodwill measure on the part of the GRP nor is it a precondition. It is a matter of redressing an injustice. It is a matter of compliance with the CARHRIHL. It is also a question of trust, of palabra de honor. The promise given in August 2016 in order to secure the indefinite extension of the unilateral ceasefire of the revolutionary movement has not materialized to date.

The political prisoners have suffered enough. We fervently hope that the release and amnesty of the political prisoners listed by the NDFP will be given the attention it merits in the course of our continuing negotiations to lay the basis for a more stable ceasefire agreement and accelerate the pace of the peace talks.

Thank you very much.

CLOSING STATEMENT OF PROF. JOSE MARIA SISON, CPP FOUNDING CHAIRMAN & NDFP CHIEF POLITICAL CONSULTANT

25 January 2017, Rome

Her Excellency Ambassador Elisabeth Slattum, Special Envoy to the Philippine Peace Process
Secretary Jesus Dureza, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process
Secretary Silvestre H. Bello, Chairperson, GRP Negotiating Panel
Chairperson Fidel Agcaoili of the NDFP Negotiating Panel
Dear Compatriots of the GRP and NDFP Delegations
Esteemed guests and friends,

At this closing ceremony, the GRP and NDFP Negotiating Panels shall sign the Joint Statement which sums up the successful work in the third round of formal negotiations and paves the way for further advance in the fourth round in April.

We of the NDFP express our highest sense of gratitude to the Royal Norwegian Government for consistently facilitating the Philippines peace process and the Italian government for enabling the third round in Rome.

The two Parties can congratulate each other for a successful round of talks, for pushing the further implementation of CARHRIHL, for effecting the exchange of complete drafts of CASER and the CAPCR and for starting the work to unify these drafts.

The period between rounds of formal negotiations is not rest but more intense work of subcommittees of the RWCs on CASER and the respective RWGs on PCR meeting in Manila. We can be confident that as soon as the RWCs on CASER will submit their final drafts for approval by the Negotiating Panels, the RWG’s on PCR will become the RWC’s on PCR and finish their work in a few months’ time.

When the Fourth round of talks comes, the goal of finishing the unified drafts of the CASER and CAPCR shall be in sight. We hope that before the end of 2017, these comprehensive agreements will be ready for approval by the Panels, and soon thereafter by the principals. We can be ready for the founding of the Federal Republic of the Philippines in 2018.

We look forward to the implementation of CARHRIHL, CASER and CAPCR for at least two years before the signing of CAEHDF in 2020. In view of the implementation in full swing, the two Parties shall have the highest confidence in signing the CAEHDF.

Thank you.

NDFP sees finished CASER draft this year

NDFP Media Office
Press release
January 24, 2017

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). Discussions have also already begun on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (Part IV).

In an interview, NDFP RWC-SER spokesperson Randall Echanis said that with the SER talks proceeding as scheduled so far, they expect to finish the draft Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms (CASER) within the year. The RWCs of both panels held four working meetings between January 20 and 24.

Talks on SER comprised the bulk of the working meetings in the third round of the peace negotiations held in Rome. In the second round last October, the parties agreed on a common outline consisting of a Preamble and 15 Parts. They proceeded to flesh out their respective drafts upon their return to the Philippines.

The NDFP conducted a series of sectoral consultations in November and a national consultation in December, and exchanged drafts with the GRP in the second half of January. Copies of the drafts were also provided the Royal Norwegian Government which is acting as Third Party Facilitator in the talks.

The NDFP draft describes the Philippine economic situation and the revolutionary organization’s proposed reform solutions, said Echanis. It paints the economic and social suffering of the peasantry and working people in the country. Its premise is that Philippine society is semifeudal and semicolonial and thus needs genuine agrarian reform, national industrialization and a free and independent foreign trade and monetary policy for national development.

While there has already been some consensus, Echanis said that there are many provisions that will be needing greater discussion and resolution in the course of the negotiations. “These cover the most important measures for redistributing assets and income, asserting independent foreign economic policy, providing social services and utilities especially for the country’s poor majority, government support for Filipino farms and enterprises, and ensuring democracy in the economy. These are critical,” he said, “for reversing neoliberalism and developing the national economy for the benefit of the people.”

For the purpose of facilitating the resolution of contentious issues, the RWC-SERs of both parties decided in this round to create bilateral teams composed of three persons each. The bilateral teams will make the necessary recommendations to reconcile the differences in the RWC-SER drafts during formal talks. The first contentious issue on the table to be tackled by the bilateral teams concerns the free distribution of land.

Echanis stressed that should an agreement on socio-economic reforms be signed, the next and more important phase would be the implementation, both jointly and separately. There will be areas of cooperation, but for the most part, the GRP will be enacting, amending or repealing laws as needed to implement the CASER and launch programs within the government framework. The NDFP, on the other hand, will also be implementing the CASER’s provisions through the revolutionary organs of political power in the countryside.

Reference:
Dan Borjal
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