DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Peace negotiators under the incoming Duterte administration are targeting peace talks with communists to last 9 to 12 months. 

“It will take 9 to 12 months for the panel to forge an agreement with NDF [National Democratic Front]. That’s our target,” said Silvestre “Bebot” Belo III on Tuesday, June 21, during a press briefing in Davao City.

NDF represents the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), in the peace talks with the government.

Part of their timeline is the declaration of a ceasefire between communist rebels and the government right after formal peace talks begin in the 3rd week of July. A ceasefire might be declared by the time President-elect Rodrigo Duterte delivers his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 25. 

Bello was part of a group of incoming peace negotiators who went to Oslo, Norway earlier this month to initiate peace talks with CPP founder Jose Maria Sison, NDF chief negotiator Luis Jalandoni, and NDF member Fidel Agcaoili.

The two-day visit produced “very positive” results in which the group was able to convince the communist leaders to return to the negotiating table.

Now the group has a plan on how to speed up the peace process in order to meet their target of 9 to 12 months.

“To be able to fast-track the process, we agreed we will come up with a new track and that is a simultaneous discussion of the remaining 3 issues,” said Bello.

The 3 issues are socio-economic reforms, political and constitutional reforms, and the end of hostilities and disposition of losses. 

Previous negotiating processes required these issues to be tackled sequentially. But the team under Duterte plans to tackle these issues simultaneously, and form working groups for each issue.

The communist leaders have also responded favorably on the issue of holding a ceasefire.

“They agreed that after the formal resumption of the talks, both parties will declare a unilateral ceasefire,” Bello said.

To ensure the ceasefire holds, the team intends to create a “ceasefire monitoring committee” in charge of monitoring the situation on both sides, Bello added. – Rappler.com