‘GPH-MILF pact pressures other armed groups to talk peace’

MANILA, Philippines – The government hopes its peace deal with Muslim rebels will inspire communist insurgents to reconsider negotiations.

“The signing of a peace agreement and the settlement of armed conflict with any other group in the same countries, certainly, exert certain pressures on any of the armed movement that is not yet moving along those lines,” Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles said in a Malacañang press briefing on Tuesday, March 25.

“And that is not just the military – it’s how people look at them. It’s how people’s expectations are shaped. It’s how people will make demands that if this can be done here – in what has certainly been a very difficult peace process… why can’t it happen with you as well?” she added. 

The government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are set to sign the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro on Thursday, March 27, days after joint police and military forces arrested high-ranking leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF). 

While the government and the MILF are hopeful that the peace deal will make lasting peace in Mindanao a reality, negotiations between the government and the CPP-NPA-NDF continue to be in a stalemate over disparate conditions set by both sides. (READ: Joma wants peace, the ‘ground’ doesn’t – Padilla)

The government had offered a “special track” for the CPP-NPA-NDF, but the rebel group set difficult demands for the talks. Benito Tiamzon, one of those arrested, was said to have taken a hardline position against the peace process. 

Despite the setbacks, Deles said the government continues to keep the peace table open for the rebel group. 

“With regard [to] the difficult table with the CPP-NPA-NDF, our position remains the same. We have said that we…would like peace talks to resume on the basis of a clear, doable, time-bound agenda. And we certainly remain hopeful that within this administration, there will be leaders on the other side that will also come to the same conclusion,” Deles said. 

Public clamor for peace

How will the CPP-NPA-NDF be convinced to return to the negotiating table?

For the government, public clamor will play a key role. 

“Well, we hope more and more people will talk to them as well. We talked to many people, many stakeholders, and they see our position as reasonable,” Deles said. 

“We hope more and more will get to them. We hope that they will see all the other things that are going on now [like] this peace process with the MILF. The international climate looking at peace processes, supporting the conclusion of real peace agreements, some judicial decisions that have been coming up or are coming up, plus what is actually happening on the ground,” she added. 

The CPP-NPA-NDF, meanwhile, demands for the “unconditional release” of the Tiamzons. They said the two, as “consultants to the peace process,” are protected by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (Jasig).

The military considers Tiamzon as the chairman of the CPP-NPA-NDF but the group insists the couple are consultants, not party leaders. – Angela Casauay/Rappler.com