October 12, 2002, The Philippine Star, Talks with NDF to resume by yearend, gov't says,

SAN FERNANDO CITY – Chief government peace negotiator Silvestre Bello III expressed confidence yesterday that peace talks between the government and communist rebels will resume before yearend. 

But Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople said he will leave for Europe today as the head of a government delegation to lobby five European countries to declare the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) as a terrorist group subject to sanctions. 

"The Philippines has appealed to all friendly nations to freeze the assets and accounts of the CPP as a foreign terrorist organization and cut off all sources of funding for them," Ople said. 

Bello said he was not aware of any survey showing that 95 percent of Filipinos are against resumption of peace talks with communist rebels. 

"I am not aware of that survey but I cannot believe that the President would not want peace talks to continue," he said. 

"I am still at a loss on what the President means (in citing the survey) so I will ask some clarification from her." 

Bello said his last instruction from Mrs. Arroyo in January was for the government peace panel to propose a new peace framework for presentation to the National Democratic Front (NDF). 

"We have done that but the NDF rejected it last April, saying it was a violation of The Hague joint declaration on the framework of peace negotiations," he said. 

At Malacañang, President Arroyo challenged peace advocates yesterday to campaign among 95 percent of the population so they would agree to resuming peace talks. 

"You have to build a peace constituency because there is only five percent peace constituency right now," she said. "We want peace talks. We want the NPA to lay down their arms." 

Speaking before the National Anti-Poverty Commission, Mrs. Arroyo said she doubts if communist rebels are ready to lay down their arms. 

"Now they want peace talks but I doubt if they are ready to lay down their arms," she said. "They want to use it for propaganda." 

Ople said his team would hand a dossier to the foreign and justice ministers of Germany, Denmark, Sweden, France and Spain to prove that the CPP was engaged in terror acts. 

"I believe the documents meet the standards of rigor of any justice ministry," he said. "I think the standards will be met. This is a generally bilateral matter without prejudice to the EU making their own policy as a group." 

However, Ople said the government remains open to "informal" peace negotiations with communist rebels despite the terrorist tag on the CPP. 

"The government is obliged to enforce the law under any circumstances and that is what we are doing in the case of CPP-NPA," he said. 

"We are defending ourselves from their attacks on peaceful citizens, their raids on police stations. That is the prerogative of the Philippine government and its supreme duty is to protect the people. 

"This is not a policy to end the peace talks. We do want the CPP-NPA to come to the table but we demand that they lay down their arms as part of the peace process. Of course, they do not want to do that." 

Other delegation members are Silvestre Afable, a senior aide of Mrs. Arroyo; and government negotiators engaged in peace talks with communist rebels. 

But Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said resuming peace talks with the communist rebels would be futile because the NPA has continued to attack civilian and military targets. 

On the other hand, Bello said it is now more urgent to pursue peace talks because after the negotiations start, the armed conflict would have to end. 

"While the NDF is reluctant on ceasefire, I am also optimistic over the possibility of ceasefire even just for the Christmas holidays," he said. 

Bello said the NDF is demanding "parity rights" with the government to enable it to arrest, prosecute and punish human rights violators through its "judicial and legal" processes. 

"The (government) panel rejected the NDF position since this infringes on the constitutional sovereignty of the country," he said. 

"While both sides have agreed to include the provision of mutually acceptable principle of national sovereignty in The Hague joint declaration, the said principle has not yet been defined by the panels." 

Bello said "nowhere" in The Hague joint declaration did the government concede equal sovereign status to the NDF. 

"The records will bear this out," he said. 

Bello said the NDF will likely accept "reformation" of the peace talks process. 

"With this development, both panels have kept their communication lines open for the conduct of another round of informal peace talks, in the light of the President’s desire that both sides complete negotiations on a final peace agreement." – Ding Cervantes, Aurea Calica, Marichu Villanueva, AFP