Uneasy peace
Early this month, the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front (NDF) concluded the fourth round of peace talks under the Duterte administration in the Netherlands.
Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III, who concurrently serves as the government’s chief negotiator, and NDF peace panel chair Fidel V. Agcaoili signed an agreement to forge an interim joint ceasefire between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the NDF’s military wing known as the New People’s Army (NPA).
Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus G. Dureza and Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria C. Sison were present at the signing ceremony in the Dutch coastal town of Noordwijk, 50 kilometers southwest of Amsterdam.
Less than a week later, communist insurgents attacked a pineapple plantation owned by Del Monte Philippines in Davao City. Farm equipment worth P4 million were torched by 30 NPA rebels led by Roberto Rosete and Rolando Sagcaan, according to the local police.
This was the latest in a spate of violent attacks launched by the insurgents in Mindanao. Previously, they destroyed another pineapple plantation in Bukidnon; a banana processing plant in Compostela Valley; a spray plane in Surigao del Sur; Sumitomo Fruits’ packing plant in Malaybalay City; and Dole Philippines’ cold storage facilities in General Santos City.
Many of the NPA’s extortion targets are agricultural plantations operated by multinational corporations. Sumitomo Fruits is a Japanese company, while US-based Dole is the world’s biggest producer of fresh fruits and vegetables. Del Monte Foods was formerly American-owned before being acquired by a Filipino conglomerate in 2014.
Even small businessmen have not been spared by these rebels-turned-extortionists, who force the helpless entrepreneurs to regularly pay the so-called “revolutionary tax,” otherwise their agribusiness ventures would be harmed.
Victims include agrarian reform beneficiaries whose livelihood and safety are being threatened, prompting them to cry for protection from the AFP and the Philippine National Police. Their spokesman for Southern Mindanao, Eduardo Maningo, said: “If the government fails to address this problem, businesses can leave and we will lose our jobs.”
There seems to be a lack of coordination between insurgents on the ground and their political masters who have lived for decades in Europe. Are they really sincere in seeking a genuine and lasting peace after nearly half a century of waging the lengthiest, most protracted insurgency in Asia?
It doesn’t help that some Cabinet members are supporting these rebels overtly or covertly. Take the case of Environment Secretarydesignate Regina Paz O. Lopez, who unabashedly announced at the CEO Forum in Marriot Hotel, Pasay City last week: “I love the NPA.”
Out of frustration, a Mindanaoan investor lamented: “Government should rethink its peace efforts if it will work, or just wage an all-out war, which apparently is the only language that the NPA understands.”
The CPP- NPA- NDF leadership should learn from the lessons of the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna or ETA, an armed nationalist movement that was considered a terrorist group by many nations. Since 1959, the Basque separatists had fought for an independent state to be carved out of southwest France and northern Spain.
But last April 8, ETA officially became a disarmed organization after voluntarily surrendering all its weapons and explosives to a French town mayor, thus putting an end to Western Europe’s longest insurgency. Et tu, Joma?
ASEAN SUMMIT AND RELATED MEETINGS
Our country will host the 30th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit this week, and leaders of the 10 ASEAN member-states are converging in Manila on April 28 and 29 for a series of meetings at the Philippine International Convention Center.
Parallel events are also being organized by private entities, such as the 1st ASEAN