COMMONSENSE Talk and travel

Jele-jele bago quiere” is a pidgin Spanish Tagalog idiomatic expression which means that one pretends not to desire a thing but in fact, really wants it. Or vice versa, one tries to feign desire to do one thing but in reality hates to do it.

We often quote this popular saying we learned from our Spanish colonizers to express one’s dismay over dilly-dallying acts or wishywashy stand.

Applied to the incumbent administration, this idiom aptly describes how it conducts the peace negotiations with the ragtag communist rebel group. Over the weekend President Rodrigo Duterte has again changed tunes on his peace talks policy.

When President Duterte first took office in June 2016, his designated peace negotiators immediately jumpstarted the dormant talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF). With the go-signal of President Duterte, the peace talks with Utrecht-based leaders of the NDF were restarted.

Almost two years now in the making, the Duterte administration has been in an on-and-off mode in conducting the peace talks with the communist groups.

Led by Secretary Jesus “Jess” Dureza, head of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), and Labor Secretary Silvestre “Bebot” Bello, the government peace panel members had travelled so many times to and from Manila and Utrecht for the final push of the desired formal signing of the peace pact with the rebel groups led by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Brokered by the government of Norway as a third party mediator, the revival of the peace talks with the CPP-NPA-NDF were off to a fresh start in 2016. President Duterte even appointed known communistleaning leaders to the Cabinet as part of his administration’s goodwill gestures for the peace process with the Reds.

For so many times too, the peace talks were suspended by President Duterte for various reasons, mainly because of continuing extortion activities and attacks on the civilian population by the New People’s Army (NPA) rebels, the armed group of the communists. The last straw, so to speak, sparked the outrage of the President who issued an official declaration tagging the NPA as terrorist organization and applied to them the government’s policy not to negotiate with terrorist groups.

A self-proclaimed socialist, President Duterte defended his decision in appointing left-leaning farmers’ group leader Rafael Mariano as Agrarian Reform Secretary; erstwhile pro-communist leader Judy Taguiwalo as Social Welfare Secretary; ex-Kabataan Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon as chairman of the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP); and ex-Gabriela Party-list Rep. Liza Maza as chairperson of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC).

All of them – except Maza – did not stay long in their respective posts for various reasons. In the cases of Mariano and Taguiwalo, President Duterte literally washed his hands off over their removal from his Cabinet. It was the Commission on Appointments (CA) that cut short the stints in government of the two ex-Cabinet officials. The President did not lift a finger to save them from CA rejection.

The 25-man CA, composed of Duterte allies in Congress, voted for the rejection of the nominations of Mariano and Taguiwalo for reasons that included their alleged continuing ties with communist comrades. Mariano and Taguiwalo failed to muster the vote of confidence of CA members who questioned them on the use of public funds that might have ended up in the hands of NPA rebels who remain enemies of the State.

In the specific case of Ridon, the President fired his erstwhile PCUP chief for lack of leadership of a collegial body and due to alleged excessive travels abroad at taxpayers’ expense.

Speaking of excessive foreign trips, President Duterte’s government peace negotiating panel along with their respective staff members could be equally guilty of committing excessive travels abroad.

They argued in the past the Norwegian government – as the third party and host of the peace talks – shoulders anyway all the expenses related to the peace negotiations from hotel and venue to transport costs. But it covers only the costs for all the official members of the peace negotiating panel.

After his latest heated word war with self-exiled CPP founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison, President Duterte is now saying his administration is ready to go back to the negotiating table with the Reds again for the nth time. In fact, the President even expressed willingness to sit down across the table with Sison for as long as the talks be held here in the Philippines.

President Duterte said he is amenable to resuming peace negotiations if the communist rebels will stop issuing “arrogant” statements. The President added: “I want Sison to come here. The two of us will talk. Only the two of us here in this room.”

Sison has been staying in Utrecht under a political asylum granted to him by the Dutch government. It goes without saying the President must first lift the arrest order against Sison.

In a statement posted in the NDF website, Sison welcomed President Duterte’s offer as a positive development. Sison accepted the offer of President Duterte for a one-on-one talk but added his own condition. To make this happen, Sison demanded the proposed eyeball-to-eyeball meeting with President Duterte should be held “in a country that is a neighbor of the Philippines.”

The realities, however, is that the Philippine peace panel naturally brings a number of staff members, not to mention government officials who are listed as “observers” or consultants, euphemism for official hangers-on paid for by taxpayers’ money, they are the talk and travel factotums.

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Almost two years now in the making, the Duterte administration has been in an on-andoff mode doing the peace talks with the communist groups.