Local peace talks better in N. Luzon — military

BAGUIO CITY – Localized peace talks with communist rebels are more applicable in Northern Luzon provinces, according to a military official.

Major Gen. Perfecto Rimando Jr., commander of the Army’s 5th Infantry Division based in Isabela, said it is a better alternative because communist rebels “have different motives compared to their comrades in the Visayas and Mindanao.”

“We should not single out the approach in relation to peace talks, because the approach applied in one area might not be appropriate in another area,” he said.

Rimando said villagers in the Cordillera Administrative Region have “(their) own way to settle their problems,” giving as an example the successful government negotiation of the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA) in 1986 with the intervention of tribal elders.

The CPLA is a splinter group of the New People’s Army of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

The defense department and the Armed Forces of the Philippines have recommended localized talks as a more practical approach to end the communist insurgency.

Rimando also cited that in the Cagayan Valley region, the active participation and laudable initiatives of provincial and municipal leaders have led to the surrender of communist guerrillas in the past months, showing the success of localized peace negotiations.

Communist guerrillas in the Cordilleras, however, said they cannot agree to localized peace talks, insisting “age-old problems that bred the almost five decades of communist rebellion in the country could only be solved on a national scale.”

Simon Naogsan, spokesman for the Cordillera Peoples Democratic Front, reiterated that localized peace talks cannot take over the stalled peace negotiations at the national level between the National Democratic Front and the Duterte government.

Naogsan said localized peace talks are “a divide and rule tactic” of the government. –