Oslo talks: 434 jailed rebels eyed for amnesty
Hundreds of detained communist rebels in the country are likely to be granted amnesty, officials said yesterday, following fresh talks aimed at ending one of Asia’s longest-running insurgencies.
In a statement, government negotiators said they had submitted a proposal to President Duterte to free 434 communists accused of a range of crimes, including murder, kidnapping and arson.
“The (peace) panel has a commitment that there will be releases. We will fast-track that,” chief government negotiator Silvestre Bello III told reporters in Norway at the end of three days of talks with the rebels.
Duterte, who took office on June 30, quickly launched peace talks with the communists, saying it was his “dream” to end their rebellion that has claimed an estimated 30,000 lives since 1968.
To kickstart the talks, Duterte released 18 of their top leaders and pledged to grant amnesty to other rebels whom the communists insist were jailed on trumped-up charges.
More than 100 of the rebels slated for amnesty have been in jail for over a decade, according to the communists.
The latest statements from Bello and other government negotiators following the second round of official talks in Norway show the amnesty process is on track.
Nevertheless, Duterte’s peace envoy Jesus Dureza told AFP via text message from Norway the amnesty was not yet finalized, highlighting the fact that it also needed congressional approval.
The two sides have said they expect to reach a final peace agreement by the middle of next year.
The communists’ armed faction, the New People’s Army, is believed to have fewer than 4,000 gunmen, down from a peak of 26,000 in the 1980s, when a bloodless revolt ended the 20-year dictatorship of the late president Ferdinand Marcos.
But they remain active in rural areas, where they are notorious for extorting money from local businesses.
They have also in recent years carried out deadly attacks on police and military forces.
Both sides agreed to a ceasefire at the first round of talks in Oslo last August.
Duterte is the first president to hail from Mindanao that is home to Muslim rebels as well as communists. He is also pursuing peace talks with the Muslim rebels.
Duterte has been routinely visiting military camps to seek support for the peace processes, acknowledging many soldiers had been lost in decades of fighting.
“I know you feel bad but I am not a wartime president,” he told troops on Friday.
2nd round of peace talks ends
The peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front ( NDF) ended yesterday with positive notes from panel members and even fisherfolk.
Angeles City Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan, president of the League of Cities of the Philippines and member of the government peace panel, said the second round of peace talks “went very well.”
“There were some debates and disagreements on issues, but that is understandable. At the end of the day, the unity on major points far outweighed the few debates,” he said in a statement.
“The peace panels from both sides agreed to come up with a joint communiqué or statement on the results of the second round of the negotiation as well as the schedule and venue of the third round of talks,” he added. Pamintuan said the Reciprocal Working Committees (RWC) for the Comprehensive Agreement on Socioeconomic Reforms (CASER) from both parties met for the first time after years in hiatus and there were discussions on how to proceed, but the members continued with the meetings and came up with major agreements.
“The Joint Monitoring Committee also had its session and agreed on major issues. The JMC will continue working and exchanging notes during the next several weeks, even while the panels from both sides are not in session,” he said.
“The sub-committee on ceasefire and the RWC on Political and Constitutional Reforms also held successful meetings.”
Fishermen’s group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) lauded the peace ne- gotiations because both panels agreed on the common frameworks of the CASER, political and constitutional reforms and the cessation of hostilities/disposition of forces. “This will not only end the prolonged civil war in the country, but on top of it, will address its roots, which are poverty and injustice,” the Pamalakaya said.
“Socioeconomic reforms proposed by the NDF will detach our stunted economy from all foreign dictates that fuels industrial and agrarian backwardness, resulting in widespread poverty among our working and rural people,” the group added.
Pamalakaya warned the Duterte administration “to be cautious on the possible sabotage from the United States and its local doormats appointed in the government.”
In Plaridel, Bulacan, peace advocates are appealing to the government and NDF peace negotiators to study the rejection of the peace agreement by the people of Colombia between their government and the Marxist FARC.
FARC is the abbreviation for Spanish Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia or the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a Marxist guerrilla organization and military wing of the Colombian Communist Party.
According to the online Encyclopedia Britannica, “FARC supports a redistribution of wealth from the wealthy to the poor and opposes the influence that multinational corporations and foreign governments (particularly the United States) have had on Colombia.”