Philippines peace panel aims for final deal within year

By Hader Glang and Roy Ramos

ZAMBOANGA CITY, the Philippines

A day after the resumption of peace talks with the political wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), government negotiators have expressed hope of forging a final peace agreement within a year.

According to a statement released by the Office of the Presidential Peace Adviser on Tuesday, Labor Secretary Silvestre “Bebot” H. Bello III, concurrent chair of the government peace panel, said both sides agreed to accelerate discussions of “substantive issues” by holding meetings in panel and committee levels.

"Our negotiations in the past decades have been difficult to the point of seemingly immovable discussions. We spent more time in procedures rather than on the substantive agenda before us," he underlined.

Representatives of the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) are meeting in the Norwegian capital Oslo with the aim to discuss ways to end the 47-year conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people in the longest-running communist insurgency in Asia.

The talks follow the declaration of a unilateral ceasefire by the CPP on Friday, after some members were released from prison to participate in the resumption of the talks under President Rodrigo Duterte.

"We have learned our lessons from past experiences. Both parties have resumed the stalled peace negotiations and are now committed to explore all avenues possible to fast-track the process," Bello stressed Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Presidential Peace Adviser Secretary Jesus G. Dureza said the government panel has been instructed to accelerate the talks under Duterte's commitment to reach a “definitive and final peace settlement” within six to 12 months.

"We can all see now that there is renewed and fresh euphoria in the air. Our coming together starting today should be not in the context of out-witting or out-maneuvering each other across the table," he underlined.

"Neither is this a joust of one side unduly gaining strategic advantage over the other. But this should be more of a coming together of Filipinos interested to see changes in the land -- in our land, to be shared for and by all,” he added.

“If we can, let's no longer call our engagements as negotiations but instead a shared national ‘conversation’ a ‘dialogue’ where we find together common grounds, bridge the divides, and seek common dreams to share.”

Tuesday’s discussions focused on three agenda items: an affirmation of previously signed deals, an acceleration of the negotiation process and the reconstitution of the Joint Agreement on Security and Immunity Guarantees list -- a 1995 deal that provides immunity guarantees to negotiators and seeks to avert factors that could jeopardize negotiations.

Norway hosted informal talks in June between representatives for the incoming government and the NDFP, when the parties agreed to resume formal peace negotiations.

The current ceasefire is due to last for the culmination of this week’s talks, Aug. 22-26.

During the discussions, the Maoist movement seeks to address a proposal for Duterte, who won the May 9 election, to grant a general amnesty for the release of all political prisoners.

More than 500 members of the communist group, which has been waging a decades-old insurgency, are currently in detention.

Previous negotiations with the CPP and its political arm collapsed in 2004 after the communists withdrew from the negotiating table on account of the renewed inclusion of CPP founder Jose Maria Sison and the movement's armed wing, the New People's Army, on the United States terrorist list.

In 2014, negotiations again failed because previous President Benigno Aquino III turned down the rebels' demand to release detained comrades -- accusing the rebels of insincerity in efforts to achieve a political settlement.

In his peace overtures, Duterte has said that he will release all political prisoners if party leaders return from exile and sit down for negotiations.

He has also offered the CPP posts in his new government to smooth the way.

The insurgency, waged since March 1969, has claimed more than 3,000 lives over the past eight years, according to the military.

The military estimates that the number of NPA members has dropped from a peak of 26,000 in the 1980s to less than 4,000.