By Hader Glang and Roy Ramos
ZAMBOANGA CITY, the Philippines
Representatives for the Philippines government and the political wing of the country's communist party have agreed on three “substantive issues” during ongoing peace talks in Norway.
A statement released Wednesday by the Philippines’ Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process said that negotiators reached agreements during four-hour long marathon sessions Tuesday that were "punctuated on several instances by laughter and light banter”.
The peace panels of the government of President Rodrigo Duterte and the Communist Party of the Philippines’ (CPP) National Democratic Front (NDF) are in the Norwegian capital Oslo this week for talks aimed at discussing ways to end the 47-year conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people.
The three agenda items agreed upon include: an affirmation of previously signed deals, an acceleration of the negotiation process and the reconstitution of the Joint Agreement on Security and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) list -- a 1995 deal that provides immunity guarantees to negotiators and seeks to avert factors that could jeopardize negotiations.
The statement quoted Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III, concurrent chair of the government panel, as describing the talks as “a frank and honest discussion among friends”.
“We are candid with each other, knowing that we share the common agenda of peace," he said.
"There were heated discussions, at times, which are normal during negotiations. In fact, we have to call a break on several occasions to cool off. But the general atmosphere was cordial as the session was punctuated by laughter and light banter.”
Under the agreements reached Tuesday, all deals signed since the rule of former President Corazon Aquino (1986-1992) were re-affirmed "subject to enhancements that may be mutually agreed upon later by both panels".
"We may need these enhancements in the future as we do not want to be tied down by the rigidity of the past. Learning from mistakes of the previous negotiations, we want to explore all options to move the process fast forward," Bello said.
The re-affirmed deals include The Hague Joint Declaration of 1992, Breukelen Joint Statement of 1994, the JASIG, and the 1998 Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.
To accelerate the negotiations, the panels are due to activate the Reciprocal Working Committee and the Reciprocal Working Groups, which will hold simultaneous discussions separate from formal meetings at the panel level.
Meanwhile, the JASIG list will be reconstituted after NDF leaders informed the government panel that it should include 54 consultants classified as "publicly-known" as well as "assumed names" of 87 guerrilla leaders who are involved in the peace process from underground.
According to Bello, two remaining “substantive issues” -- the mode of interim ceasefire and amnesty proclamation for the release of all detained political prisoners, subject to Congressional agreement -- are due to be discussed Thursday.
On Tuesday, 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.
Norway hosted informal talks in June between representatives for the incoming government and the NDFP, when the parties agreed to resume formal peace negotiations.
Ceasefires declared by the CPP and Duterte are 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 conflict, the longest-running communist insurgency in Asia 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.
