Peace Process Going on in Philippines, Prospect Dimmed

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, August 12, 2002

Peace Process Going on in Philippines, Prospect Dimmed

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Despite the announcement from the US State Department that the Philippine rebel group New People's Army (PNA) is a foreign terrorist organization, the Philippine government still sticks to the peace process in a domestic dimension.

The government has kept its communication lines open to the NPA, and is ever ready to welcome it back into the fold of the law, the��presidential palace said on Sunday, adding that it even designated two additional negotiators lately, showing its sincerity to pursue the peace process with the front.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said that the withdrawal of the rebel side from the peace talks will be an "unfortunate turn of events," emphasizing that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered to "keep the communication lines open."

The government announced on Friday to resume the peace talks in late August or early September.

The US State Department released a press statement in Manila on Saturday, tagging the NPA as among the foreign terrorist organizations. US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in the statement that the decision was made after an exhaustive review ofthe group's violent activities.

The group "strongly opposes any U.S. presence in the Philippines and has killed U.S. citizens there (in the Philippines)," he said, adding that "the group has also killed, injured, or kidnapped numerous Philippine citizens."

Earlier last week, Arroyo ordered the redeployment of government troops from Mindanao in the south to other parts of thecountry, aiming to take defensive positions in areas perceived to be threatened by the NPA elements. Media reports said with military aid from the US, the government may have the NPA as its next target.

As a response, Jose Maria Sison, the political leader of the NPA who self-exiled in 1987, announced on Tuesday in the Netherlands that the NPA would intensify its assaults against government installations to divert the military's attention. He also called on the Muslim separatist insurgent groups to simultaneously launch attacks on the government.

Bunye said those troops previously pulled out from the north and central were actually assigned to Mindanao at the height of the fight against the Abu Sayyaf group there. Now that the soldiers have already effectively reduced the threat posed by the group, they can be redeployed to their original assignments.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Lauro Baja Jr., however, said the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has not received any official transmittal from American officials on the matter. The DFA and other concerned agencies would discuss and come up with an official position once the official announcement comes.

The Department of National Defense (DND), likewise, refuses to comment on the US announcement, saying it has to wait for formal communication from the DFA regarding the issue. Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes is now in the United States to discuss security relations with his counterpart US Secretary of National Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Reyes had been engaging Sison in a word war as an offshoot of the military's shifting of focus. Sison said on Thursday that he did not order to wage attacks anew, but only to give a political analysis on the insurgence situation. Reyes, for his part, said Sison retracted his order because he might be ejected by the Netherlands government for his activities.

Despite the silence from the DFA and DND, the Philippine military on Sunday welcomed the US decision. Its spokesperson Brigade General Eduardo Purificacion said the US decision leaves no choice for the NPA but to resume negotiations.

Peace talks between the government and the NPA, which has operated since 1969, were called off early last year after the NPA elements allegedly assassinated two congressmen for their "betrayal against the people." But "back-channel" contacts betweenthe two sides have been ongoing since.

As of the first quarter of 2002, NPA members numbered 11,094, or 836 lower than at the end of 2001. However, the government said the NPA-affected villages rose from 1,969 last year to 2,262 as ofJuly.

The government hopes the resumption of peace talks would lead to a peace accord. The two parties even had not placed any conditions on the start of the discussions.

Sison said that NPA would resume talk only if it was not compelled to accept the government's legal and constitutional system as what is stated in the Hague Joint Declaration signed between two sides in 1992.

The government, on the other hand, insisted that its position will be based on the Constitution of the Philippines and not on that of the NDF's version.

War between the two sides will continue, in both words and bullets; also to continue is excessively prolonged peace process, in an either official, or backdoor way. With so big a discrepancy at the very beginning, the new round of peace talks would hardly avoid being in vain.

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