đź“·NDFP chief negotiator Juliet de Lima | ICHRP
The Philippine government hasn’t moved much on its pledge to pursue serious negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) since Nov. 2023 and the NDFP warns the peace talks may collapse unless the military stops murdering and arresting NDF consultants.
NDFP chief negotiator Juliet de Lima says the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) is undermining the peace process and violating the basic principles of mutual respect and accountability, with its officials speaking with forked tongues, with one faction torpedoing the negotiations by demanding preconditions and questioning the wisdom of pursuing the peace talks itself.
This faction, represented by National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano and Jonathan Malaya, is throwing a wrench into the talks by spreading intrigue and claiming falsely that factions within the NDFP, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) also disagree on the conduct of the talks. De Lima challenged the GRP to restore trust in the peace process, otherwise efforts to resume formal negotiations may eventually collapse.
To achieve this, the NDFP chief negotiator stressed, the killings and arrests of NDFP peace consultants as well as the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government’s war crimes against the Filipino people must stop. These are stumbling blocks to the ongoing dialogues, she argued. “Appallingly, despite the determination of the NDFP in pursuing peace talks, the GRP has been pushing it again to the brink of collapse with the continued attacks on NDFP peace consultants and violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL),” de Lima said in her December 30 article on Liberation International.
The NDFP and the GRP simultaneously announced on November 2023 the holding of dialogues to try to revive formal negotiations that the Rodrigo Duterte government scuttled for the flimsiest of reasons in 2017. Despite several reported dialogues between Marcos Jr. emissaries and the NDFP throughout 2024, no agreement has been hammered out to pave the way for the formal resumption of negotiations. De Lima said the 2024 killings of NDFP consultants Ariel Arbitrario and Concha Araneta-Bocala, as well as the arrests of consultant for the Cordilleras Simeon Naogsan, consultant for Southern Mindanao Porferio Tuna, consultant for Southern Tagalog Wigberto Villarico and consultant for Panay Island Tomas Dominado have subverted the essence of the dialogues.
GRP also continues to detain peace consultants Vicente Ladlad, Adelberto Silva, Loida Magpatoc, Renante Gamara and Frank Fernandez, all of whom were illegally arrested by the Duterte regime. Peace consultants Randy Malayao, Randall Echanis, Rogelio Posadas, Ericson Acosta and Pedro Codaste were killed in succession after formal negotiations collapsed, de Lima revealed. “It is unacceptable that while the GRP claims to pursue peace, it simultaneously targets and imprisons those working to achieve it,” she added. De Lima stressed that the grave GRP violations of the JASIG as well as the IHL demonstrate its lack of respect for the lives and freedoms of those working for a just resolution to the armed conflict.
The NDFP also blamed the Marcos Jr. government for the brutal deaths of NDFP peace panel member Benito Tiamzon and consultant Wilma Austria in August 2022, barely a month after it took power. Other consultants have also been killed, like Eugenia Magpantay and her husband Agaton Topacio, Julius Giron, Menandro Villanueva, Jorge Madlos, Reynaldo Bocala, Rustico Tan, Antonio Cabanatan, Florenda Yap and Ezequiel de Guzman. De Lima stressed that the repeated arrests, torture and killings of NDFP consultants under Marcos Jr., despite their protected status under Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), represent a “deliberate act of bad faith by the GRP.”
“These consultants have dedicated their lives to representing the Filipino people’s interests and are integral in the resumption of peace negotiations. Their unlawful arrests serve only to foster growing distrust and heightened tensions at a time when space for dialogue is critical,” De Lima said. The NDFP has fiercely defended the continuing legitimacy of the JASIG despite repeated efforts by the GRP military and several Manila government peace panel members to dismiss the agreement signed in February 1995. “JASIG explicitly guarantees safety and immunity for both GRP and NDFP consultants, resource persons, and staff involved in the peace negotiations, protecting them from arrest and persecution. By repeatedly violating these protections, the GRP has disregarded its own commitments and continues to push the ongoing talks to the brink of collapse,” de Lima said. (DIEGO MORRA)
