“Peace talks” between two warring factions are usually held with cessation of all activities related to the conflict before both parties sit down and talk how to end the conflict.
For the so-called peace talks to actually work, both sides have to agree on terms and conditions that are generally beneficial for both parties.
Well that’s in an ideal situation. Not so in the case of the more than 50-year-old insurgency problem in the Philippines.
The Communist Party of the Philippines / New People’s Army / National Democratic Front (CPP/NPA/NDF), the other protagonist in this insurgency problem, has only one goal and that is to overthrow the legitimate government of the Republic of the Philippines via an armed rebellion with the ultimate purpose of establishing their own brand of government. By that alone, we can already see that this “peace talks” with the CPP/NPA/NDF is bound to fail.
This so-called peace talks started sometime in 1987 with millions if not billions of pesos wasted to no avail. The CPP/NPA/NDF always insisted that the talks be held in some European country.
Some 35 years later, the “peace talks” are still in square one; the NPA are still out there murdering innocent civilians (i.e. planting landmines like the one that brutally killed FEU footballer Keith Absalon), burning tractors and farm implements of farmers who refuse to pay their so-called revolutionary taxes, or bombing telco cell site towers for not giving in to their extortion demands, and murdering political candidates who do not contribute to their “campaign fees”.
And this explains why the so-called peace talk is doomed to fail – according to Luis Jalandoni, senior adviser of the NDFP Negotiating Panel and Senior Adviser of the CPP/NPA/NDF, the peace talks with the government are just their legal tool and it do not replace the armed component to advance their cause in overthrowing the legitimate government.
“We see that peace negotiations are another form of legal struggle which is possible to be used by the revolutionary forces to advance the revolutionary armed struggle and the revolutionary mass movement.
“This other form of legal struggle, the peace negotiations, does not replace the revolutionary armed struggle or the revolutionary mass movement; in fact it should advance, it should support this revolutionary armed struggle as the main form of struggle which is more important than the peace negotiations.”
And on the demand of the CPP/NPA/NDF that the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) be signed prior to actually sitting down on the negotiation table, excerpts from a Jan. 7, 2020 PNA article:
Contrary to how the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) portrays the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) as pro-masses, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said it is a piece of document that only serves the interest of communists.
“At first glance, this may appear to be pro-masses as it promises to benefit the majority, if not all. But if we look at it closely, the duplicitous character and self-interest of the communist terrorist group (CTG) becomes evident, as the provisions do not directly reflect the best interest of the nation, but their own.”
Their CASER was crafted with the goal of turning the Philippine economic model to nationalist and socialist which means it would dismantle the effects of globalization that communists view as the cause of the country’s continued underdevelopment.
CASER’s provision of designating the NPA to play a key role in implementing agrarian reform, and demobilizing the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) by reducing their functions only for civil works and infrastructure construction, will be hugely detrimental to the government because the military must be able to retain their mandate of protecting country and its people from various kinds of threats.
“Piss talks” indeed.
Meanwhile, is Sen. Loren Legarda naïve, a political opportunist, or a useful idiot? Perhaps all of the above?
It looks like Senator Legarda is in desperate damage control after shooting herself in the foot with her privilege speech on the CPP/NPA/NDF.
When VP Sara Duterte said, “We should show no mercy to criminals and terrorists” and it went all over social and mainstream media, almost immediately Senator Legarda came out with a statement denouncing armed conflict and “support” for the AFP as if to make amends.
The funny thing is that she never denounced the CPP/NPA/NDF or acknowledged that they’re enemies of the state and the Filipino people.
I hope Senator Legarda remembers FEU footballer Keith Absalon – he was killed by a landmine planted by the CPP/NPA/NDF./PN
