Peace talks in Norway to resume in August, NDF says

(Updated 7:41 p.m.) MANILA, Philippines - The communist-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) announced Wednesday the resumption of peace talks with the government in August, following a statement from Malacañang that immunity for the rebel panel would be restored starting next week. "Preparations are being made by the Negotiating Panels of the NDFP and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) for the resumption of formal talks in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations in Oslo, Norway sometime in August 2009," NDF negotiating panel chairman Luis Jalandoni said in a statement. He said both sides reached the agreement following informal talks held in The Hague last June 15. The government and NDF panels will release a joint statement containing the agenda and "points of agreement of the panels in the formal talks" sometime in July, Jalandoni said. Malacañang said Wednesday it is reinstating safety and immunity guarantees for NDF negotiators, paving the way for the resumption of the talks. In a media briefing at Malacañang, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the lifting of the suspension of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (Jasig) will take effect on July 17. Jasig provides immunity from arrest to members, consultants and staff of the NDF who are part of the negotiating panel. He said the move is in preparation for the resumption of peace negotiations with the NDF, the umbrella organization of underground leftist organizations that include the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People's Army (NPA). “We are very, very hopeful the peace talks would resume … and that would depend on non-formal negotiations," Ermita said. President Arroyo suspended the Jasig on September 2, 2005 after government and rebel peace panels failed to agree to resume peace talks. The NDF pulled out of the negotiations in 2004 when the United States and European Union included the CPP-NPA in their list of international terrorist organizations. Efforts to restart the negotiations repeatedly failed as the NDF refused to budge on its demand that the Philippine government get the US and EU remove the group from the blacklist. On Wednesday, however, Ermita said the NDF “is no longer insisting on taking its organization off the terror list and the government is no longer insisting on ceasefire declaration as a pre-condition for the resumptions of the peace talks." When asked when peace negotiation would resume, Ermita said, “Give it another four weeks. It could very well start in August." Focus on economic reforms Reached by phone in the Netherlands, CPP founder Jose Ma. Sison said the resumption of the peace talks was timely, as the global economic crisis had started to reach the Philippines. "I am happy so that problems of the country can be discussed, (like) the agreement on human rights and international humanitarian law," he told GMANews.TV. "Negotiations on social and economic reforms shall be carried out. That's the focus. "It is better to talk than not to talk at all," he added. Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo, co-founder of the NDF, told GMANews.TV that Ermita's statement was "partially true" but added: "Besides the JASIG, the NDF wants all the other agreements signed between the GRP and the NDF to be respected and implemented." Ocampo, a Manila Times reporter and founding member of the radical group Kabataang Makabayan, went underground when the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972. He became one of the founders of the National Democratic Front (NDF) a year later. He was captured in 1976 and detained until 1985, when he escaped and rejoined the rebels. After the EDSA Revolution, he surfaced and headed the NDF peace negotiating panel. When the talks collapsed, he went underground again. In 1989, he was rearrested with his wife. After Ocampo was freed in 1992, he worked with people’s organizations and wrote columns and commentaries. In 1999, he became president of Bayan Muna, a party-list group formed by leftist legal organizations. Ocampo began representing Bayan Muna in Congress when it topped the 2001 and 2004 party-list elections. Senator Rodolfo Biazon, former AFP chief of staff and current chairman of the Senate defense committee, welcomed the resumption of peace talks. “Peace is paramount over anything else. The alternative to peace, which is war, is destructive and we may not be able to afford it," he said. Senator Francis Escudero also reacted to the announcement, saying, “I think that's a positive step forward and in the right direction. A necessary first step to build confidence between the two sides. Since the negotiations were stalled in 2004, the government and the NDF have engaged in several informal talks held in Norway, including those in May and November 2008. Former Labor secretary Nieves Confesor, head of the government panel, was quoted last year as saying that the government and the NDF will have further informal talks in 2009. - with reports from Aie Balagtas See, Amita O. Legaspi, and Mark Merueňas, GMANews.TV