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[av_heading heading=’Concha: Why the rush to end peace talks?’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”][/av_heading]
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Monday, February 6, 2017
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ILOILO City – President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to terminate the peace talks with communist rebels was hastily done, according to an Ilongga consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
The President’s decision was saddening, said Maria Concepcion “Concha” Araneta Bocala who joined the resumption of the peace talks in Oslo, Norway in August last year in a bid to end the longest-running insurgency in Asia.
Bocala was released from detention last year to join the talks. She said she was surprised by the rashness of Duterte’s decision to end the negotiations.
Late Saturday night in Davao City, Duterte ordered the Philippine delegation to the peace negotiations to “fold up the tents and come home.”
This came a day after he lifted the government’s unilateral ceasefire in response to the New People’s Army’s (NPA) decision to lift its own truce effective Feb. 10.
Bocala said she was hopeful that the President would reconsider his decision. In the peace talks, she handled the committee dealing with socioeconomic reforms.
With the termination of the negotiations, Bocala is in danger of being detained again. She faces four charges – a murder charge at the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 2 in Kalibo, Aklan; a rebellion charge at RTC, Branch 33; illegal possession of firearms and explosives at RTC, Branch 23 in Iloilo City; and another rebellion case in Antique.
In an interview during his visit to the tomb of his mother in Davao City, Duterte said, “I am not ready to resume the peace talks. As I have said…I’d like to tell the Filipino people that peace with communists might not come in this generation.”
When asked what will happen to his campaign promise to release political prisoners identified with the Left, Duterte said he released several communist leaders.
Bocala acknowledged that this demand of the NDFP may have been what turned Duterte off. But this was a human rights issue, she insisted.
The President said he was being pressed to release all 400 political prisoners and he could not do that.
The next peace talks, Duterte said, could come after his term “if there is one.”
“The peace talks will remain cancelled unless there is a compelling reason that will benefit the interest of the nation,” he stressed.
In an interview two months ago, Bocala said the release of political prisoners was contained in the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law that the Philippine government then under the Ramos administration signed with the NDFP.
“Indi ina dapat questionable ang pag-release kay we are fighting for genuine reforms,” said Bocala, an alumna of Assumption Iloilo.
NDFP is the umbrella organization of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the NPA.
But the President said releasing all political prisoners can be done only after the successful talks.
The Duterte administration released a total of 21 political prisoners who are members and consultants of the NDFP – including Bocala – before the start of the peace talks in Oslo in August. This was the most number ever released in the history of the peace process.
“Political detainees are being held hostage – an exchange for an agreement,” said Bocala. “[But] in fact, ang pag-release sa political prisoners is a matter of justice.”
Moreover the government failed to make good on its promise to give all political prisoners “general amnesty,” she added.
Bocala said even her freedom was “conditional” and would last only until the end of the peace talks.
“What will happen to me if the peace talks do not succeed? Are they going to put me back in jail? Nothing is really certain,” she said in December.
On Aug. 1, 2015, operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the Philippine Army’s 3rd Infantry Division caught Bocala in a rented house in Juntado Subdivision, Barangay Calumpang, Molo district.
They recovered from her more than P200,000 cash, firearms and ammunitions, an explosive, and several electronic devices.
Bocala had a P7.8-million bounty, based on the Joint Reward List No. 14-2012 of the Interior and Defense departments dated Nov. 12, 2012.
She was released last Aug. 16, 2016 and joined the resumption of the peace talks on Aug. 20 in Oslo, Norway.
As NDFP consultant, she was covered by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees that the NDFP and the Philippine government signed in 1995.
While they feel aggrieved by Duterte’s dillydallying on his promise, “wala kami naga-atras sa peace talks,” said Bocala two months ago.
Bocala was a Mass Communications college student at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City when then President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law on Sept. 21, 1972. She went underground and joined the NPA.
In 1986 after the EDSA People Power Revolution, Bocala surfaced and joined the peace talks. She met with then President Corazon Aquino at Assumption Iloilo. But she went underground again when the peace talks collapsed.
President Duterte’s order to pull out from the talks is the 16th disruption so far recorded in the history of the peace negotiations between the GRP and the NDFP.
Late Saturday night, Duterte also ordered government troops to “go home to your camps, clean your guns and prepare for a long struggle.”
The government and NDFP peace panels were supposed to meet again on Feb. 22 in Utrecht, The Netherlands to discuss the draft proposal for a bilateral ceasefire and the depositing of the list of names of NDFP consultants using aliases.
The fourth round of talks was supposed to take place this April back in Oslo./PN
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