Font size: 
Peace groups in the Philippines welcomed the bishops' call for the resumption of peace talks. They said it was about time for the government and the Communist Party of the Philippines to go back to the negotiating table and address the roots of armed conflict and civil war in the country.
However, the peace initiative was immediately rejected by top security officials, who have imposed an impossible precondition by demanding the CPP and its armed guerillas to first agree to a ceasefire or lay down their arms before the talks resume.
The Roman Catholic Church and the interfaith community in the Philippines have seen the horrors of the government-sponsored counter-insurgency in the Philippines. From 1999 to 2000, the former administration of deposed President Joseph Estrada unleashed an all-out war in the southern Philippines against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and displaced over 1 million Muslim people from their homes and farmlands.
In President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's time, from 2001 to 2006, the state war against armed political groups led to the extrajudicial killings of 889 leftwing activists and the enforced disappearances of not less than 200 colleagues, and the counting continues. The church people believe that the resumption of peace talks could avert if not reduce the accelerating rate of political killings and violations of human rights among rural people and communities in the countryside.
The resumption of peace talks between the government and communist guerillas was further jeopardized when Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon Jr., whose term was extended for another three months, declared that the next three months would be bloody because the military plans to escalate its assault against the CPP armed wing, the New People's Army.
General Esperon's declaration of all-out war is against the CBCP's call for the resumption of peace talks. While the Roman Catholic Church, sensing that a bloody war is in the offing, has asked for the revival of peace talks to avert full-blown military operations, Esperon is preparing the armed forces for a major blood bath.
In contrast to the government's all-out war, the NDFP leadership has expressed willingness to revive the stalled talks, adding that informal exploratory talks with the Arroyo administration might pave the way. The communist peace negotiators proposed that the exploratory talks be held in Oslo, Norway, which has been the third party facilitator in the peace talks between the government and the communist group.
Manila has signed 17 bilateral agreements with the communist leadership based in the Netherlands between 1992 and 2004, which it is bound to honor. But the Philippine civilian bureaucracy is overpowered and held hostage by the military, as indicated by the administration's approval of the military position on peace talks, despite public condemnation of the hostile response to the proposed revival of peace talks. Showing direct contempt of the Church's call for peace talks, the military arrested one of the members of the NDFP peace panel on Jan. 28.
AFP operatives arrested peasant leader Randall, a member of the NDFP peace panel, during a meeting of agricultural workers' unions in Bago City in Negros Occidental last week. He is charged with murder in relation to an incident dating back to the mid-1980s. According to Esperon, the arrest of Echanis was a big blow to the communist movement.
In the Netherlands, Luis Jalandoni, chair of the NDFP negotiating panel, described the illegal arrest as a flagrant violation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees, a view supported by the local human rights community in the Philippines. It is public knowledge that Echanis is a member of the NDFP's official delegation to the peace talks and known to officials of the Norwegian government. He is thus protected by the safety and immunity guarantees stipulated in the JASIG, Jalandoni said in a statement.
The NDFP said the arrested peasant leader participated in formal peace talks in Oslo and has taken part in discussions toward a draft tentative agreement on social and economic reforms, the second substantive agenda in the peace negotiations.
"He has played a key role in developing the NDFP draft of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social Economic Reforms, especially with regard to the peasant question and land reform," the Utrecht-based communist leader said.
Jalandoni said the filing of common criminal charges against Echanis and others accused in relation to a mass grave found in the city of Hilongos violated the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law. The grave held the bodies of 13 CPP members allegedly killed as suspected military informants in the 1980s.
It seems the Philippine military will continue to reject the Roman Catholic bishops' call for the stalled peace talks to resume. Arroyo, currently battered with charges of betrayal, corruption and mass murder by her critics, sees an opportunity in waging an unjust and senseless war to divert the attention of the military away from the corruption scandals besetting her administration and focus their minds on the war against the Reds.
The international community of peace advocates and human rights and their local counterparts in the Philippines must vigorously pursue their campaign for justice and human rights in the Philippines, and do whatever they can do to avert the bloody war authored by the Manila government.
--
(Gerry Albert Corpuz is a correspondent of Bulatlat.com, an alternative Philippine online news site. He is also head of the information department of Pamalakaya, a national federation of small fisherfolk organizations in the Philippines. His website is www.gerryalbertcorpuz.motime.com, and he can be contacted at themanager98@yahoo.com.)
