LESS than a month ago, the fourth round of peace talks between the government and the communist National Democratic Front drew to a close in Noordwijk in the Netherlands with guarded optimism.
The panels agreed to work on the guidelines and ground rules of an interim joint ceasefire that would pave the way for a comprehensive settlement of the 48-year insurgency that has claimed more than 30,000 lives and continues to sap our energy and resources that could clearly be put to better, more productive use.
Both parties also moved to conclude provisions on a draft Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms, which aims at addressing the root causes of the armed conflict.
The ceasefire was to take effect as soon as the guidelines and ground rules were approved.
The guidelines were to cover the presence of armed groups in local communities and the creation of buffer zones; prohibited, hostile and provocative acts including the collection of revolutionary taxes; and the undertaking of joint socioeconomic projects.
But recent unprovoked attacks by the New People’s Army have called into question not only the sincerity of the communist rebels in seeking peace, but also the authority by which the NDF claims to speak on their behalf.
In the most recent attacks, at least 50 NPA rebels stormed a police station in the town of Maddela in Quirino province, killing one policeman.
In President Rodrigo Duterte’s own hometown of Davao City, rebels torched a box and plastic manufacturing plant belonging to the Lapanday Food Corp., an attack that had the hallmarks of a classic communist extortion racket that they call a “revolutionary tax.”
The unprovoked attack gave Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana the ammunition to paint the communist rebels as “anti-progress, anti-development and anti-people” and to call into question the credentials of the NDF peace negotiators.
Lorenzana observed that the rebels were continuing their heinous acts even while their companions in the NDF were negotiating for peace.
“With each passing day, it is becoming clear to the Filipino people that what these communist terrorists want is to cow the entire nation into subservience by sowing fear and violence,” Lorenzana said.
“The attacks in Davao and other crimes done by the NPA also make the Filipino people question the sincerity of the entire communist movement to push for peace, since it seems everything is just lip service and double talk. It also brings to light the disconnect and lack of communication between the NDF, the Communist Party of the Philippines, and its cadres on the ground.”
“We cannot stress enough that for the peace talks to succeed, the government must be talking to the real representatives of the communist movement,” Lorenzana said.
“There must be an assurance that we are dealing with the actual leaders of their organization and not just some figureheads who are devoid of any control or influence.”
This raises two possibilities, neither of which is particularly palatable. First, the communists might be seen as being insincere, waging war while talking peace. Second, and just as bad, the negotiators in the NDF have no real control or even influence over the fighters on the ground, which begs the question of why we should continue to talk to them.
More and more, it is beginning to appear that the NDF negotiators are mere talking heads who have no real power over the guerrilla forces on the ground.
