黑料社

MANILA, Philippines 鈥� The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) on Sunday challenged Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. to explain how the long overdue peace talks between the government and the communist rebels can proceed if the latter鈥檚 negotiators continue to be detained and are designated as terrorists by the government.

In a statement, CPP spokesperson Marco Valbuena said it 鈥渟macked of bad faith鈥� that the government continues to call the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)鈥檚 top leaders, including its chair Luis Jalandoni, 鈥渢errorists鈥� while also expressing willingness to negotiate with them to work on a final peace agreement to end the longest insurgency in Asia.

Both the NDFP and the government had signed a joint statement in Oslo, Norway, expressing their intent to restart the peace talks, which have stalled since 2017 under former President Rodrigo Duterte.

But before they could formally start the process, the NDFP had said they planned on raising 鈥渇our issues,鈥� including the removal of the NDFP leadership and Jalandoni from the state鈥檚 terrorist list, and the release of all political prisoners and NDFP consultants so they could join the negotiations.

Galvez, however, balked at these 鈥渋ssues鈥� and asked the NDFP to 鈥渞espect the Joint Statement and Oslo Joint Communique and not make preconditions or release propaganda that will water down the peacebuilding efforts of the previous and current administrations.鈥�

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Not preconditions

NDFP negotiating chair Julie de Lima clarified that these are not preconditions, rather issues that need to be discussed before formal talks can proceed.

For its part, the CPP agreed that these were not conditions but rather 鈥減ractical issues, which if unresolved, make it very difficult to even imagine how peace talks can proceed.鈥�

Before this, the government has maintained a stance to not 鈥渘egotiate with terrorists鈥濃�攁 stance that could strain their efforts and reflect 鈥渕ore fundamental questions鈥� about the peace talks, Valbuena said.

鈥淚f Galvez does not even want to hear about the clamor to remove the 鈥榯errorist designation鈥� of CPP/NPA (New People鈥檚 Army)/NDFP, will it even listen to the basic and urgent demands of the people for land reform and national industrialization and other key measures for social justice and national sovereignty?鈥� he asked.