LUCENA CITY, Philippines鈥擟ommunist rebels waging one of听 the longest insurgencies in the world and the Philippine government came close to sealing a peace agreement in December 2014, when the Aquino administration sent emissaries to The Netherlands to hold secret, backroom talks with听 leaders of the local communist movement.
Luis Jalandoni, head of the peace panel of the National Democratic Front (NDF) of the Philippines, said a draft peace agreement was signed on Dec. 8, 2014, by NDF leaders and a team of emissaries led by former Agrarian Reform Secretary Hernani Braganza.
According to Jalandoni, Braganza鈥檚 team went to The Netherlands in February, October and December 2014 for informal talks with the peace panel of the NDF, an umbrella organization of underground leftist groups supporting the communist insurgency in the countryside.
Truce, cooperation
Jalandoni, a former priest, said the draft peace agreement was authenticated by Elisabeth Slattum, Royal Norwegian government special envoy.
The Norwegian government is brokering peace talks between the Philippine government and the communist insurgents.
The document, according to Jalandoni, proposes 鈥渢ruce and cooperation within the term of the Aquino government.鈥�
He said Braganza鈥檚 group returned on Feb. 18, 2015, and both parties drafted a proposal for truce and cooperation that would be presented to the government.
Bad time
But it was a bad time for the Aquino administration, which was facing its worst political crisis following the deaths of 44 police commandos in a covert counterterrorism operation that backfired in Mamasapano, Maguindanao province.
鈥淭hese efforts were rebuffed and set aside by [Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process] Secretary Teresita Deles and not acted on by [the government and] President Aquino. The Braganza team was disauthorized,鈥� Jalandoni said.
He said the peace initiatives of Braganza鈥檚 group, the NDF negotiating panel and the Royal Norwegian government special envoy 鈥淸came] to naught.鈥�
鈥楥heck the facts鈥�
Jalandoni disclosed the secret talks after presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda听 called the communist leaders liars, accusing them of being uninterested in resuming peace talks with the government.
鈥淸Lacierda] should check the facts before pronouncing the false claim that 鈥榯hey (NDF) refused to come to the table,鈥欌�� Jalandoni said in a statement on Thursday.
Refused
Lacierda spoke after six policemen were killed in an ambush by communist New People鈥檚 Army (NPA) rebels in Baggao, Cagayan province, on Tuesday.
Lacierda said the NDF 鈥渞efused to come to the table鈥� and 鈥渕ade many conditions鈥� for the听 resumption of peace talks.
Jalandoni said responsibility for the failure of the talks 鈥渓ies squarely on Secretary Deles and President Aquino.鈥�
Jose Maria Sison, exiled founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines, said Mr. Aquino was no longer interested in the resumption of peace talks.
鈥淢r. Aquino does not care about the peace negotiation,鈥� Sison said in an online interview.
NPA surrender
He said Deles and former Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Gen. Emmanuel Bautista did not want to pursue peace talks with communist rebels because they were 鈥渃onvinced that the government could defeat the NPA and what they wanted to achieve was force the rebels to surrender.鈥�
The NDF has been engaged in on-and-off negotiations with the government for the past 27 years. Formal peace negotiations have been stalled since February 2011.
听
NDF demands
The NDF has been demanding the release of detained communist leaders before the resumption of negotiations, saying the jailed rebels are covered by provisions of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (Jasig) signed by rebel leaders and government officials in 1995.
The government, however, rejected the demand and kept the communist leaders in detention.