A top government peace negotiator has belied claims by a communist leader that the Aquino administration and the communist rebels had come close to signing a peace agreement in December 2014.
鈥淭here was no peace deal,鈥� government peace panel chair Alexander Padilla said in a statement on Friday. 鈥淢uch less one that was rejected by President Aquino and presidential adviser on the peace process Teresita Deles,鈥� he added.
But Padilla admitted that there were attempts by a 鈥減rivate group鈥� to restart the聽 peace talks at the end of 2014, about the same time the government seemed to be making gains in its negotiations with Muslim secessionist rebels in the southern Philippines. However, Padilla said attempts to restart talks never got off the ground.
Padilla said his counterpart in the negotiations, self-exiled rebel leader Luis Jalandoni, was 鈥渘ot telling the whole story鈥� when he claimed that the government and the Communist Party of the Philippines and its military and political wings鈥攖he New People鈥檚 Army and the National Democratic Front鈥攈ad come close to signing a peace agreement in 2014.
鈥淲hat happened was that in December 2014, a group of private individuals who were considered聽 鈥渇riends of the process鈥� shuttled between the two parties to explore possible parameters for restarting the talks, Padilla said.
鈥淚t was this private group that initialed a proposed agreement subject to approval by the two panels,鈥� Padilla related.
Padilla did not identify who these 鈥渇riends of the process,鈥� but Jalandoni claimed this was the group of former Agrarian Reform Secretary Hernani Braganza.
Padilla said the government was studying the proposal and, in fact, was prepared to discuss it with the NDF panel in January 2015.
Padilla said the 鈥減rivate group鈥� went to Utrecht in the Netherlands where CPP leaders Jalandoni and Jose Maria Sison are based in February 2015 and returned with a counter proposal from the NDF.
The leftist rebels responded with a 鈥渟tronger demand for the release of hundreds of its leaders and followers in detention, the withdrawal or dismissal of cases against their detained alleged consultants, and other pre-conditions,鈥� he said.
Padilla said the proposed resumption of talks 鈥渄id not pan out.鈥�
He said government emissaries tried two more times in 2015 to talk to the NDF based on proposals made by Norway, the facilitator of the peace talks, 鈥渢o no avail.鈥�