|
|
NDF pushes Oslo meet to save peace talks
Article posted August 30, 2009 - 07:05 AM
http://www.gmanews.tv/print/171047
After exchanging accusations with government over insincerity in the
peace process, the National Democratic Front (NDF) pushed over the
weekend for a meeting in Norway to resume formal peace talks.
NDF negotiating panel chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison said
the panel had made the proposal through the Norwegian government.
"It is still possible to resume the formal talks in the Government of
the Republic of the Philippines-NDF peace negotiations if the GRP
respects and complies with the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity
Guarantees (JASIG). As soon as possible, the GRP and NDF negotiating
panels, with their respective lawyers, should meet in Oslo in order to
put in writing the most expeditious methods of removing the impediments
on NDFP consultants," Sison, founding chairman of the Communist Party of
the Philippines, said in a statement posted on the CPP Web site.
He said the NDF panel called for the meeting after government failed to
fulfill at least five commitments it made last June 15.
These are:
-
To respect and comply with the JASIG and remove within the month of
July the impediments imposed by the GRP on the NDFP consultants so that
these consultants can participate in preparations for the Oslo meetings
that were slated to start on August 28;
-
To let the lawyers of the GRP discuss and agree with the lawyers of
the NDFP on the most expeditious methods of removing the impediments on
the basis of precedents in the time of GRP President Ramos;
-
To use the expeditious release of Dan Borjal in 1997 to serve as the
model for releasing detained NDFP consultants;
-
To withdraw all trumped up charges used by GRP to detain NDFP
consultants and issue warrants of arrest against NDFP panelists,
consultants and other JASIG-protected persons; and
-
To release immediately those detainees whose release was ordered as
goodwill measures by Gloria M. Arroyo in 2001 and 2004.
Earlier, presidential peace process adviser Avelino Razon Jr. said the
government will not release 14 peace consultants facing criminal charges.
Razon had said the government merely agreed to work for the temporary
liberty of the consultants just so they can participate in the peace
negotiations.
Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera, for her part, had said in an earlier
interview the National Security Council agreed only to the temporary
freedom of four consultants.
But Sison said the government has not respected and complied with the JASIG.
"Instead, the militarist clique of Executive (Secretary) Eduardo Ermita
and OPAPP Secretary Avelino Razon have exerted their best efforts to
undermine and negate the JASIG, to reinterpret it onesidedly and convert
it into a tool of Oplan Bantay Laya, to generate further impediments and
in brief to sabotage the peace process as a way of addressing the roots
of the armed conflict and laying the basis for a just and lasting
peace," he said.
He said the militarists defied the courts that ordered the release of
Elizabeth Principe and for two weeks they tried to prevent her release.
She was eventually released because of the clamor for her release by
human rights organizations and many people, Sison claimed.- GMANews.TV
All Rights Reserved. 2006 © GMA Network Inc.
|
|