THE hawks from both sides of the divide are winning.
Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison, who also acts as consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in the peace talks with the government of the Philippines (GPH) said the other day the rebels “can no longer negotiate” with the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte. “That’s fine,” Duterte responded.
Talks were supposed to resume on June 28. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) however asked for at least three months before the talks should be reopened. “The (AFP) requested this postponement so that they can look into the ramifications of the stand-down and the succeeding ceasefire in its security operations,” Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana earlier said.
This development should be a setback for the doves, or those who want Asia’s longest running insurgency to finally end via a negotiated political settlement. Much blood has been spilled by both sides that the peace talks became a welcome alternative resolution to the conflict. Unfortunately, the talks have been on again and off again in the past years and administrations.
“Since May 2017, he (Duterte) has terminated the peace negotiations with the NDFP three times and fouled up every attempt to resume these through back channel talks,” Sison said.
While the president has belittled the capacity of the communist rebels, saying that they could no longer harm the government, Sison’s statement was made only a few days after that deadly misencounter between the police and Army troopers in Samar resulting in the death of six policemen and the wounding of nine others.
In that incident, elements of the 87th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army that were conducting combat operations against the rebels in Barangay San Roque in Sta. Rita, Samar fired upon members of the 805th Mobile Company of the police’s Regional Mobile Force Battalion 8 who were also conducting combat operations there. The Army men mistook the policemen for rebels.
This showed that while rebel capability has weakened considerably compared to when the insurgent’s strength was at its peak in the waning years of the Marcos dictatorship, the rebels can be destructive still. They can still spark mayhem and put the government in a bad light. The protest actions they initiate in the urban areas can also be potent.
Sison, though, may have given away the main reason for his suggestion to end the peace talks altogether (his complaint about the Duterte administration’s failure to fulfill its end of the bargain in the talks is only secondary to it). “It is relatively easier and more productive for the NDFP to participate in the Oust-Duterte movement and to prepare for peace negotiations with the prospective administration that replaces the Duterte regime,” he said.
Sison apparently sees the Duterte administration becoming increasingly vulnerable considering the current economic downturn and the controversies that Duterte is embroiled in leading to widespread disillusionment by even some of his fanatical supporters.