TWO days after the third round of the peace talks between government and the National Democratic Front (NDF) began in Rome on January 21, shots were fired in Makilala, North Cotabato.
A group of soldiers and police ran into a camp of the New People's Army (NPA), exchanged fire that left eight soldiers and one person identified as an NPA dead.
At that time, both government and the NDF had their unilateral ceasefire that started last August. In layman's term, a unilateral ceasefire means both parties implement their own terms and discipline to enforce a ceasefire in their ranks.
Since August or nearly 140 days, the NDF and NPA had not staged any offensive or captured any state element as prisoners. But government troops were reportedly operating in communities even with their standing ceasefire announcement.
This was reported by the peace advocacy group Exodus for Justice and Peace, who have been going round provinces in Davao to conduct peace forums and yet received reports of soldiers operating in farmers and lumad communities in the form of peace and development operations, social work delivery and "tokhang" operations. An environment advocate was reportedly killed late last year in one such "tokhang" operation.
The Makilala incident could have broken down the talks, but both panels proceeded as substantive issues were discussed like agreeing on a preliminary draft for socio-economic reforms, the second major agenda of the talks. They also discussed the initial points on a bilateral ceasefire that will set up a monitoring mechanism and protocols.
But a week after the end of the talks, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) announced it is ending its ceasefire. Ka Oris, spokesperson of the CPP-NPA, cited that government failed to implement its ceasefire as well as releasing 434 political prisoners. Ka Oris said the NPAs will now be on "active defense" mode.
Now that the National Democratic Front called off its ceasefire, does that mean they cease talking peace and go back fighting in the fields? Some would like to believe that is the logic, but that is not the case.
There would be this thing called "talking while fighting", says NDF chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili, in his letter to his counterpart from the government panel, Silvestre Bello III.
This has been done before says Agcaoili, as he reminded Bello in his first term as peace negotiator during President Ramos from 1992 to 1998, ceasefires are called in the period of talks, but military and NPA operations continued.
Agcaoili noted that even with such setup, the peace process under the Ramos period was able to sign 12 documents, including the first major agreement which is the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) that was later signed by President Estrada.
On their part, the government peace panel said they are still keeping the "window open" to talk with the NDF. They still hold optimism as the upcoming informal talks will be coming this late February to work out on bilateral ceasefire and other matters. Presidential peace adviser Jesus Dureza said they will push government to continue its ceasefire to “sustain the peace in communities”.
From these points, we can see the attitude from both panels is not to be derailed by the ceasefire issue, as compared to previous talks which will be called off on every incident of violations. The attitude from both panels show the seriousness to push substantive matters on the negotiating table, such as economic reforms to address landlessness, dependence on foreign capital and oligarchy.
But this development though, serves as a test to President Duterte, who said he is a president of the Left as he keeps the window open to talk peace. The failure of his troops to observe the ceasefire is testing his statement, as well as the path to peace.
As KaOris said in an interview, "In our experience … it is possible to negotiate while fighting until the substantive agreements are forged to address the roots of the armed conflict and lay the basis for a just and lasting peace.”
Let us see how the next round goes.
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