NDFP open to peace talks with new gov’t but wary of ‘all-out war’ policy

SIGNED. Government peace panel chair SIlvestre Bello III (r) and NDF peace panel chair FIdel Agcaoili exchange copies of the Interim Joint Ceasefire Agreement signed on April 5, 2017 in The Netherlands. but will take effect only when the guidelines and ground rules are approved. President Rodrigo Duterte called off the talks in November 2017 and declared the CPP-NPA as terrorists. Photo courtesy of OPAPP

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews / 30 June) — The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) said it was willing to open peace negotiations with the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. if the latter would also show willingness to talk.

Marcos Jr. took his oath at noon on Thursday as the 17th president of the Philippines.

A press release Thursday from the NDFP quoted Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chair as saying it was Marcos Jr.’s predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte who terminated the peace negotiations in 2017 but that “if the incoming Marcos administration is willing to talk, why not?”

Sison, however, said: “But right now, there are no indications that Marcos would like peace talks. Resuming peace negotiations is quite easy…by simply reaffirming the agreements that were previously agreed upon and signed by the two parties in the negotiations.”

Sison issued the pronouncement during the online launch last June 28 of his latest book “On the GRP-NDFP Peace Negotiations” organized by the NDFP International Information Office and the International Network for Philippine Studies.

He added that while the NDFP was open to resuming the peace talks, there is nothing it can do if the Philippine government “insists on carrying out an all-out war policy.”

Marcos Jr. made no mention about the aborted peace negotiations with the NDFP in his inaugural speech.

Peace talks with the NDFP started during the Cory Aquino administration, which assumed power after Marcos Jr.’s father and namesake, Ferdinand E. Marcos, was ousted via the EDSA People Power Revolt in February 1986.

The CPP, the leading element in the NDFP, has been waging an armed struggle through its military wing, the New People’s Army, since 1969. (MindaNews)