ASEANews Headline: UTRECHT, Netherlands: Second of two parts: Peace possible in our lifetime – Joma BY DR. DANTE A. ANG

Second of two parts
UTRECHT, Netherlands: “Possible. Peace during our lifetime is possible,” Jose Ma. Sison said, as he sat for the interview with The Manila Times ruminating on the prospect.

Despite a series of reversals, the founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), the umbrella organization of the National Democratic Front (NDF) and the New People’s Army (NPA), is hopeful that peace with the government will be achieved sooner or later. “Kung maganda ang kasunduan and for the benefit of the people, bakit hindi? Kung makukuha sa usapan bakit kailangan pang tumuloy sa pukpukan o santong paspasan? (If we are able to reach a fine agreement and if it’s for the benefit of the people, why not? If we can talk and settle our problems, why do we have to resort to violence and fierce fighting?”) he asked.

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At the people’s level in his organization back home, they have laid out their views and programs and considered everything, and have reached a degree of understanding about the emergence of the Duterte administration when it started, Sison said. They have welcomed the election of then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte to the presidency. Prior to that, “they could not imagine someone like Digong” surfacing to become a national leader, much less winning the presidency. Duterte’s background in cooperating (with the Left when he was still Davao City mayor) in Southern Mindanao region was “OK” with them.

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Sison supports Duterte agenda

It would be quite an achievement for President Duterte if he could industrialize the country like South Korea and Japan have become, and “establish an independent political track,” Sison said. The country, he said, is still semi-feudal, controlled by the ruling class. “Even now the super-rich are all land-based and they use and accept people’s land as collateral.”

He quoted the President as saying he wanted the country to industrialize, create jobs, and for Filipino workers overseas to come and settle back in the Philippines. There are more than 10 million Filipinos living overseas, most of them as Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). Saudi Arabia alone accounts for more than 1 million Filipino contract workers, records at the Department of Labor and Employment show.

Sison, agreeing with Duterte’s assessment, said these Filipinos can be given jobs in the Philippines if the country is able to industrialize. “Under our proposal, the landlords will be compensated,” referring to his group’s version of a land reform program.

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Open to participating in the election

The CPP/NDF group is willing to participate in an open, free and honest election under a peace agreement. “If the agreement becomes substantial, sabay na reconciliation, mayroon pang explicit agreement, may ceasefire pa, (it will have provisions for reconciliation, an explicit agreement, plus a ceasefire)” Sison stressed.

The constitutional conditions should allow all parties to compete in the elections, except the fascists, he said.
Sison acknowledged that the people want to elect their leaders and that the time is ripe for a federal form of government. “Magandang pagkakataon (It is a good opportunity) that Duterte wants a federal form of government. (It’s a) win-win, provided the democratic provisions of the 1987 Constitution are carried over, with the provisions against political dynasty and foreign bases,” he said. He also stressed that “to make sure the economic programs are carried out, there must be constitutional reform.”

Sison said they are willing to help “co-found the federal government of the Philippines” but that they were excluded from the framing of the draft of the new Constitution. Out of the 25 members of the ConCom (Constitutional Commission), they were hoping that they would be given five seats. They were disappointed.

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‘Unli’-ceasefire

The CPP/NDF/NPA supports a continuing ceasefire, which “can go on and on until you have a permanent truce,” Sison said. “To achieve a permanent truce, madali [is easy].” Once peace is achieved, members of the NPA can be given jobs as environmental guards, industrial guards or security guards, he added.

Sison opposes the localized peace talks initiated by the government. He said Jesus Dureza, presidential adviser on the Peace Process, was “negotiating on a super-big table, but that the peace process may not even be included in the localized peace negotiations. They are simply offering goodies to the surrenderees.”

He belittled the capability of the government to pay off all the rebel returnees who would lay down their arms and surrender to the government. “I do not think the government has the money.”

Sison does not believe that the localized peace negotiations will succeed. “Mahirap yon (That’s difficult). It doesn’t amount to peace negotiations. They do not cover the national issues. Limited ang discussions. Unauthorized,” Sison emphasized.

Sison also questioned the motive of the military’s rebel returnee program, accusing it of making profit from the exercise. “Mabuti pa magpalista na kayo para clear na kayo, meron pa kayong cash award, home and job. (The best thing is to enlist for clearance, then receive their cash, a home and a job.) “Unfortunately, the list,” he said, “becomes a surrenderees list.”

“Mas malaki ang kita ng AFP sa pagpatay (AFP earns bigger bucks from killing),” he added.

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No precondition to peace talks resumption

For the sake of the Filipino people, the CPP/NDF/NPA would welcome the resumption of the peace talks if the President wanted it. Sison said it is the policy of the NDF to continue the peace negotiations despite his hostile exchanges with President Duterte and the communist group’s bloody confrontations with the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.

“Wala kaming preconditions (We have no preconditions),” Sison emphasized, except, he said, for the President to reaffirm all previous agreements between the Philippine group panel and the CPP/NDF/NPA since 1992.

He recalled the difference between now and the first time they met Duterte as Davao City mayor. They embraced Digong’s promise of a general amnesty to release all political prisoners early on. They were reluctant to clash with him then. “He showed some flexibility,” Sison said. But when the peace talks were terminated and the word war between them escalated, he started calling the President a thug. “It is better to talk than to fight,” he added.

It is up to the President to continue the peace negotiations, according to Sison. “Open pa rin akong kausapin si (I remain open to holding talks with President Duterte).”

However, the NPAs are not willing to lay down their arms as a prelude to lasting peace. “The NPA is a revolutionary force and the only way [to achieving peace] is to satisfy the people’s demand for social and economic reform,” Sison said.

The communist leader is willing to come to the Philippines from his Utrecht base to sit down with the President face-to-face when the conditions obtaining are favorable. “At a certain point in time when the end of hostilities [is at hand] at pag naayos na ang (and when the) comprehensive agreement on social and economic reform is all ironed out, I will come to the Philippines very confidently,” Sison said. “I have to heed the advice of my lawyer and Congress on whether it is legal and the security arrangements are ensured.”

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Skeptical about Cha-cha

Sison’s support for Charter change is conditional. He said the concept of Charter change is fine by him provided there is a fair chance for the NDF to make its proposal and for it to participate in the proposed Constitutional changes. He said he would support Cha-cha “if the peace talks are resurrected, and the NDF are given a chance to participate in the drafting of the new Constitution.”

He warned that “social and economic reforms cannot be implemented without funding and without reaching an agreement for peace.” The problem, Sison said, is “itinigil ang (they suspended the) peace negotiations” and the NDF was kept out of the loop in the framing of the new Constitution. The NDF was frustrated that President
Duterte did not give them five seats out of the 25 for ConCom members.

Sison also accused the Office of Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) Secretary Jesus Dureza of making hay.

“Ang OPAPP kumikita kahit wala pang (The OPAPP was already making money even before the) peace talks,” he said. He did not elaborate. “The security cluster is against peace talks,” Sison laments. “Where do we go from here?”