ANTIPOLO, Rizal -- Bayan-Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo said the “terrorist tagging” of the Comnunist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army remains a major stumbling block in the resumption of peace talks with the government, more than three years after it was indefinitely postponed in 2004.

Ocampo said the terrorist tagging of the CPP-NPA and Jose Maria Sison, chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front, had the effect of scuttling or putting in limbo the peace talks, since it is the policy of the government not to negotiate with a “terrorist organization”.

Speaking before journalists at the recent Peace Journalism workshop in Antipolo, Rizal, Ocampo claimed the government virtually reversed the peace process despite the peace agreements that had been forged, prolonging and intensifying the armed conflict even if the two sides had agreed to seek a just, comprehensive and lasting solution to the root causes of what he calls “civil war”.

Soliman Santos, a member of the Philippine National Red Cross International Humanitarial Law National Committee, on the other hand, said the peace talks between the government and that of the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawang-Pilipinas-Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade, remain underway, after it was signed in December 2000.

Santos said critics from the Catholic Church, however, viewed the peace agreement between the government and the RPM-P-RPA-ABB as an “instrument of further conflict” and as a counter-insurgency tool manipulated by a big landlord-politician, warning against the transformation of the group into government para-military units.

The CPP-NPA accused the RPA-ABB, an armed wing of the RPM-P, of being an extension of the government para-military units, but this was vehemently denied by the breakaway rebel faction.

Ocampo brushed aside claims of the government that the armed struggle being waged by the CPP-NPA that poverty is the cause of poverty and underdevelopment. He insisted that that roots of rebellion are social, economic and political, which account for endemic poverty of the majority of the people.

The government has been in peace talks with the CPP-NPA since 1986.

Peace Advocate Karen Tanada of the Gaston Z Ortigas Peace Institute, however, said not all is bad in the peace talks between the government and the CPP-NPA, citing the observance of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law by both parties.

Tanada said lack of clear vision on the strategic roles on parliamentary politics and a negotiated political settlement of the armed conflict on both government and the CPP-NPA, and prejudicial issues such as terrorist label and ceasefire before talks are among the obstacles in the peace talks.

Sharing the observation of Tanada, Soliman said “The government cannot seem to develop a bolder, more imaginative and coherent plan of dealing with the CPP-NPA-NDF that puts the main premium on a negotiated political settlement”.

NDF chief negotiator Luis Jalandoni, a Negrense priest-turned-rebel, said in a statement issued that if the Arroyo government continues to renege in the peace agreements “ preparations can still be made for clearing the way for the peace negotiations after the current regime is changed”.*GPB

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