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By Efren L. Danao Senior
Reporter
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino
Pimentel Jr. urged the National Democratic Front Wednesday to accept
the government’s proposal for a bilateral ceasefire before it
resumes peace talks with the government.
Pimentel said the government
proposal for a ceasefire is not frivolous or irrational.
“Unless the NDF drops its
hardline stand against a ceasefire, the deadlock in the peace talks
will drag on indefinitely,” he warned.
He said a ceasefire while
negotiators hold formal talks create an atmosphere of trust and
goodwill, which he described as the key to any negotiation.
He cited the Norwegian government
for volunteering to broker the peace talks.
Last week, the NDF reportedly
agreed to exhaust all efforts to reach a resolution to the
insurgency problem until peace is achieved.
In a joint statement issued in
The Netherlands, the NDF and Sen. Jamby Madrigal, chairman of the
Senate Committee on Peace, Unity and Reconciliation, said they are
“encouraging the Philippine government and the NDF to resume
formal talks in their peace negotiations, address the roots of the
armed conflict, accelerate the forging agreements and bring about a
just and lasting peace.”
National Security Adviser
Norberto Gonzalez said the NDF must show sincerity by agreeing to a
mutual ceasefire before peace talks could resume.
The NDF opposes any ceasefire as
a pre-condition for the resumption of peace talks.
Pimentel said a mutual ceasefire
must be imposed at least for the duration of each round of peace
talks.
“It is difficult to hear one
another if bullets are whizzing by the negotiators’ ears while
discussing peace,” he added.
Sen. Joker Arroyo, a former
lawyer of the NDF, said lack of sincerity has prevented the forging
of a peace agreement. He, however, would not pin the blame on either
the NDF or the government.
He said the government and the
NDF started talking peace 21 years ago, but an agreement remains
elusive and the talks get stalled now and then.
“The peace talks started in
1986. Five or six days after EDSA I, the Cory administration
declared an amnesty in the hope of securing peace. Joma Sison was
released, and [yet], here we are, 21 years later, still holding
on-and-off peace talks,” Arroyo noted.
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