Talks with NDF remain intact, says Bello

July 11, 2018

DAVAO CITY – Peace talks with the National Democratic Front has remained intact even as the latter  announced last week it was pulling out from the talks .

“It’s not true they are quarreling. Let’s just say it’s some sort of friendly quarrel,” said Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, chief  government negotiator with the NDF, in an interview with government-ran Radyo Pilipinas Wednesday.

He said the tussle between President Rodrigo Duterte and Communist Party of the Philippines’s founder, Jose Ma. Sison “are like cajoling between friends”.

He said the talks were “merely postponed” on the side of government as it notified previously the NDF that it would postpone the scheduled meeting last month to conduct its own consultations with groups and sectors in the Philippines.

“The president would like to consult the different sectors on what kind of interim agreement was acceptable because the President would not like the interim agreement on a peace settlement to end up opposed by the Filipinos, that it would be rejected by Congress and that the Supreme Court may say that it was unconstitutional,” he said.

“But it is clear from the statement of [Peace Adviser] Jesus Dureza that the negotiations are still on,” he said.

Bello said despite rejecting Duterte’s overtures for him to come to the Philippines for that “brief window” of talking with him on the conduct of the talks, “Sison is actually receptive of that travel and visit to the Philippines”.

“What’s holding him back is about diplomatic concern,” he said. Sison has lived in political asylum in The Netherlands “and when he leaves, maybe he would not be allowed to go back there”. Also, he added, there was still the terrorist tag on him by the US authorities and could be arrested anytime any place.

“It’s not true he suspected the sincerity of Duterte’s offer. In fact, we already scheduled his likely visit to the Philippines by August,” he said.

A consultation has been scheduled next month in Davao City where Dureza and Regional State Prosecutor Antonio Arellano were assigned. Another one would be held in Cebu City and Bello was assigned in the consultation in Luzon.

By September, he said, “and when Sison would come here, there would be a signing of an interim ceasefire and an interim peace agreement, which is the object of these consultations”. DMS