The Philippine
government and communist rebels said Friday that formal negotiations to
end a lengthy insurgency could restart shortly, though the rebels' armed
wing announced it was beefing up its guerilla campaign.
Peace talks regarding one of the world's longest-running
insurgencies, which have been on-and-off since the 1980s, may resume as
early as the second half of January, Communist Party of the Philippines
founder Jose Maria Sison said in a video message on Facebook.
Back-channel talks to "prepare the agenda" for formal negotiations
have been ongoing since September and agreements on a ceasefire and
social and economic reforms may be finished before President Benigno
Aquino steps down in 2016, said Sison, who is in exile in the
Netherlands.
Teresita Deles, presidential adviser on the peace process, did not
give a timeline for the negotiations, but told AFP that Sison's remarks
were "very positive" and indicated that common ground between the two
sides was "broadening".
"Friends of the peace process have been shuttling between the two
parties to explore possible parameters for restarting talks at the
earliest time possible," Deles said of the back-channel negotiations.
"So far, feedback has been positive but there remain matters to be
clarified in order to ensure that, if ever we do resume talks, it will
not go the same way of an early, major impasse that has happened too
often in the past," she said.
In a goodwill gesture amid a Christmas ceasefire, the rebels on
Friday released two soldiers held captive for four months in the
southern province of Bukidnon, military spokesman Brigadier General
Restituto Padilla told AFP.
However, the communists' armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA),
marked the 46th anniversary of its founding on Friday with a call to
intensify its guerilla campaign.
"(We) must seize and control the initiative by launching more
frequent and sustained tactical offensives with occasional blows to the
head of the enemy," the group said in a statement.
Running for almost half a century, the communist insurgency has claimed 30,000 lives, according to military estimates.
The military declared a month-long ceasefire with the NPA for the
Christmas holidays and Pope Francis's scheduled visit in January. The
rebels said they would observe a shorter truce.
The NPA's strength has dwindled to 4,000 fighters from a peak of more than 26,000 in the late 1980s, according to the military.
Negotiations under Aquino faltered after the government turned down
the rebels' demands that their detained comrades be released.
Separately however, Aquino has succeeded in forging a peace deal with Muslim rebels.
The agreement, signed in March, calls for the expansion of the
autonomous Muslim region in the south and the disarming of thousands of
guerilla fighters.
Source: YahooPhilippines
