Manila, communists set for April 27 talks

The Philippines government and the communist National Democratic Front (NDF) in a landmark pact have agreed to resume formal peace talks on April 27 at a mutually acceptable foreign venue.

A statement issued by the NDF in the Netherlands said the agreement was reached after both sides met in Utrecht and The Hague between March 6 and 9.

Former justice secretary Silvestre Bello II, in his capacity as chairman of the government peace panel, attended the exploratory talks to establish the parameters of negotiations. "This was part of the back-door channels that began in early March," said acting defence secretary, Eduardo Ermita.

Agrarian Reforms Secretary, Herrnani Braganza, also attended the preliminary talks with Bello. Ermita said Bello will return to Manila to report to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo today.

Bello will also submit the agreement signed by members of the peace panels of both camps.

A draft of the agreement said that before April 27 the Joint Agreement in Safety and Immunity Guarantee will be reinstated and the reciprocal working committees of both camps will be formed to study social and economic reforms.

The two sides declared "firm adherence to address the roots of the armed conflict " through peace negotiations.

The reciprocal working committees will also discuss the implementation of a human rights agreement signed in 1999.

The government agreed to stick to agreements signed previously, said Ermita, including safety guarantees for the rebel peace panel, and agreed to implement an accord on human rights and international humanitarian law.

They also agreed to undertake "goodwill and confidence building measures" to enhance the atmosphere for the talks. They also vowed to release more leftist political prisoners as part of its confidence-building measure, said the statement's draft.

Once the principals of both panels approve the points of agreement on the first day of the talks, panel members are expected to sign a joint statement the same week.

Arroyo released 15 of 73 political prisoners last week, in a gesture aimed at getting both camps to return to the negotiating table.

On Friday, Arroyo unilaterally declared a one-month ceasefire in 11 provinces in southern Luzon, to prompt the New People's Army to pave the way for the release of intelligence officer Maj Noel Buan who was kidnapped in 1999.

Arroyo immediately ordered the resumption of the peace talks after she was installed as president.

The government's peace talks with the NDF, which began in 1992, were called off in 1999, following the senate's ratification of the Visiting Forces Agreement in May 1999. This agreement allowed the resumption of large scale-joint military exercises between the U.S. and Philippine Armed Forces.

The Communist Party of the Philippines, its 11,000 strong military arm, the NPA, and its negotiating arm, the NDF, have been waging a 32-year-old civil war in the provinces.