Government, NDF agree to resume peace talks

The representatives of the Philippines government and the communist National Democratic Front (NDF) have vowed to work for the resumption of the stalled peace talks, reports said.

These peace talks are being held in response to the call of the Catholic church and other church-based groups for a just and lasting solution to the 33-year-old armed conflict in the country.

The members of the two panels came face to face with the help of 300 Catholic and Protestant leaders, including peace advocates in suburban Quezon City late on Friday afternoon.

They celebrated the 10th anniversary of the signing of the two camps of the Hague joint declaration, in the Netherlands, which paved the way for the start of talks on September 1, 1992.

Jose Ma. Sison, the exiled founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), said the NDF will be "very eager" to resume the negotiations, and that there will be no problem for as long as the Hague joint declaration and the nine other interim agreements signed by the government and the NDF since 1992, are respected.

Earlier, he predicted that talks between the government and the NDF will not succeed until after the end of Arroyo's term in 2004.

"This meeting is a sign that resumption of the peace talks is still possible in this administration," said human rights lawyer Romeo Capulong, NDF's General Counsel.

"The call for a peace settlement is now more pressing due to obtrusive foreign interference, with the U.S. having declared the CPP-NPA-NDF as a foreign terrorist organisation and thus a target of attacks," said the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), one of the organisers of the forum.

"The efforts invested in the peace process should not go to waste," said the NCCP chair Reverend Dr Domingo Diel Jr.

"We are going to have peace negotiations. I hope they will soon take place," said Silvestre Bello III, the chair of the government negotiating panel.

"President Gloria Arroyo's position is that the peace negotiations will give an opportunity to the CPP-NPA-NDF to show that they are not terrorists," said Bello.

Bello also asked peace advocates whom he called the "constituents of the peace process" to help the government and the NDF to talk again and not exacerbate their division.

He added that Arroyo's position is "to keep communication lines open with the NDF." Despite his optimism, Bello also expressed his apprehension that the peace settlement between the two camps might not be achieved in this generation.

"I may no longer be around when that time comes but what is important is the sincerity of both panels to bring the peace talks to its logical end which is a just and lasting peace for our country," he said.