HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP ASKS GOV’T TO RELEASE POLITICAL PRISONERS AS PRECONDITION FOR PEACE TALKS

By Junex Doronio

MANILA — Claiming that there are still 795 political prisoners, of which 17 are consultants from the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), human rights groups Karapatan on Friday called on the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to release them as part of efforts to resume peace talks between the government and the Maoist insurgents who have been waging a “protracted armed struggle” for nearly 55 years.

Karapatan identified the “peace consultants” as Edilberto Silva, Vic Ladlad, Rey Casambre and Loida Magpatoc who are still being detained.

“There’s a need to do that and I think must yun. It’s a must for the BBM administration especially since they need people to talk to at the negotiating table,” pressed Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay in a press conference.

On Tuesday, November 28, the Marcos Jr. administration and the NDFP announced that they had agreed to resume peace talks to end the insurgency which started during the first Marcos regime.

“Kung wala yung mga consultants, how can the technical working groups…and committees work to discuss the rules? As they said, the rules on armed conflict dun sa pinag-uusapan sa peace talks,” Palabay said.

To recall, the previous Duterte administration had granted conditional liberty to around 20 NDFP consultants to participate in peace talks.

But then-President Rodrigo Roa Duterte — who once claimed to be a socialist to court the votes of the Left in the 2016 presidential race — ordered their mass arrest following the collapse of the peace talks in December 2017.

Palabay underscored the need to release the peace consultants as part of the Philippine government’s obligation under previously signed agreements, namely the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and the GPH-NDFP Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).

“Sa totoo lang, yung Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees, in the first place, if it is recognized, if it is upheld, in the first place, those consultants should not have been inside jails naman, di ba? So once that is recognized, what should follow is the release of NDFP consultants and all political prisoners,” she further said.

(ai/mnm)