By Joeven Reyes
The Philippines has a long history of protracted conflict with a number of armed groups. The two conflicts that are best known are the ones with the communist movement, led by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which started in the 1970s, and the other focused largely in the Bangsamoro region of Mindanao, stemming from the struggle for autonomy and self-determination among the Moro people of the region.
The four-decade-long armed conflict between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front of the Philippines (CPP-NPA-NDFP) took root on December 26th 1968, when the CPP was re-established with the avowed objectives of seizing political power through a protracted people’s war, setting up a people’s democratic state, and building a socialist society. The CPP established the NPA as its military arm in March 1969 and the NDFP in 1973 as a broad alliance of mass organisations claiming to fight for national freedom and democracy.
Under martial law from 1972 to 1986 the GPH pursued a policy of suppression, pacification and cooptation to deal with this armed challenge. It was only after President Ferdinand Marcos was deposed in 1986 and Corazon Aquino became president that the incoming government initiated peace negotiations with the NDFP with the aim of achieving reconciliation, establishing a just and lasting peace, and ending martial law.
The peace process in the Philippines became a major concern after the fall of the Marcos regime. After the “People Power Revolution” (1983-86) the opening of democratic spaces created the conditions for building a national consensus on socioeconomic and political reforms that would address the root causes of the armed conflict, among which were gross human rights violations, social injustice and poverty.
In line with the peaceful spirit of the People Power Revolution, the government of President Corazon Aquino started formal peace talks with the NDFP in 1986. Senator Jose W. Diokno, Teofisto Guingona and Ramon Mitra were namedas the government negotiators, while the CPP and NPA designated the NDFP to represent them in the negotiations, with Satur Ocampo, Antonio Zumel and Carolina Malay comprising the NDFP negotiating panel. The negotiations were held in Manila. Both parties signed a 60-day ceasefire agreement and agreed on an agenda of “Food & Freedom, Jobs & Justice”. However, while the negotiating panels were still discussing the mechanics and implementation of the national ceasefire and had not started talks on the substantive agenda, the peace negotiations collapsed after military and police forces fired on a peaceful protest demonstration of farmers and their supporters at Mendiola in front of Malacañang Palace on January 22nd 1987. This incident, which would later be dubbed the “Mendiola Massacre”, prevented further peace talks during the rest of President Cory Aquino’s term.
When Fidel Ramos was elected president in 1992 one of his first official acts was to call for peace negotiations with all armed groups opposing the government, i.e. the CPP-NPANDFP, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Rebolusyonaryong Alyansang Makabayan-Soldiers of the Filipino People-Young Officers Union. President Ramos created the National Unification Commission, which undertook nationwide consultations at the municipal, provincial, regional and national levels in an effort to identify the root causes of the armed conflicts and build a consensus on how to address and eradicate these causes and attain a just and lasting peace. A year later, on September 15th 1993, Ramos issued Executive Order 125 creating the “Three Principles and Six Paths to Peace” (see Coronel Ferrer, 2002). It was during the Ramos administration that the Government Peace Panel signed major agreements with the NDFP such as the Hague Joint Declaration, which set the framework and agenda of the peace talks; the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), which ensured safe passage and provided guarantees for the safety of people involved in the peace negotiations; and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), which was the first major agreement to cover issues on the substantive agenda of the negotiations.
During the administration of President Estrada the GPHNDFP peace talks stalled because after signing CARHRIHL, the president unilaterally suspended the formal talks and the JASIG in February 1999. On May 31st 1999 the NDFP terminated the talks, accusing the government of violating the principle of national sovereignty cited in the Hague Joint Declaration through its ratification of the Visiting Forces Agreement. The GPH terminated the JASIG again on July 1st 1999 and it did not resume throughout Estrada’s presidency (OPAPP, 2011).
During the administration of President Gloria Arroyo, attempts were made to revive the formal peace talks and reaffirm her government’s commitment to peace by adopting the “Six Paths to Peace” through Executive Order 3. But the formal peace talks did not progress further. The peace negotiations were brought to a standstill yet again because of the issues surrounding the “terrorist listing” of NDFP leader José Ma. Sison, the continuing arrest of JASIG-protected consultants, and the failure of the Joint Monitoring Committee as a mechanism for the implementation of CARHRIHL.
After six years of impasse in the peace talks (2004-10), President Beningo Aquino revived the formal talks in February 2011. Both parties initially reaffirmed their commitment to past agreements and agreed on a timetable for the talks. The NDFP also sent to the Aquino administration the Proposal on a Truce and Alliance, which was later called the “special track”, to help fast-track the negotiations. However, because of unresolved NDFP issues regarding the release of JASIG-protected consultants, and the GPH’s insistent call for a ceasefire and its reservations on the validity of previously signed agreements, the peace talks failed to progress and have remained stalled in spite of the many attempts by both parties to revive them through the various exploratory meetings and discussions they have engaged in.