“In his place, the national leadership of the NDFP has appointed Fidel V. Agcaoili as the new chairperson of the NDFP Negotiating Panel. Comrade Agcaoili has been serving as the vice-chairperson of the NDFP Negotiating Panel in the past years,” the NDFP said in a statement.
The NDFP cited Jalandoni, saying “the national leadership of the NDFP is grateful for the valuable service that Comrade Jalandoni has given to the peace negotiations. He continues to be involved in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations as a senior adviser.” The NDFP also announced that “in order to further strengthen the NDFP Negotiating Panel, NDFP peace consultant, Benito Tiamzon is named by the NDFP national leadership as member of the NDFP Negotiating Panel.”
As the second round of Oslo peace talks commenced yesterday, the NDFP reminded Pres. Duterte of his alleged commitment to declare general amnesty for all political prisoners.
“The release of all political prisoners would also serve as a very big incentive for a stable kind of ceasefi re,” said NDFP chief political consultant Jose Ma. Sison in a statement.
He noted that Pres. Duterte, in a meeting with NDFP panel member Fidel Agcaoili, had declared that “the most expeditious way to release political prisoners is through an amnesty proclamation.”
Before the first round of peace talks in Oslo last August, the President ordered the release of 19 political prisoners, including couple Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, to enable them to participate as consultants in the peace negotiations. He said the release was a gesture of goodwill to the NDFP-Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
But the CPP has urged the Duterte government to release all political prisoners nationwide, numbering around 550, most of them reportedly mere peasant and workers.
“The amnesty and release of all political prisoners is an act of righting the violations of the CARHRIHL and the Hernandez political off ense doctrine,” Sison said.
This, amid Duterte’s declaration after the release of the 19 NDFP consultants that he would no longer free more political prisoners.
“Do you want this republic to surrender to them or the communists surrendering to us?” Duterte was quoted to have asked.
But Sison insisted that the “release of all political prisoners as “compliance with the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).”
The NDFP recalled that in a joint statement last August 26, 2016, both the Duterte government and the NDFP agreed that “the GRP Panel will immediately recommend to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte the issuance of an Amnesty Proclamation, subject to concurrence of Congress, for the release of prisoners who are listed by the NDFP and who have been arrested, imprisoned, charged, and/or convicted for alleged acts or omissions within the ambit of the Revised Penal Code or special laws in connection with alleged crimes in pursuit of one’s political beliefs.”
It also noted a provision in the agreement saying that “the Parties will discuss the content and language of the Amnesty Proclamation.
