EDITORIAL - Principled resolution
In September last year, the Armed Forces of the Philippines declared “strategic victory” over the Communist Party of the Philippines and its military arm the New People’s Army. About three months later on Dec. 16, CPP founding chairman Jose Maria Sison died in exile in the Netherlands. No one has emerged so far as a replacement for Sison in the CPP-NPA.
People can quibble over the statistics trotted out by the government in declaring specific areas around the country cleared of CPP-NPA influence. Yet whether or not there is basis for the declaration of a strategic victory, by most indications, the communist movement has become considerably weakened. Funding for the CPP-NPA has suffered from its designation as a terrorist organization by the US, the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the Philippines. The government can sustain the momentum of its gains and work for a permanent settlement of the armed conflict.
Yesterday, the government issued a joint statement with the CPP-NPA’s political arm, the National Democratic Front, declaring agreement for exploratory talks to reach a “principled and peaceful resolution” of the armed conflict – now the longest communist insurgency in the world. As the talks are still preliminary, there will be no ceasefire, the government announced. This will likely sit well with the AFP and Philippine National Police, which have previously lamented that the communist rebels simply used such ceasefires to regroup and replenish supplies including their weaponry.
The announcement is a welcome step toward lasting peace. Whether the effort will move beyond exploratory talks, however, remains to be seen. At the start of every administration, prospects for peace are always explored with insurgent groups. Formal peace agreements were forged with the separatist Moro National Liberation Front during the presidency of Fidel Ramos and then with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front when Rodrigo Duterte was president.
With the communist rebels, however, Sison passed away without a formal peace agreement being finalized. The communist insurgency has festered amid continuing social injustice and abuse of power across all levels of
