By RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat.com
Updated Feb. 15, 8:19 p.m.
As Peace Talks Resume, Another NDFP Consultant Nabbed
Published on February 15, 2011


MANILA – On the eve of the resumption of formal talks between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), another consultant of the NDFP has been arrested.

Alan Jazmines, 63, was arrested yesterday, Feb. 14, around 6:30 p.m. by combined elements of the local police and of the 56th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) in Subic village, in Baliuag, Bulacan while consulting local residents there on the issue of peace talks, according to Fr. Diony Cabillas, secretary general of Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (Selda).

Jazmines was initially detained at Camp Gen. Alejo Santos in Malolos, Bulacan. Cabillas, who led a quick reaction team to Malolos, Bulacan, said that authorities did not show any warrant of arrest. Later, however, Jazmines was told that he is being detained for alleged 13 counts of murder in Calauag, Quezon.

Cabillas also said that authorities only presented to them a photocopy of an alleged warrant. Cabillas said they could hardly read the content of the supposed warrant of arrest.

Jazmines has been transferred to the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center inside Camp Crame, PNP national headquarters,around 4:45 p.m. today.

In a statement sent through email, Luis Jalandoni, chairman of the NDFP peace panel, maintained that Jazmines is covered by protection of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (Jasig) and is a holder of a document of identification (DI) in accordance with the Jasig. Jalandoni added that Jazmines has been an NDFP consultant to the peace talks since the time of the Ramos government.

Jalandoni also said the arrest of Jazmines is an attempt by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the PNP to disrupt the peace negotiations which are just about to be resumed on February 15 to 21, in Oslo , Norway .

“It is imperative that Jazmines be released immediately and unconditionally,” stressed Jalandoni. Jazmines must be available to participate in the next round of formal peace talks, Jalandoni further said.

Lawyer Julius Garcia Matibag, national spokesman of the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) who talked to Jazmines this afternoon told Bulatlat.com that Jazmines is a holder of document of identification under the Jasig with assumed name Dodi Lapida, number 978213.

Documents of identification are issued to the negotiators, consultants, staffers, security and other personnel of both panels. Such documents, Jasig states, shall be duly recognized as safe-conduct passes.All persons with documents of identification or safe-conduct passes are guaranteed free and unhindered passage in all areas in the Philippines, and in traveling to and from the Philippines in connection with the performance of their duties in the negotiations, the Jasig states further.

Jasig also provides that upon presentation by the duly accredited person to any entity, authority or agent of the party concerned, the document of identification or safe-conduct pass shall be honored and respected and the duly accredited person shall be accorded due recognition and courtesy and allowed free and unhindered passage.

Matibag said the PNP only obtained copies of the warrants of arrest for the murder and rebellion charges against Jazmines today Feb. 15, a day after the arrest.

“The incident allegedly took place in 1992. Nineteen years has passed and the authorities only executed the warrants of arrest only now, on the eve of the resumption of peace talks,” Matibag said.

Jazmines was captured twice during the reign of dictator Ferdinand Marcos and was among communist leaders who were freed when President Corazon Aquino took power after the 1986 “people power” uprising that ousted Marcos, according to Satur Ocampo, former Bayan Muna representative.

Jazmines is the 15th NDFP consultant to be detained. signed by both parties, all those participating in the negotiations are immune from any form of harassment.

If the peace talks were a soccer match, I'm rooting for the NDFP

by Ina Alleco Silverio

Who does not share the vision of a Philippines freed from the fetters of economic crisis and political turmoil? A country where the majority of the people – the poor and working classes – do not suffer the yoke of poverty and exploitation. A country where the needs of the majority for education, health and housing are met; and there are countless opportunities for them and their children to develop their skills and gifts, and can create art and beauty even as they also build a self-reliant, independent and self-sustaining economy.

What we need, what we aspire to is a Philippines where the government is untainted by corruption, and its leaders are not greedy and power-hungry; where justice cannot be escaped by those who commit crimes that destroy hundreds of lives in a myriads of ways. What we work for is a country that does not exist in the shadow of foreign powers; a country not indebted or enslaved, and its territory cannot be taken over by foreign troops that their own nations’ economic, political and military interests to the extreme detriment of our nation’s sovereignty, internal security, and at the risk of the Filipino people’s safety.

This vision, this aspiration is far from being realized; but by no means are we willing to let go of them.

It is for these reasons that I fully support the peace talks between the GPH and the NDFP.

I support the peace talks because I want the issues most important to the Filipino people to be discussed and, more importantly, to be addressed. Day in and day out I am confronted by reports of slow death and painful dying because of poverty, hunger, disease and violence, all a result of the most basic needs of the poor majority being neglected and unmet. I believe that the peace talks are an effective venue wherein these matters will be brought up seriously.
 

I support the peace talks because I believe that the armed conflict in the country can only begin to be resolved if the two sides, the two governments of the GRP and the NDFP sit and talk and come up with solutions to the problems that precisely resulted in the conflict.

I support the peace talks because I want to see how the new administration of the GRP will conduct itself in the negotiations and whether it can be relied on to make good somewhat on its grandiose promises that it will work for true change in the Philippines.

I will not deny that as a social observer, I believe that what the NDFP brings to the negotiating table are the most cherished hopes and deepest aspirations of our people for a just and lasting peace, for independence, freedom, and genuine democracy. Through the years we have seen and heard how the NDFP has supported the stands of the poor and the oppressed against the unjust economic policies and anti-people, anti-sovereignty political manueverings of administrations of the GRP.

I've been alive for three decades and a half, and in the last two I have yet to to witness a GRP administration support the calls of workers for just wages, or the demand of farmers for genuine agrarian reform. Neither have I have seen any top GRP official truly and sincerely take up the cudgels for the urban poor, the indigeneous people, fisherfolk, women and students by repealing laws that have proven inimical to their welfare and interest in both the short and long term. Case in point, the new leadership of the GRP, barely a year in office, has already caused serious disappointment in the hearts of its most rabid defenders.

But even as my faith mostly resides on the NDFP (if the talks were a soccer match, it'd be the team I'd be yelling myself hoarse for), I am all the same willing (okay, maybe grudgingly)to give the GRP a chance to prove its sincerity that it, too, wants peace to take root in the Philippines. I'm crossing my fingers and toes that all goes well in the peace negotiations in Oslo, that no serious hitches take place, and that at the end of it all, both panels come up with a Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms (CASER) and bring the Philippines one more step closer to a just and lasting peace.#

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As Peace Talks Resume, Another NDFP Consultant Nabbed

By RONALYN V. OLEA
Luis Jalandoni, chairman of the NDFP peace panel, said the arrest of Alan Jazmines is an attempt by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police to disrupt the peace negotiations which are just about to be resumed on February 15 to 21, in Oslo , Norway.

NDFP demands the immediate and unconditional release consultant Alan Jazmines
 

International Information Office
National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)
February 14, 2011

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), through its Peace Negotiating Panel, is demanding the immediate and unconditional release of Alan Jazmines, an NDFP consultant, who was arrested today by a combined team from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Baliuag, Bulacan.

According to Luis Jalandoni, Chairperson of the NDFP peace panel, Jazmines is covered by protection of the Joint Agreement on Security and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG). He is a holder of a document of identification (DI) in accordance with the JASIG. He has been an NDFP consultant to the peace talks since the time of the Ramos government.

Jalandoni said the arrest of Jasminez is an attempt by the AFP and PNP to disrupt the peace negotiations which are just about to be resumed on February 15 to 21, 2011 in Oslo , Norway .

It is imperative that Jazmines be released immediately and unconditionally, stressed Jalandoni, so that there will be no disruption of the formal peace talks. Jazmines must be available to participate in the next round of formal peace talks, Jalandoni further said.#

For reference:

NDFP International Information Office
Telephone: 00-31-30-2310431
email: ndf@casema.nl

Writings on the margin of a book
by Alan Jazmines

Writings on the margin of a book
have a lot in common
with guerrillas

They come from nowhere
and from all directions
suddenly are spread out
over white areas.

Unmeasured by ens and ems
they are a ragtag lot,
do not march in letterpress order
nor go by the rules of the book.

Not simply black on white
they emerge in their own styles,
dialects and colors
and not only in red
(Observe the curls
that fly unshaven
in defiant fashion)

Unfettered by column inches
and flush rights
they grow infinitely
drawing from a well-spring
of creativity
even if sometimes ungrammared
unlettered

At will
they waylay precisely
clumsy targets
encircled and crosshaired
for annihilation

L-R: Jose Maria Sison, Alan Jazmines and Crispin Beltran

at the founding congress of Partido ng Bayan in 1986
 

A burst
of exclamation points
or questions marks
may blow up whole structures
but it usually takes
a rapid fusillade
of unmistakable tirades
to send their targets
back to pulp
 

What is decisive
is intimacy to the issue
in the native heart
and the grassroots facts
uncouth, unshod
with no fear
of censors
or the military

No matter erudition
stereotypes holding on
to fixed positions
cannot escape
the scrutiny and force
of new ideas and critiques
resolute in their challenge
for the rule.

In time
the writings on the margin of the book
are established;
a new book
supersedes the old.
And then there will be new and different writings
On the margins of this book.