x

National Democratic Front of the Philippines
Negotiating Panel

Press Statement
30 August 2011

Padilla makes a fool of himself on JASIG

By Fidel V. Agcaoili
Spokesperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel

In declaring the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) “inoperative”, Atty. Alex Padilla, Chairperson of the Negotiating Panel of the Government of the Philippines (GPH, formerly designated as the GRP), has practically terminated the JASIG without the required issuance of a notice of termination by the GPH principal.

He brazenly violates the JASIG and spits on the signature of the GPH principal. He usurps the authority of his principal and steps on his head. He is unleashing a surprise attack by removing the safety and immunity guarantees for the protection of persons involved in the peace negotiations and by emboldening the armed agents of the GPH to attack them.

The JASIG has been duly approved by the principals of both parties (Fidel V. Ramos and Mariano Orosa on 25 April 1995 and 10 April 1995, respectively) in the peace negotiations between the GPH/GRP and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). It can only be terminated by written notice of either principals as was done by Joseph Estrada on 31 May 1999.

The JASIG protects not only the holders of Document of Identification (DI) of the NDFP but also those publicly-known to be involved in the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations as negotiators, consultants, staff, researchers, security personnel and couriers of both sides. Moreover, the JASIG makes possible the peace negotiations which can be ended only when any principal decides to terminate the JASIG by issuing the required notice of termination 30 days in advance before it takes effect.

Padilla is determined to end the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations. As a lawyer, he should know that encrypted photographs are photographs. He also knows that encrypting these is dictated by security considerations and the verification of these photographs is not mandatory in the JASIG as he himself and his predecessors, Howard Dee and Silvestre Bello III, have done.

Padilla is indeed a fool for failing to know and respect the full scope and terms of the JASIG despite his being a lawyer and the GPH chief negotiator. He is killing the peace negotiations by blocking the release of all or most of the JASIG-protected persons in violation of the JASIG and the 2011 Oslo joint statements.

Compliance with signed agreements is an absolute requirement in any peace negotiations. It puts the sincerity of the parties to the test. OPAPP Secretary Deles and Padilla are completely destroying the prospect of a just peace through negotiations by attacking and seeking to nullify The Hague Joint Declaration and the JASIG.

As early as May 2011, the NDFP proposed to the GPH the public exchange of drafts on social and economic reforms in the presence of representatives of the Royal Norwegian Government (RNG). It was Padilla who blocked said exchange of drafts which should have opened the way to well-informed and intelligent dialogue between the reciprocal working committees concerned.

Now, he is making impossible the formal meetings of the panels and the reciprocal working committees on social and economic reforms by reneging on the obligation of the GPH to release all or most of the JASIG-protected persons. He is misrepresenting as precondition the demand for compliance with obligations under the Oslo joint statements of January and February. If small obligations cannot be fulfilled by GPH, how can the people expect it to fulfill its obligations under a comprehensive agreement on social and economic reforms.#

----

Streetwise
By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo

Who’s afraid of an immediate peace?

In marked contrast to the positive and hopeful outcome of the GPH-NDFP peace talks that resumed in February of this year, an impasse has now indefinitely delayed the holding of the second round of formal talks originally scheduled for June.

What has led to this impasse and how can it be overcome?

The GPH fired the opening salvoes with its chief negotiator Atty. Alexander Padilla accusing the NDFP of setting “preconditions” for the second round of talks, specifically, the release of all or most of 17 NDFP consultants protected by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) before the formal talks resume. He and presidential spokesperson Lacierda claimed that the GPH was under no obligation to release said consultants since these constituted mere “confidence-building measures” that the GPH could unilaterally choose not to undertake.

The NDFP countered that these releases are part of what was agreed upon in the initial round of talks; it is clearly stated in the February 21, 2011 Joint Statement that the GPH would work for the expeditious release "before the second round of formal talks, subject to verification as provided in the JASIG Supplemental Agreement dated June 26, 1996, or on the basis of humanitarian and other practical reasons (underscoring ours)".

The NDFP underscored that it was only for the second time in the history of the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations that it had asked for a postponement of the formal talks to allow the GPH time “to fulfill its obligations and comply with solemn agreements”.

More ominously, Mr. Padilla recently announced that the JASIG is “inoperative” and that “they (rebels) cannot cite it now.” The NDFP had allegedly violated JASIG by depositing encrypted electronic copies of the photographs of the NDFP consultants along with their assumed names instead of actual photographs in a designated bank safety deposit box in The Netherlands.

The NDFP, in the presence of GPH representatives and Norwegian Facilitator, had been unable to open the encrypted files. The NDFP attributed this to the likelihood that the decryption keys may have been corrupted since these were seized by the Dutch government when the NDFP office and residences of NDFP leaders and staffers were simultaneously raided on August 28, 2007. Furthermore, only 4 out 5 diskettes containing the keys were returned to the NDFP.

As a consequence, additional verification utilizing the said photos can not be resorted to at this time until the NDFP is able to reconstruct its list of holders of “documents of identification”.

The NDFP asserts that there is no provision in JASIG that absolutely requires the deposit of hard copies of the photos. As a security measure, the NDFP had to transport these highly sensitive and otherwise incriminating files as encrypted soft copies so as to avoid their being accessed by unauthorized persons and possibly used to cause the arrest or worse, the extra judicial killing, of said DI holders.

NDFP legal counsels further point to well established legal jurisprudence that electronic and encrypted documents are deemed identical to and of the same value as the documents themselves.

Thus the GPH accusation that the NDFP had violated JASIG has no leg to stand on.

The Philippine Peace Center recalls that “in practice, since 1995, the GRP (now GPH) and the NDFP have been able to determine or agree on the accreditation of persons arrested and detained by the GPH and effect their release without having to open the safety deposit box containing the photographs.” The five NDFP consultants released since January are the latest concrete examples of these. Ergo the resort to such verification is also not an absolute necessity and itself is subject to the mutual decision of both parties.
 

In truth it is the GPH that grossly violates JASIG by Mr. Padilla’s one-sided and arbitrary pronouncement that JASIG is “inoperative”. JASIG provides that only the principals of either side may terminate the agreement by issuing a notice 30 days in advance before such termination takes effect. This stands to reason to allow all those involved in the peace negotiations time to secure themselves before JASIG loses its effectiveness.

The picture that emerges is that the GPH is utilizing all sorts of excuses and ruses in order to renege on its obligation to release all or most of the previously identified NDFP consultants before talks resume. We can only surmise that the hardliners have gained the upper hand on the GPH side and wish to use these political prisoners as leverage for bargaining in the talks.

Since it is unimaginable that the GPH peace panel could be ignorant of JASIG provisions, it also appears now that the seemingly “foolish” statements of Mr. Padilla may actually be calculated to cause a collapse of the peace talks while sticking the blame on the NDFP.

From numerous public statements on both sides, we are aware that the NDFP has forwarded to President Benigno Aquino III a bold proposal that could cut short the time for arriving at a comprehensive political settlement with the NDFP.

In a nutshell, the NDFP is offering a “truce and alliance” with the GPH. The proposal was first issued in August 2005 in the form of a "Concise Agreement for an Immediate and Just Peace" as a counterproposal to persistent GPH demands for an indefinite ceasefire for the entire duration of the talks. While it sounds like a watered down version of the NDFP Programme, a close study shows it is at the same time basically consistent with and echoes principles enshrined in the Philippine Constitution.

In a statement issued in August 27, 2009, the NDFP describes the proposed agreement as "statements of principles and policies in the national and democratic interest of the Filipino people". The statement declared, "The civil war ends and a just peace begins as soon as the GRP co-signs this 10-point concise but comprehensive peace agreement with the NDFP. Alliance and truce become the modus vivendi of the GRP and the NDFP."

This offer was reiterated last January in a discreet letter to Mr. Aquino, with further elaboration on concrete immediately doable measures including new political instruments such as a Council of Peace and Development, cooperation in undertaking industrial projects, offering to buy big landholdings so that landlords may invest into these industrial projects, the New People’s Army being assigned to "guard the environment and industrial projects", etc.

Could it be that this out-of-the-box proposal from the NDFP is pulling the rug from under the GPH in the sense that it has the real potential to excite and draw support from a wide array of classes and sectors including sections of the ruling elite who are interested in putting an end to the armed conflict, the sooner the better?

Does the GPH find itself perplexed and unable to respond to this challenge from the NDFP knowing full well that not doing so could make it the spoiler or the villain in the peace process. This would be so both in the eyes of the Filipino people as well as the international community supporting the fruitful end result of the peace negotiations.

If such is the case, peace advocates need to intervene and help avert the collapse of the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations. They must demand and help see to it that the bilateral agreements are respected and complied with. They must work double time in exposing not only the hard-line yet untenable positions of the GPH in the peace negotiations but also its short-sighted, cowardly and doomed-to-fail approach amply demonstrated and ably executed by the GPH peace panel through its voluble chair, Mr. Padilla. #

Published in Business World
2-3 September 2011

x

Philippine Peace Center
4/F Kaija Bldg. 7836 Makati Ave cor Valdez St.,Makati City, MM
Tel-(632) 8993439; Fax-(632) 8993416

29 August 2011

Statement on the GPH Negotiating Panel Chair Padilla's declaration that the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) is now inoperative

Rey Claro Casambre
Executive DIrector

The Philippine Peace Center calls on all peace advocates to protest and condemn the statement of GPH Negotiating Panel Chair Alex Padilla that the JASIG is now inoperative. This statement has grave implications and potentially fatal consequences on the peace negotiations as well as on those involved in it.

"The JASIG (Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees) right now is inoperative. They [rebels] cannot cite JASIG now."

GPH Negotiating Panel Chair Alex Padilla declared thus in an interview published in Business World online today (see complete article below and attached) . The GPH and Padilla have thereby, once again, unilaterally set aside the JASIG, in flagrant violation of its provisions.

Although Padilla has been in the GPH panel for less than a year, he cannot feign ignorance of the fact that JASIG cannot be terminated, suspended or declared as "inoperative" unilaterally by either GPH or NDFP.

Padilla justifies the GPH position by accusing the NDFP of violating the JASIG when they put diskettes of "ostensibly encrypted" photographs of the duly-accredited or JASIG-protected persons in the safety deposit box instead of hard copies of these photographs.

He argues that due to this alleged violation, and of the failure to decrypt the files and retrieve the original photographs, there is no longer any way of verifying the identities of duly-accredited or JASIG-protected persons working with the NDFP Panel in the peace negotiations.

Padilla concludes non-sequitur that the NDFP can no longer invoke JASIG and the GPH cannot release the detained consultants and others who the NDFP have listed as JASIG-protected persons.

Being a lawyer, Padilla should know that legal jurisprudence holds that encrypted documents are deemed identical to and of the same value as the document itself. Besides, the GPH panel had earlier accepted the NDFP's explanation for encrypting the documents as a necessary or reasonable security measure.

More important, Padilla and the GPH are definitely aware that the JASIG stipulates that the photographs in the safety deposit box are not the sole means of verifying whether one is a duly-accredited or JASIG-protected person or not, but only serve as further verification if necessary.

The NDFP has repeatedly pointed out that in practice, since 1995, the GRP (now GPH) and NDFP have been able to determine or agree on the accreditation of persons arrested and detained by the GPH and effect their release without having to open the safety deposit box containing the photographs. In fact, at least eight of the 17 detainees in question had, in 2009, been acknowledged by the previous GPH panel to be JASIG-protected, and the GPH had actually begun to take the necessary legal measures to secure their release, although these were subsequently aborted. Padilla and his panel now deny and refuse to honor this acknowledgment by the previous panel.

Further, the JASIG clearly stipulates that persons who are publicly known to be involved in the peace negotiations enjoy safety and immunity guarantees even if they are not issued documents of identification. Tirso Alcantara is one such person who, on this basis, should have been released immediately, or should not have been arrested in the first place. Ironically, while Alcantara figured prominently in the release of NPA-held POWs as confidence-building measures for the peace negotiations, he now continues to be detained due to the GPH's refusal to comply with the JASIG.

Declaring that the JASIG is again no longer operative has grave implications and potentially fatal consequences for the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations, not to mention its participants. It reinforces the perception that the hawks and militarists in government continue to determine the direction of the GPH peace negotiations and the conduct of its negotiating panels, just as they had with the Arroyo regime. The current GPH panel's initial soft and conciliatory approach and make-up has worn off rapidly, exposing its real belligerent face and hardline stance. .

Padilla's statement at the minimum sends a strong signal to the GPH prosecutors, military and police that NDFP consultants and other personalities involved in the peace negotiations are once again fair game for arrest and detention, not to mention torture and enforced disappearance that NDFP consultants became victims of under the Arroyo government and continuing under the current Aquino regime.

Padilla and the GPH are fully aware that without the JASIG, there can be no peace negotiations since the NDFP will not negotiate under duress and with its panel members, consultants and staff under threat of surveillance, harrassment, arrest, detention, torture and enforced disappearance with criminal charges based on fabricated evidence thrown on them with impunity by the GPH.

Thus, Padilla is merely paying lip service to the resumption of formal talks when he says the GPH wants to proceed with the negotiations on the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) and that formal panel talks can be held when these are completed. In declaring the JASIG inoperative and saying no one can claim to be protected by JASIG until the documents of identification are reconstructed, Padilla and the GPH are effectively shutting the doors to further peace talks.

In falsely arguing that it is the NDFP's fault that the JASIG has been rendered inoperative even as it insists that the detained consultants should be released, Padilla and the GPH are straining to show that the NDFP is to blame should the talks fail to resume or if the peace negotiations fall into another impasse.

The Philippine Peace Center calls on all peace advocates to condemn this blatant violation by the GPH in again unilaterally declaring the JASIG inoperative, thereby putting the NDFP negotiators, consultants and staff in grave danger and threatening to put an end to the peace negotiations. The quest for a just and enduring peace through negotiations that address the roots of the armed conflict can only proceed if both parties honor their own signatures and comply with their bilateral agreements. ###

Reference: Rey Claro Casambre, Executive Director; cp# 09192502345
 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

BUSINESS WORLD Online

http://www.bworld.com.ph/content.php?section=Nation&title=Gov%E2%80%99t-nixes-safety-guarantee-pact-with-rebels&id=37328

Posted on August 28, 2011 10:23:12 PM

Gov’t nixes safety guarantee pact with rebels

THE GOVERNMENT is no longer honoring a safety guarantee pact for rebels engaged in peace talks for failure on their part to comply with the requirements, the top negotiator said last week.
A FILE PICTURE of MILF members disembarking from their boat after a patrol. -- AFP
"The JASIG (Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees) right now is inoperative. They [rebels] cannot cite JASIG now," said Alexander A Padilla in an interview on Thursday, referring to the pact signed 16 years ago.

The rebels have not complied with the requirement of the JASIG, he noted, particularly on the submission of names of negotiators matched with hard copies of their photographs that must be kept in a safety deposit box in a bank in Utrecht, Netherlands.

"We agreed to their request to recompose their list, but until then, having no verification means that we cannot ascertain the identities of those who are supposed to be JASIG-protected, and therefore there is no basis to say anyone is actually JASIG-protected," said Mr. Padilla.

The JASIG, which was signed on Feb. 24, 1995 and became binding on May 2 that same year, provides for the safety and immunity guarantees to protect those who participate in the talks.

A member of the secretariat of the government panel went to Utrecht in July to verify the JASIG list and found that the safety deposit box only contained encrypted diskettes. Communist leaders have been in self-exile in the Netherlands.

The National Democratic Front (NDF), the negotiating arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), said it could no longer retrieve any data in the old diskettes and have asked that they be allowed to recompose the list, said Mr. Padilla.

However, while Mr. Padilla admitted that a resumption of talks "might bring about renegotiated political settlements," he said in a text message at the weekend that the priority will be "CASER first as per our agreement and timetable."

The CASER (Comprehensive Agreement on Socioeconomic Reforms), which is one of the three key agreements that the government and the NDF agreed to complete within 18 months to three years, was supposed to have been settled by working committees of both parties in bilateral meetings in June and August.

Mr. Padilla again accused the rebel panel of stalling on the CASER in favor of pushing for the release of its comrades.

"It was only June, but they cut off [talks]. And now, in their latest proposal, [they’re saying] let’s continue the formal talks, but these formal talks, ang una nating pag-usapan ang [we will first discuss] JASIG," said Mr. Padilla.

"They want to reconstitute [JASIG]. It is in the realm of possibility, but let’s talk about that when we finish CASER… If we talk about releases again, we will probably reach three years.… The CASER will not move… We can’t put JASIG before the CASER," said Mr. Padilla, reminding that in February it was agreed upon that the JASIG merely be a "side-table mechanism."

Further, he said that as a confidence-building measure, the administration had released five commanders of the New People’s Army (NPA) turned peace consultants, namely, Angelina Bisuna Ipong on Feb. 17; Jovencio Balweg and Maria Luisa Purcray on July 22; Jaime Soledad on July 25; and Glicerio Pernia on Aug. 3.

The CPP-NDF responded by insisting that all rebel leaders be freed first before CASER is discussed, said Mr. Padilla.
NPA ATROCITIES
Meanwhile, the NPA, the CPP’s military unit still has in custody four officials of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology who were given prisoners of war status, and abducted Lingig, Surigao del Sur Mayor Henry Dano, reportedly to be tried at a people’s court.

In addition, isolated police stations continue to be attacked by rebel forces, the latest in Medina, Misamis Oriental on Aug. 25.

As a result, Mr. Padilla said there will likely be no further releases of rebels until the communists show sincerity by starting substantive talks, in particular on CASER.

"You release them, they’re supposed to work for peace; suddenly the first item on their agenda is to go underground. What does that make of the other political prisoners? Do we release them, maybe the same thing will happen," he noted. -- J. P. D. Poblete
 

x

'Padilla exceeds authority in declaring JASIG inoperative'
29-Aug-11, 12:52 AM | Nonoy Espina, InterAksyon.com

MANILA, Philippines - Chief government peace negotiator Alex Padilla “is going beyond his authority” in declaring the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees “inoperative,” the chairman of the National Democratic Front negotiating panel said.

Luis Jalandoni, in a phone interview Sunday night, said no member or chairman of either peace panel can declare the JASIG inoperative because “it is a solemn agreement approved by the principals of both parties.”

Thus, Padilla’s declaration was a “very dangerous, negative action” that “puts up a serious obstacle to the holding of the peace talks” and “attacks a document that has been approved by the principals” of the government and NDF.

Nevertheless, Jalandoni said, “we’ll still try our best to have the talks resume” even as he acknowledged that “it’s hard to tell when” given the latest development.

Jalandoni is in the country to hold consultations with peace advocates on how best to hasten the process of negotiating a settlement to the more than 40-year old communist insurgency.

Earlier in the day, Padilla said the JASIG, a reciprocal agreement that protects negotiators and consultants, their staff and security personnel, from arrest and prosecution for the duration of the talks, could no longer be invoked by communist rebels to gain the release of their detained comrades.

The NDF is demanding the release of 17 captured rebel leaders it says are consultants of its peace panel and, therefore, covered by the JASIG.

So far, the government has released four of the 17 as a “confidence-building measure.” But the NDF says this falls short of government’s commitment under a joint statement issued in January to work for the release of most, if not all, the detained consultants.

The issue has sparked a bitter word war between the two parties and led the NDF to postpone a round of meetings in June to discuss social and economic reforms. It is also threatening to scuttle another round of meetings in September, although this time the rebels blame what they say is Padilla’s insistence that a common draft agreement on the reforms be completed before formal talks can resume.

But Jalandoni said they “hope to see the obstacles removed if, for example, (Justice Secretary Leila) de Lima or President (Benigno) Aquino (III) take decisive action.” If they do, he said, “we can still hope (for the talks’ resumption) in late September or early October.”

On Sunday, Padilla blamed the NDF for not complying with what he said was a JASIG requirement to store separate hard copies of photographs of individuals protected by the agreement in a safe deposit box in Utrecht, where the rebel negotiating team is based. Instead, he said, the pictures were stored in encrypted diskettes from which the data could no longer be retrieved and that the NDF had asked that it be allowed to re-compose its list of JASIG-covered persons.

"We agreed to their request to recompose their list, but until then, having no verification means that we cannot ascertain the identities of those who are supposed to be JASIG-protected. And therefore, there is no basis to say anyone is actually JASIG-protected," Padilla said.

"Even on the assumption that the releases are an obligation of government, if the condition for such release is due to the failure on the part of the NDF to assure the integrity of the tapes or the photographs, they have no one else to blame but themselves," he added.

But Jalandoni stressed that the JASIG can only be rendered ineffective or terminated through “a written notice from one principal to the principal of the other party” and not an “arbitrary or unilateral declaration” by either peace panel.

He said the JASIG has been terminated only once, by then President Joseph Estrada on May 31, 1999.

Padilla’s statement, therefore, said Jalandoni, “is a violation of the letter and spirit of the JASIG” as well as of a June 26, 1996 agreement on additional implementing rules that says any unilateral “issuance or interpretation” by either party “which is in conflict (with) or in violation of the JASIG is null and void.”

He also accused Padilla of “distortion” and of “refusing to accept the reality that encrypted photographs are legitimate.”

Jalandoni also said Padilla’s statement was a “blow” to the aspirations of peace advocates who have been pressing the government and NDF to reach an agreement to end the decades-old armed conflict.

x

National Democratic Front of the Philippines
Negotiating Panel

Press Statement
25 August 2011

THE OBSTRUCTIONISM OF DELES

By Fidel V. Agcaoili
Spokesperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel

Secretary Teresita “Ging” Deles of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) does not seem to be interested in reaching political settlements with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front of the Philippines (MILF) by addressing the roots of the armed conflicts.

Since she assumed her post, her personally supervised negotiating panels with both the NDFP and the MILF have been attempting to undermine and unilaterally amend or discard all previously signed agreements and documents in the peace negotiations between the GPH and the NDFP, on the one hand, and the GPH and the MILF, on the other, before and since these were formally started in 1995 and 2001, respectively.

She has adamantly refused to recognize the continuing character of the peace negotiations. She has tried to arrogantly abrogate agreements previously signed by duly constituted GPH negotiating panels and approved by GPH Presidents Ramos and Estrada, respectively.

For instance, the GPH panel negotiating with the NDFP insists that The Hague Joint Declaration, the framework agreement that allows the two Parties to meet across the negotiating table, is a “divisive document”. And the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), as well as the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), are just “confidence-building-measure” agreements.

In the case of the MILF, the GPH negotiating panel attempted to unilaterally replace the duly designated Facilitator before the resumption of the formal talks in February 2011. And, in the last GPH peace proposal presented to the MILF on 22 August 2011, the GPH panel has practically derogated all signed agreements or documents including the historic Tripoli Agreement of Peace of 2001.

Secretary Deles should learn to build from previously signed agreements/documents instead of obstructing the peace negotiations from moving forward by attempting to reverse or nullify previous agreements and impose her will on the processes.#