Edwin Brigano's arrest early New Year's Day may have been the only blatant Ceasefire faux paux by the Philippine Government but it wasn't the last arrest of a major NDFP/CPP/NPA figure in the lead up to the formal resumption of the Peace Process on February 15, 2011. Just 4 days later an even larger NPA luminary would be taken down, and end up wearing a bullet for his trouble. If Brigano was considered a big fish for leading an NPA Front Command, how much more valuable was the arrest of Tirso "Ka Bart" Alcantara who commands an entire Regional Committee? Indeed, in his prime Alcantara nearly gained control over the entire NPA nationwide, but those days are long gone and today Alcantara leads the Southern Luzon Regional Committee.
Today Alcantara still busies himself with Tactical Planning but nearing his mid-60s he has gotten a bit too soft in the britches. How else then to explain just why he allowed himself to forgo the number one rule of revolutionries the world over by becoming a creature of habit? At 830PM on January 5, 2011, Alcantara and fellow NPA member Apolonio "Ka Polly" Cuatro had just left an NPA safehouse in Lucena City's Barangay Ibabang Iyam in Quezon Province when his luck finally ran out. A joint operation by Quezon PPO (Police Provincial Office) and the 1st Special Forces Battalion of the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) fell upon him. Disregarding a command to raise his hands Alcantara ended up with a bullet in his rear.
The AFP would soon defend the operation claiming that Alcantara brought it all upon himself by reaching for a 45 caliber pistol tucked into his waistband. After securing their two prisoners the combined force recovered two hand grenades,nine blasting caps and five meters of detonating cord. Taken on 23 separate warrants for among other things, 8 counts of Murder and 2 counts of Robbery in a Band, Alcantara was down for the count. Intially taken to SOLCOM (Southern Luzon Command of the AFP) Headquarters Hospital at Lucena City's Camp Nakar he was soon transferred to Metro Manila's V.Luna Hospital where he was handcuffed with both wrists to the bed frame, in excruciating pain.
Naturally the NDFP/CPP/NPA screamed bloody murder, swearing up and down that Alcantara is yet another JASIG (Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees) protected NDFP "Consultant to the Peace Process." Still, as loud as their collective voices screamed then, it would be nothing like the din they would raise on the initial opening of the resumed Talks in Oslo on February 15th. Just a day earlier, February 14th at 630PM the combined forces of the Baliuag MPO (Municipal Police Office) and the 56IB (Infantry Battalion) snared the Government's biggest catch yet, Alan Jazmines.
63 year old Jazmines is the Secretary General of the CPP, or Communist Party of the Philippines. Elected in 2008 as a compromise between two competing factions the ex-university lecturer cum poet slash Communist ideologue was arrested on 13 separate Murder charges in Barangay Subic in Bulacan Province's Baliuag. Initially taken to Camp Santos in Malolos, Bulacan he was quickly transferred to Camp Crame in Metro Manila's Quezon City. Coming as it did just hours before the Talks began there were critics from both ends of the political spectrum. Definitely not one of the brighter acts undertaken by the Government. When Jazmines protested, claiming JASIG protection, he was reportedly told, "F-ck JASIG." If any one quote could succinctly describe the GPH take on the Agreement, THAT would be it.
With Jazmine's incarceration the NDFP claim of wrongly jailed JASIG protected personalities topped out at 15 people. However, other than briefly, albeit strongly, touching upon these 15 cases in NDFP Peace Panel Chairperson Luis Jalandoni's Opening Speech on February 15th, THAT issue would have to wait until formal introduction vis a vis the Talks' itinerary.
As the second day began at 10AM on February 16th the two Panels agreed to re-convene Reciprocal Working Committees for the 2nd Component of the 4 Part Interim Agreement, or as both Panels refer to it in this embryonic stage,"Four Part Substantiative Agreement." The 4 components:
1) Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, aka "CARHRIHL." CARHRIHL was jointly signed on March 16, 1998.
2) Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reform, or "CASER." When Talks last ended in 2004 the 2 Peace Panels had agreed upon the Preamble and little more than its Declaration of Principles. CASER is considered to be the most difficult component and is the one being dealt with currently, with both sides aiming to sign it by September of 2011.
3) Comprehensive Agreement on Political and Constitutional Reforms, or "CAPCR."
4) Comprehensive Agreement on End of Hostilities and Disposition of Forces, or "CAEoH/DoF," though it is usually abbreviated as EoH/DoF.
The second facet, CASER, as noted is barely past the very first portion of that large facet. The Reciprocal Working Committee for CASER, or RCW-SER (RCW-Social Economic Reforms) was tasked with working out its own schedule within the facet's stated time frame.
Next the Panels discussed formation of Working Committees, or "WCs," to try and gain a head start on the 3rd facet,the Comprehensive Agreement on Political and Constitutional Reform. The idea being to ease the effort of the yet to be formed Reciprocal Working Committees (RWC) on the 3rd component, RWC-PCRs. The WCs will each have 1 Chairperson, 2 members, and 2 consultants. Though they did butt heads at this First Formal Round they will hold a series of bi-lateral meetings, the first to be held in April of 2011. There after they will hold 1 bi-lateral meeting in June and then again in August. The goal as it stands is the convening of RWC-PCRs by October of 2011. Each RWC-PCR can empanel a 3 to 5 person "Committee of Sages" or "Resource Persons."
Last on the agenda that second day, February 16th was the re-conveneing of the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) for CARHRIHL,the first component. The JMC-CARHRIHL had been disbanded not long after its last meeting in July of 2005. Since that time, nearly 6 years, no mechanism existed to receive complaints regarding perceived violations of CARHRIHL by either side. With no entity to receive these complaints absolutely nothing was done about them. At the re-convening the JMC discussed producing a set of Supplemental Guidelines on the JMC and agreed to submit a Draft on the issue at a later, still unspecified date. They also began working to establish Protocols for the Complaint Process vis a vis CARHRIHL and finally,agreed to meet in March of 2011.
Days 3 and 4, February 17th and 18th, consisted of the aforementioned RWC-SER, WC-PCR and JMC-CARHRIHL getting back into the groove as their compatriots on the actual Panels brainstormed amongst themselves.
The RCW-SERs began by simply removing each side's RWC's progress since their initial formation in 2001. As I have noted both in this entry and the preceding entry (Part I) the RWCs had been able to agree on Preamble and Declaration of Principles. Then the RWCs decided on a revised set of guidelines for their component's development process. In doing this they took into account the April of 2004 list of unresolved issues on the component. Lastly, the 2 RWCs agreed on a schedule of 3 bi-lateral meetings:
1) 2nd week of June, 2011, to discuss basis, scope and applicability. Currently there are still major conceptualisation and ideation issues. The NDFP aims for Agrarian Reform, but GPH refuses to even touch it above and beyond the ridiculous CARP and CARPER, virtually worthless programmes. I will discuss those Governmental boondoggles and NDFP opposition to them in an entry on CASER. For the sake of brevity, the GPH approached the NDFP's Agrarian Reform wishlist by referring to "Asset Reform." It needs to be noted that 2 weeks prior to this first bi-lateral meeting both RWCs will exchange Working Drafts on CASER, so that the 1st meeting is a revision meeting more than anything.
2) 2nd week of August, 2011, will serve to iron out whatever kinks still remain.
3) 4th week of August, 2011, simply to concur on any last minute additions or deletions.
On the 5th day of the Talks, February 19th, the entire day consisted of both Panels engaging in a plenary session regarding 5 issues:
1) JASIG Violations that had occurred in the 6 year interval between Formal Talks. Naturally most of this session was devoted to the afore mentioned 15 arrestees, especially Brigano, Alcantara and Jazmines.
2) Both Panels attempted to come to some sort of a consensus regarding acceptable lists on JASIG protected individuals. This is no easy feat in that despite JASIG having 2 subsequent signed Agreements that sought to rectify the very ambiguous wording regarding the issues of JASIG ID and the identity of ID holders since, per the Agreement, the JASIG IDs are printed under fictitious names.
3) The 2 Panels then heard the initial report of the just re-convened RCW-SERs.
4) They then heard the reports of the just re-convened WG-PCRs.
5) Finally,they heard the report of the just re-convened JMC-CARHRIHL.
Because of the limited amount of time the 6th day, February 20th was reserved for completion of the previous day's plenary session.
On the final day, February 21st, both Panels issued a Joint Communique after which a brief Closing Ceremony was held and finally both Panel Chairpersons, the GPH's Alex Padilla and the NDFP's Luis Jalandoni held the customary Question and Answer Session. Except for a near bombshell of a revelation by Jalandoni, which was fully confirmed by Padilla, there was nothing worth noting. The bombshell being that the CPP/NPA is no longer considered to be a terrorist organisation by the Government. The listing had been the product of vindictiveness when the NDFP/CPP/NPA had refused then President Arroyo's precondition of an unconditional ceasefire prior to sitting backdown to the table in the early months of her Presidency. It took her nearly three years but in 2004 she got her wish as the United States ridiculously added the CPP/NPA to its list of terrorist organisations. When the EU moved to follow suit the Talks collapsed.It is was a positive development indeed because truth be told, for all its very real faults, the CPP/NPA is far from anything "terrorist." No word as to whether President Aquino will move to have the US re-consider its placement of the group on its list.
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