So it is finally here!
The delegations for both the GPH and the CPP-NPA-NDF have finally met in Oslo, Norway for the long and outstanding peace talks that shall pave the way for a just and lasting peace. It is with great expectation that both parties will be in painstaking state to craft an antidote to the socio-economic conditions that had prevented the progress of our motherland—which also triggered this decades long, worn out and protracted civil war that already claimed so many lives from both sides.
President Rodrigo Duterte will be represented by negotiators led no less by DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello, many considered him a maverick of peace process and has maintained amiable relationship with the other side of the panel. Duterte choosing Bello to lead the talks for the Philippine Government is indicative of his sincerity to finally put this warring at the countryside to bed.
On the Reds side of course will be Jose Maria Sison leading a multi-decade core group of cadres that led the revolutionary movement under the banner of CPP-NPA-NDF. Joma or JMS, of course is either the hero or the heel of our political history depending on which side of the political spectrum you are on. Often vilified and demonize for his ideology, yet none of the regimes that sprouted post-Ferdinand Marcos era has figured out to put Joma dead on his tracks.
JMS is no evil! Only a right-wing, oppressive oligarch with an insatiable tongue to boot lick the imperialist gods can say he is so. JMS for decades now has been the face of the longest–running Maoist revolution. And it would be an understatement that as long as the country is ruled by leaders that had sold their souls to the imperialist gods, we can only expect them to discredit JMS and his ideology furthermore.
Benito Tiamzon, if the media's claim him to be a high cadre official that he is, then his gesture upon being reunited with JMS for almost three decades in Oslo speaks highly of the revered CPP founder. Tiamzon referred to JMS as the "tanglaw" or the guiding star of the Philippine revolution. That even on exile, Tiamzon implied the contributions made by JMS to the revolutionary cause had made it to what it is today. Still in fighting form, and to borrow Tiamzon's wife, Wilma's own lines, "Hindi matalo-talo!" We are here today in talks of peace because of the continuous exposés made by the Left as to why the status quo remain oppressive and exploitative—or probably a lot worse than it ever was.
JMS pointed out that the failure of peace talks in the past administrations dating from Cory Aquino to his son Noynoy Aquino had something to do with their insecurities from the military forces. While military must be answerable to the commander-in-chief, their actuations change the second they feel that the government shows warmth and acceptance to the forces of the Left. In a political way, the military is oriented to be in the side of the rightists and whichever imperial monsters feeding its armament. And this is the reason why these past administrations never took the peace talks with the left seriously. Surprisingly, only Fidel Ramos, a military general before he joined the Philippine political fray, has made such tremendous achievement as far as talking to the Reds are concerned. Only in his term as President where the JASIG (Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees) was created and observed. JMS viewed Ramos as someone confident enough to deflect any coup attempts by the military as he knew how it is being an ex-general himself. Which brings us to how President Duterte acted so strangely the past month regarding with his relationship with the Left. His actions obviously was a way to appease the military that almost to the detriment of the peace talks as the antagonism between him and JMS took the media in frenzy—to the gleeful cheer of the oligarchs and right-wingers who hope that these talks would eventually bog down.
The impasse on the peace talks of the previous regimes only speak of their political motivation and made a joke out of the supposed serious undertaking. A lot of the ridiculous demands on the government's side, like the JASIG-protected negotiators to surrender first before joining the talks are one of the many preconditions that made it impossible for the process to advance to start with. Also, putting well-known anti-revolutionary personalities to the peace talks of before only made it worse.
Both sides are poised to turn the tables now! Optimism brew even after the exchanges of tirades of the leaders of both sides may have seemed dampen the warmth seen at the beginning of the preliminary talks. Duterte already reassured NDFP through Satur Ocampo not to mind what he said in the media against JMS and in his own showing of goodwill, JMS still showed reverence to Duterte in his opening speech at the beginning of the peace talks in Oslo. Both leaders looked to bury the hatchet and set their prides aside in order to achieve something no regimes had ever accomplished.
#RevolutionGo
