A Pact Among Rogues

Shortly before it was ousted, the Estrada administration forged a “peace agreement” with a group of supposed guerrillas in Negros. As it turned out, this pact was sponsored by Marcos and Estrada crony Danding Cojuangco, whose interests are being protected by the rebels, who are, in turn, being supported by the military. Members of the clergy as well as peace advocates are now up in arms over the “farcical agreement,” especially because the Arroyo administration seems bent on implementing it.

By JOE DATO-ON
Bulatlat.com

BACOLOD CITY - Calling it a "farce" and "an arrangement, not an agreement," peace advocates and clerics of the influential Catholic Church here have rejected the peace agreement signed by the Estrada administration and the Revolutionary Proletarian Army (RPA) that the present administration appears bent on implementing despite the fears and apprehensions of several quarters.

The sentiments about the agreement were aired during the start of a three-day Church-initiated peace forum here last Wednesday meant to explain the "flaws" in the agreement signed last December 10, shortly before Joseph Estrada was ousted from power.

On Monday last week, Bishop Vicente Navarra submitted his resignation from the panel, which had been formed by the government to review the agreement. Navarra cited as reasons these same "flaws" that, according to him, made the pact "not really indicative of the will of the people," especially those of Negros, where the RPA, which broke away from the New People's Army (NPA) in 1993, is concentrated.

Among the questioned provisions in the agreement is one allowing 100 RPA insurgents to carry firearms in their "controlled" areas to "assist in the maintenance of peace and order."

Critics of the pact also fear that the "development projects" to be funded by P500 million in government funds are actually intended to favor the interests of industrialist Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., the Marcos crony who was also a close associate and patron of Estrada. The former president had acknowledged Cojuangco as the "broker" of the agreement.

Not Acceptable

Monsignor Victorino Rivas, former vicar general of the Bacolod diocese and one of the forum organizers, stressed that the agreement "will never be acceptable to the Church."

"The flawed agreement," he said, "will someday lead to war and we don't want that to happen again in Negros."

In fact, Rivas indicated that the agreement was never acceptable to the local Church, which had considered it a "farce" ever since its "hasty" signing a mere two weeks after Estrada formed a peace panel headed by now senator Edgardo Angara, who took over Haydee Yorac, who resigned at the height of the jueteng scandal.

Rivas said many in the local clergy had been apprehensive about Navarra's appointment to the review panel but later agreed that the bishop's inclusion might be used as a venue to air their reservations and seek a renegotiation of the pact.

But things came to a head, leading to Navarra’s resignation, after the panel "dismissed" the reservations Navarra raised with Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Eduardo Ermita, Rivas said.

Immediately after Navarra's resignation, National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said there was no way the government would agree to a renegotiation of the agreement with the RPA.

“Farcical Agreement”

Before he quit, Navarra consulted his priests. "The consensus made was that this is not an agreement but an arrangement," Rivas said. "It is proper that the Church, as advocates of genuine peace, should distance themselves from a farcical agreement."

Rivas also disclosed that he had been offered the fifth seat in the Joint Enforcement Monitoring Committee supposed to be formed after the agreement is approved but "declined because I have a lot of apprehension and fear." The other members are two representatives each from the government and RPA.

Rivas' fears have long been shared by many Negrenses. Even before the agreement was signed, heavily armed RPA units had already been conducting what local police justified as "citizen's arrests" of wanted persons who were then turned over to authorities.

However, at least two of the supposedly "wanted persons" have also been executed by the insurgents. The apprehensions grew when Negros Occidental police director, Supt. Geary Barias, defended the RPA's open display of firearms at ceremonies marking their anniversary this year at their "headquarters" in Don Salvador Benedicto town.

Barias said the rebels had not violated any laws, including the then enforced election gun ban, because they were inside their "territory." Although the Army's position at the time ran counter to Barias's, Col. Alphonsus Crucero, commander of the 303rd Infantry Brigade, recently acknowledged they were under orders to suspend offensive operations against the RPA and for their officers to, in fact, undertake "consultations" and "confidence building" measures with their rebel counterparts.

The result, apparently, are the persistent reports, especially in southern Negros, of joint operations conducted by the RPA and military units.

In fact, in an obvious allusion to these reports, Rivas said the military and RPA "have already become friends" because of the agreement.

Lately, the RPA upped the ante, issuing "summonses" to civilians to appear at its headquarters to answer charges. Although National Security Adviser Roilo Golez vehemently denied that the peace agreement gave the RPA police powers, the provision allowing 100 RPA rebels to carry firearms states that it is to enable them to "assist in the maintenance of peace and order within the areas controlled by the RPA."

Cojuangco’s Hand

As for the supposed hand of Cojuangco, these suspicions were bolstered when, some months ago, RPA national commander Stephen Paduano, also known as (aka) Carapali Lualhati, confirmed that his men had been protecting a controversial "corporative" project owned by Cojuangco in the hinterland village of Pinggot in the southern Negros town of Ilog.

In fact, Lualhati had said, the RPA would be willing to lend the same protection to "all capitalists" with similar projects so long as these projects were "for the people."

The Cojuangco project, which settlers in the area say will lead to their dislocation, had been opposed by Navarra when he was still bishop of Kabankalan.

It was originally set up by former Don Salvador Benedicto mayor Nehemias de la Cruz, an alleged henchman of Cojuangco who, reports said, also happens to be the "senior military adviser" of the RPA.

Although President Arroyo was supposed to be identified with the Lakas-NUCD during the May 14 elections, Lakas's local partner in the People Power Coalition, the Aton Tamdon Utod Negrosanon of former governor Rafael Coscolluela, has accused the administration party, particularly presidential husband Miguel Arroyo and his brother Ignacio, of engineering a "sell out" of the local party machinery to the United Negros Alliance, a local party identified with Cojuangco.

Sinister Motive

Aside from this, Rivas saw a more sinister motive in the Arroyo government's eagerness to implement the agreement. "The military plans to use the RPA for their counterinsurgency (campaign) against the NPA while the RPA's motive is to use the government for funding and power," he said.

And, while dismissing the notion that the RPA has any area it can claim to control, Rivas said, "With firearms, (the RPA) plans to expand its areas and this encroachment could sooner or later lead to an encounter with the NPA, which will result in another armed conflict."

The RPA and NPA, in fact, clashed in the southern Negros town of Candoni some three months ago, the first encounter between the rival factions since the split in 1993. Bulatlat.com

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