Ariel Arbitrario, a participant in several formal rounds of peace negotiations between the NDFP and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines from 2016 to 2017 was killed with two others last September 11 in Barangay Baliuag, Peñabalanca, Cagayan, the CPP said.
Throughout his first two years in Malacañang, President Marcos Jr. has stayed silent on the issue of continuing the GRP-NDFP peace talks, which his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, had resumed in 2016 and then backed away from in 2019.
This is the third piece in a row I’ve written about perceivable hindrances to the smooth resumption of formal peace negotiations between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. It had been announced in early December that they had agreed to do so in Oslo, Norway, on Nov. 23.
Various groups expressed support for the possible resumption of formal peace talks between the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
In the last six years since former President Rodrigo Duterte terminated the peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, their peace consultants, including those who publicly participated in the peace process, were subjected to a series of bloody and vicious attacks.
The document said both parties agree to a principled and peaceful resolution of the nearly 55-year old armed conflict.
Progressives welcomed Sen. Loren Legarda’s call to resume the peace talks between the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
We don’t owe the Joint Hague Declaration solely to FVR. But that he enabled that part of our history, which, to my mind is our march toward just peace, is a legacy that each president of the Philippines after FVR must be measured against.
It has been more than a week since Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son, and namesake of the late dictator, was inaugurated. But prospects for peace remain uncertain with the newly-installed administration neither having a peace adviser nor a clear stance on how it will proceed with the peace process.
President Duterte has just over a month to go in his six-year term. He could help much in enabling the succeeding administration to resume the GRP-NDFP peace talks, by removing a number of obstacles that his presidency has put in place.
NDFP Negotiating Panel interim chairperson Julie de Lima said Loida Magpatoc is a member of the NDFP Reciprocal Working Committee on Social and Economic Reform and should be immune from arrest.