Philippines sets year deadline for Maoist peace talks

By Hader Glang

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (AA) - The Philippines set a year’s deadline Wednesday to wrap up peace talks with communist rebels that have so far yielded an indefinite extension to a ceasefire to facilitate further talks on a deal.

The deadline follows an Aug. 28 agreement between the two in Norway to "ensure immunity and security for key National Democratic Front Party (NDFP) representatives," allowing the political wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) to take part in continued negotiations.

Key members of the NDFP had previously been given temporary immunity to attend the talks.

"This is to allow the implementation stage of the peace process to take root before the President's term ends in year 2022," government negotiator Hernani Braganza said in a statement emailed to Anadolu Agency on Wednesday.

Braganza, who sits on the Philippines’ panel negotiating peace with the NDFP, said President Rodrigo Duterte is committed to sign a final peace agreement with the guerillas within one year, giving the administration five more years to start implementing key reforms mutually agreed on by both parties.

"The negotiation stage may be difficult, but the real test of the peace process lies in the implementation of social, economic, and political reforms mutually-agreed upon by both parties," he added.

He added that the Duterte government and the rebels share a common mission: address the root causes of the armed conflict.

According to the Philippines military, the Maoist insurgency -- waged since March 1969 -- has claimed more than 3,000 lives over the past eight years.

It estimates that the number of members of the CPP's armed wing, the New People's Army, has dropped from a peak of 26,000 in the 1980s to less than 4,000.

In 2014, initial peace negotiations failed because previous President Benigno Aquino III turned down the rebels' demand to release detained comrades -- accusing the rebels of insincerity in efforts to achieve a political settlement.

In Duterte's peace overtures, however, he has said that he will release all political prisoners if party leaders return from exile and sit down for negotiations.