GPH chief negotiator speaks with a forked tongue

PRESS STATEMENT

By FIDEL V. AGCAOILI

Spokesperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel

8 September 2011

**GPH chief negotiator speaks with a forked tongue**

Alexander Padilla, chairman of the negotiating panel of the Government
of the Philippines (GPH, formerly designated as the GRP), speaks with
a forked tongue. He agrees to have his panel hold the next round of
formal talks with the negotiating panel of the National Democratic
Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in Oslo in October. But at the same
time, he says something else that makes impossible such formal talks.

He denies the obligation of the GPH to release the JASIG-protected
persons from prison in accordance with the Joint Agreement on Safety
and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) by saying that the GPH or he is merely
“open to releasing said persons but is not giving any assurances”.

Even now, he is practically blocking the possibility of formal talks.
There can be no formal talks if the GPH does not release all or most
of the JASIG-protected persons that should have been released before
June 2011. The releases must be made three weeks before the formal
talks so that both negotiating panels and the third party facilitator
have ample time to prepare.

The Aquino regime is condoning and continuing the violations of the
JASIG and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and
International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL). It continues to keep in
prison the JASIG-protected persons and the 350 other political
prisoners whose human rights have been violated since the time of the
Arroyo regime.