Statement of the PHILIPPINE PEACE CENTER Part 2

PRESS STATEMENT

By FIDEL V. AGCAOILI

Spokesperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel

30 August 2011

**Padilla makes a fool of himself on JASIG **

In declaring the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees
(JASIG) “inoperative”, Atty. Alex Padilla, Chairperson of the
Negotiating Panel of the Government of the Philippines (GPH, formerly
designated as the GRP), has practically terminated the JASIG without
the required issuance of a notice of termination by the GPH principal.

He brazenly violates the JASIG and spits on the signature of the GPH
principal. He usurps the authority of his principal and steps on his
head. He is unleashing a surprise attack by removing the safety and
immunity guarantees for the protection of persons involved in the
peace negotiations and by emboldening the armed agents of the GPH to
attack them.

The JASIG has been duly approved by the principals of both parties
(Fidel V. Ramos and Mariano Orosa on 25 April 1995 and 10 April 1995,
respectively) in the peace negotiations between the GPH/GRP and the
National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). It can only be
terminated by written notice of either principal, as was done by
Joseph Estrada on 31 May 1999.

The JASIG protects not only the holders of Documents of Identification
(DI) of the NDFP but also those publicly-known to be involved in the
GPH-NDFP peace negotiations as negotiators, consultants, staff,
researchers, security personnel and couriers of both sides. Moreover,
the JASIG makes possible the peace negotiations which can be ended
only when any principal decides to terminate the JASIG by issuing the
required notice of termination 30 days in advance before it takes
effect.

Padilla is determined to end the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations. As a
lawyer, he should know that encrypted photographs are photographs. He
also knows that encrypting these is dictated by security
considerations and the verification of these photographs is not
mandatory in the JASIG as he himself and his predecessors, Howard Dee
and Silvestre Bello III, have done.

Padilla is indeed a fool for failing to know and respect the full
scope and terms of the JASIG despite his being a lawyer and the GPH
chief negotiator. He is killing the peace negotiations by blocking the
release of all or most of the JASIG-protected persons in violation of
the JASIG and the 2011 Oslo joint statements.

Compliance with signed agreements is an absolute requirement in any
peace negotiations. It puts the sincerity of the parties to the test.
OPAPP Secretary Deles and Padilla are completely destroying the
prospect of a just peace through negotiations by attacking and seeking
to nullify The Hague Joint Declaration and the JASIG.

As early as May 2011, the NDFP proposed to the GPH the public exchange
of drafts on social and economic reforms in the presence of
representatives of the Royal Norwegian Government (RNG). It was
Padilla who blocked said exchange of drafts which should have opened
the way to well-informed and intelligent dialogue between the
reciprocal working committees concerned.

Now, he is making impossible the formal meetings of the panels and the
reciprocal working committees on social and economic reforms by
reneging on the obligation of the GPH to release all or most of the
JASIG-protected persons. He is misrepresenting as precondition the
demand for compliance with obligations under the Oslo joint statements
of January and February. If small obligations cannot be fulfilled by
the GPH, how can the people expect it to fulfill its obligations under
a comprehensive agreement on social and economic reforms?