THE communist-led New People’s Army (NPA) released on Sunday in Surigao del Sur a town mayor and two of his military security aides after holding them captive for two months. The day earlier, the rebel group also released in Bukidnon four jail guards they abducted in July while they were transporting to the Davao Penal Colony a group of prisoners; they freed one of the prisoners, a communist guerrilla.

The release of NPA captives took place barely a week after the rebel group staged  simultaneous high-profile attacks on three mining firms in Surigao del Norte, torching assorted mining equipment and two barges easily worth tens of millions of pesos. While no one was hurt in the raids, the suspension of the mining firms’ operations has left thousands of workers jobless. The rebel groups said the raids were the result of the mining firms’ destruction of the environment, rather than their refusal to pay the so-called revolutionary tax.

Malacañang has welcomed the release of the captives, saying that confidence-building measures such as this could advance the stalled peace process with the CPP-NPA-NDF. This is in marked contrast to its reaction to the raids on the mining firms, which it said would adversely affect the peace negotiations.

But I’m afraid the peace talks have nowhere to go but down. It’s been doomed right from the start. It’s a colossal waste of time, energy and effort at this point.

The trouble is the CPP’s official stand on peace negotiations, which is fighting while negotiating. The communists view the peace talks as an arena for advancing the main form of struggle, which is the armed one. Thus, the peace talks are aimed mainly at extracting political concessions and to gain propaganda mileage, with the release of captives under the care of the International Committee of the Red Cross, a sure sign  that there’s no deviation from set policy.

The NDF demand that the government release its so-called consultants and advisers is now a big stumbling block to the resumption of formal talks. Again, that is consistent with the NDF policy on peace negotiations. 

Then there’s the agenda of the talks. The political, economic and social reforms that the CPP-NPA-NDF wants is a rehash of its “Program for a People’s Democratic Revolution,” anchored on armed struggle that has been in place since the founding of the CPP in 1968.  The “genuine agrarian reform” and “national industrialization” (including the nationalization of the oil industry, as if the country had an oil industry of its own) that the rebels demand from the government is the same demand that they pursue through armed struggle. For the government to give in to these demands is to essentially hand over power to the CPP-NPA-NDF on a silver platter.

But it’s not only the NPA that’s at fault. The government side is equally to blame for the failure of the peace talks to move forward. The government is willing to grant political concessions to the communists only in so far as these would placate restive sectors reeling under longstanding poverty. In other words, it is not prepared—or willing—to meet the fundamental demands of the rebels, as this would mean throwing the Constitution and the democratic setup out of the window.

And it’s not just the NPA that’s pursuing “dual tactics” in the same vein as fighting while negotiating. Soldiers trained to fight and kill cannot be expected to treat the enemy with kid gloves and carry a copy of the UN Declaration on Human Rights in their back pockets.

If the peace negotiations are to go anywhere, there should at least be a temporary cease-fire while the talks are ongoing. The NPA abhors the idea of any cease-fire, except during Christmas and New Year, as they say this is tantamount to surrender.

I can understand the extreme frustration felt by the chief government negotiator, Atty. Alex Padilla, over the lack of progress in the talks. I think he was chosen for the job presumably because he had been sympathetic to the rebel cause during the Marcos dictatorship and could use moral suasion to convince the NDF to agree to sit down and talk. But I doubt if he can convince the CPP Central Committee that the Aquino administration is sincere—and willing—to grant fundamental reforms that would solve Asia’s only remaining communist insurgency. 

Nevertheless, while I think that any comprehensive peace agreement between the government and the NDF is a pipe dream, and the current peace negotiation is fundamentally an exercise in futility, it should continue if only to prevent more violence and bloodshed. 

One less casualty on either side and one less family left grieving and despondent over the loss of a loved-one is enough reason to sit across the table and to nurture the hope that peace can still come to this benighted land at some time in the future.

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