PH to restart talks with Reds Agence France-Presse Posted at - TopicsExpress



          

PH to restart talks with Reds Agence France-Presse Posted at 12/26/2014 2:31 PM | Updated as of 12/26/2014 2:34 PM MANILA - The Philippine government and communist rebels said Friday that formal negotiations to end a lengthy insurgency could restart shortly, though the rebels armed wing announced it was beefing up its guerrilla campaign. Peace talks regarding one of the worlds longest-running insurgencies, which have been on-and-off since the 1980s, may resume as early as the second half of January, Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison said in a video message on Facebook. Back-channel talks to prepare the agenda for formal negotiations have been ongoing since September and agreements on a ceasefire and social and economic reforms may be finished before President Benigno Aquino steps down in 2016, said Sison, who is in exile in the Netherlands. Teresita Deles, presidential adviser on the peace process, did not give a timeline for the negotiations, but told AFP that Sisons remarks were very positive and indicated that common ground between the two sides was broadening. Friends of the peace process have been shuttling between the two parties to explore possible parameters for restarting talks at the earliest time possible, Deles said of the back-channel negotiations. So far, feedback has been positive but there remain matters to be clarified in order to ensure that, if ever we do resume talks, it will not go the same way of an early, major impasse that has happened too often in the past, she said. However, the communists armed wing, the New Peoples Army (NPA), marked the 46th anniversary of its founding on Friday with a call to intensify its guerrilla campaign. (We) must seize and control the initiative by launching more frequent and sustained tactical offensives with occasional blows to the head of the enemy, the group said in a statement.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 10:07:47 +0000

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