The peace negotiations with the communists were mired, but Aquino is still tenacious about it, however, it seems that the other party still need to be more cooperative.
In an interview over Bombo Radyo, Aquino said that “Government is always open to talking peace. But we also need to see their sincerity.”
It was said that the communist rebels began making “impossible demands” with respect to the peace negotiations shortly after the Mamasapano catastrophe in late January. The president did not specify though.
The latest talk was terminated due to the contentious list that the rebels want to be given immunity and safety guarantees, according to Aquino.
The list was submitted more than a decade ago to a third party but could no longer be verified because the diskette containing the names was corrupted.
“So now they said, they would come up with a new list,” Aquino said.
“But it seems all those on the [new] list were ones whom government has arrested. It’s like the Monopoly game where there was a ‘Get out of the jail card free.’ And if we arrest someone, the person might be included in the list and that was not what we had agreed on,” he said.
According to Aquino, one of the reasons given by the communists to walk out of the talks is this controversial list of consultants to be granted immunity under the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees.
President Aquino also moaned the special track initiated by the communists leader Jose Ma. Sison, he said that the communists had gone back to it.
The special track was not implemented because of disagreements between the two parties. Sison’s special track proposed, among other things, focusing on discussing an end to resentments. The peace talks under the special track would not include a panel-to-panel negotiation but would involve only the panel chairs and other personalities.
Aquino is all out when it comes to peace negotiations, but his objective is for the whole nation to benefit from it. He would like to prevent the peace negotiations to be the cause of something that only the communist rebels would benefit.
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