” Bello emphasized.
In his keynote address to the international conference, NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison said the NDFP has been ready to resume the talks but that as early as the first formal meeting of the negotiating panels in February 2011, the Aquino government attacked the 1992 Hague Joint Declaration, which sets the framework for the talks, as a “document of perpetual division.”
He added that the government misrepresented as a precondition the NDFP’s demand to release detained consultants in compliance with the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).
Bello said he doesn’t think Aquino wants to junk all previous agreements and begin the peace process again from scratch.
“The Aquino government is aware that it is not correct to junk the Hague Joint Declaration which serves as the framework for the peace talks. Any person who knows his business should know that in order to be credible, you have to honor your agreements,” he stressed.
Bello added that the Presidential Adviser on the peace process may have played a role in the government’s flawed position on the talks. He said President Aquino should consider getting the advice of other members of his
cabinet and people who have a deeper background on peace negotiations.
Asked if he would be willing to become a member of the GPH peace panel again if requested, Bello replied: “Only if I don’t lose my congressional seat because I have a mandate. I could probably join as an adviser, not as
panelist.”
Bello’s call for the resumption of the peace talks with the NDFP echoes similar calls of detained NDFP peace consultants Ramon Patriarca who is detained at Camp Lapu-Lapu in Cebu City and Pedro Codaste, who is detained
at the Malaybalay City Jail. Patriarca began a hunger strike last July 11 that will end on July 22 when President Aquino delivers his State of the Nation Address (SONA).
