MANILA: Formal peace talks between the Philippine government and communist rebels may resume in July, President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday night.
Speaking before newly elected village officials in Central Visayas, Duterte said that the government is talking to self-exiled Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison about the resumption of peace talks.
“I’m talking to Sison. We will start the talks maybe mid-July,” the president said.
Earlier reports said that discussions might resume in July after the two parties agreed on a preliminary peace agreement. This came as the government peace panel chair, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, disclosed that there were ongoing backchannel talks and “forward movement.” Sison said that the peace talks could start within the month.
In an online interview, Sison said that if the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) negotiating panel “agrees to a stand-down agreement” with the government (GRP) negotiating panel, the CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), “also agree and will follow the terms of the stand-down agreement.”
“The stand-down agreement creates a favorable atmosphere for the resumption of the formal peace negotiations and the interim peace agreement to be signed in Oslo, hopefully on June 28,” he said.
Sison said that it was premature for the government or anyone to suggest that the negotiations be held in the Philippines.
“A foreign neutral venue as mutually agreed upon in JASIG (Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees) is the best. A Philippine venue at this time would make the peace negotiations vulnerable to control by the GRP or to sabotage by ultra-reactionary elements,” Sison said.
The communist leader said that the exact date would be known only from the joint announcement to be made by the GRP and NDFP on or about June 9.
“The peace talks shall have begun on June 28 in Oslo as far as the panels are concerned. That is close to July anyway but not in Manila,” he said.
Sison had previously said that the government “has not yet removed the hindrances to the participation of six NDFP consultants in back-channel talks and bilateral discussions of the Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ARRD) and the National Industrialization and Economic Development (NIED).” He said that it was therefore necessary to reset the start of the stand-down to June 21.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, meanwhile, said that he had yet to talk with Bello and the presidential adviser on the peace process, Secretary Jesus Dureza, about the stand-down.
“We have to consult with our negotiators before we have a stand-down, and what they mean about a stand-down.” Lorenzana has expressed apprehension about whether the communist rebels would halt their operations, particularly the recruitment of new members and attacks.
The president in April ordered Dureza to work on the resumption of the stalled peace talks with communist rebels. In his directive, the president emphasized the importance of forging a cease-fire agreement to stop mutual attacks and fighting while talks were underway.
And last month Duterte announced that he had invited Sison to come home for “make or break” peace talks. He said that Sison agreed.
“I gave him a window of two months, very small,” the president said, adding: “I will see to it and will personally maybe escort him to the airport if nothing happens within that two months. I will allow him to go out. I will not arrest him because that’s a word of honor.”
Sison, in response, set some conditions for him to return.
“I have consistently declared that I will return home when substantial progress is already achieved in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations and my comrades and lawyers are satisfied with the legal and security guarantees,” he said in May.
“For my soonest possible interface with Duterte, the NDFP has considered my meeting at the signing of the Interim Peace Agreement, packaging the cease-fire agreement, amnesty proclamation and the ARRD and NIED sections of CASER (Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms) either in Oslo or Hanoi,” Sison said. He added that Duterte had insisted that the meeting be held in the Philippines.
Sison pointed out certain important considerations against prematurely returning to the Philippines.
First, he would be “going against the established mutual agreement to hold the peace negotiations in a foreign neutral venue in accordance with The Hague Joint Declaration and JASIG.”
Second, he would be placing himself and the entire peace negotiations “in the pocket of Duterte and at his mercy.”
And third, “any peace spoiler or saboteur would be able to destroy the entire peace negotiations by simply abducting or harming any NDFP panelist or consultant.”
Duterte eyes resumption of talks with rebels
Duterte eyes resumption of talks with rebels
- A foreign neutral venue as mutually agreed upon in JASIG is the best
- President Duterte emphasized the importance of forging a cease-fire agreement to stop mutual attacks and fighting while talks were underway
Florida braces for frost and possible snow flurries as winter storms hit other parts of the US
- The worst seems to be heading toward the Carolinas, but the Sunshine State’s humans, animals and even plants are preparing for winter weather
MIAMI: Florida won’t be getting hit with massive blankets of snow and ice like the rest of the US, but even frosty windshields and a few flurries can feel like Antarctica to people with permanent sandal tans.
The Midwest and South have been getting major winter storms for several days, and a giant cyclone forecast in the Atlantic Ocean is expected to pull that cold weather east as a powerful blizzard this weekend. The worst seems to be heading toward the Carolinas, but the Sunshine State’s humans, animals and even plants are preparing for winter weather.
Florida could experience record cold
Ana Torres-Vazquez, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Miami, said a cold front earlier this week has already caused temperatures to dip some, but the region could experience record-setting cold this weekend.
“It looks like temperatures across South Florida are dipping into the 30s (Fahrenheit) for most of the metro area and maybe into the 20s for areas near Lake Okeechobee,” Torres-Vazquez said. “And then the windchill could make those temperatures feel even cooler.”
Residents of South Florida are less likely to have heavy coats and other winter clothes, so Torres-Vazquez said it’s important to layer up lighter clothing and limit time spent outside.
Moving north, Tony Hurt, a National Weather Service forecaster for the Tampa Bay area, said there’s a 10 to 20 percent chance of snowfall in that region this weekend.
“Most likely if there’s any snow that does actually materialize, it’ll be primarily in the form of flurries, no accumulations,” Hurt said.
The last two times the area got snow was flurries in January 2010 and December 1989. The record for snowfall was in January 1977, with 2 inches (5 centimeters) of snow about 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of Tampa.
Despite the possibility of snow, Tampa will host the annual Gasparilla Pirate Fest on Saturday. And on Sunday, the Tampa Bay Lightning are set to host the Boston Bruins for an outdoor NHL game at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ home NFL stadium.
Few tourists visiting Florida will be swimming in the ocean or laying out on sunny beaches this weekend, but many attractions will remain open. Most of Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando will operate normally, though their water parks will be closed. Most of the state’s zoos and animal parks will also remain open while keepers take steps to protect the inhabitants.
Zoo keepers working to keep animals safe and warm
Zoo Miami spokesman Ron Magill said keepers have been setting up heaters and moving reptiles and smaller mammals to indoor enclosures, while primates like chimpanzees and orangutans are given blankets to keep themselves warm. Big cats and large hoofed animals generally do well in colder temperatures and don’t require much assistance from keepers.
“It can be invigorating for animals like the tiger, so they’ll actually become more active,” Magill said.
Outside the safety of the zoo, Florida’s native wildlife has evolved and learned to survive occasional cold snaps, though casualties will still occur, Magill said. Manatees, for example, have spent decades congregating at the warm-water outflows of about a dozen power plants around Florida.
But invasive, nonnative animals like iguanas and other exotic reptiles will suffer the most, Magill said. Iguanas in South Florida famously enter a torpid state during cold periods and even fall out of trees. They usually wake up when the temperature increases, but many will die after more than a day of extreme cold.
“At the end of the day, they don’t belong here, and that might be nature’s way of trying to clean that up a little bit,” Magill said. “That is a part of natural selection.”
Protecting crops is a priority for farmers
Florida’s agriculture industry is also bracing for the cold. Farmers are working to safeguard their crops as winter harvest continues and spring planting begins in some areas, Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association spokeswoman Christina Morton said.
“Preparations vary by crop and include harvesting and planting ahead of the freeze, increasing water levels in ditches, using overhead irrigation, and, in some cases, deploying helicopters to protect sensitive fields,” Morton said.
The Florida deep freeze comes as the arctic blast from Canada also spreads into southern states where thousands of people remain without power to heat their homes, and people in mid-Atlantic states prepare for possible blizzard conditions as a new storm is expected to churn along the East Coast.
Temperatures in hard-hit northern Mississippi will feel as cold as minus 5 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 21 degrees Celsius) when the expected strong winds are factored in, National Weather Service forecasters say. People in a large part of the southeastern US were under a variety of alerts warning of extremely cold weather on the way.
The storm expected to hit the Eastern Seaboard has prompted more warnings in the Carolinas and nearby states. That storm is expected to bring heavy snow and strong winds, which could create “dangerous, near-blizzard conditions,” the weather service warned.
