PHILIPPINE Army chief Lieutenant General Emmanuel Bautista and Negros
Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. invited anew Ka Frank
Fernandez, head of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's
Army (CPP-NPA), to come out and sit down with a negotiating panel for a
peace talk.
"I respect Ka Frank, a former priest. If given a chance, I am willing
to sit down with him for possible peace talks. We are inviting him to
sit down and discuss with him problems and possibly come up with a
solution," Bautista said.
Bautista made the statement after he paid a courtesy call on Marañon
at the governor's office Wednesday with Colonel Oscar Lactao, commanding
officer of the 303rd Brigade and Major General Jose Mabanta, Commanding
General of the 3rd ID.
Baustita said that Ka Frank has been issuing statements to the media.
"I believe that he is still alive. I hope I would be given a chance to see him in person and talk peace with him," he said.
Marañon, on the other hand, emphasized that he has been extending his invitation to Ka Frank and the NPA for local peace talks.
"That has been my long standing invitation. I am very much willing to
sit down with him and, if he is sick, I will bring him to be the first
patient of the newly-built extension of the Teresita Jalandoni
Provincial Hospital," Marañon said.
Marañon started extending his invitation to Ka Frank and the NPA for
localized peace talks since his inaugural speech after he won the
governorship in 2010. He has been reiterating this in his speeches
during relevant occasions in the province.
Marañon, in fact, said that under his administration, the Provincial
Government has been giving support to the rebel returnees by giving them
livelihood projects, sources of income, jobs and scholarships for their
dependent children.
There are already about 40 rebel returnees in the province under the
Marañon administration and under the leadership of Lactao in the 303rd
Brigade.
Bautista also bared that in as much as the government would like to
pursue peace talks with the NPA, there are still obstacles hounding the
peace process which he did not elaborate on.
"I hope that we can iron out problems because it is only through
peace talks that we would be able to resolve the long armed conflict,"
he said.
He also said more Filipinos have already realized that the long struggle should be put to an end through peaceful solutions.
"I believe that we are gaining the peace in the sense that more
people realized that this has been a long struggle. That violence is not
the answer. Let's give peace a chance," Bautista said.
However, he said is it unfortunate that the rebels reply to the
government's invitation by sowing violence, citing the recent encounters
that claimed a number of lives of the soldiers and the rebels.
Bautista also described the peace and order in the province as
gaining improvement and that, he said, he also expects more improvement
in the coming days.
Marañon also described the army's performance in the province under Lactao as satisfactory.
Two top NPA leaders were already apprehended under Lactao's term, namely Romeo Nanta and Hernando Llorente.
However, the two were released from jail after they posted bail, which according to Bautista is part of the rule of law.
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