It would be major, major.
Answering a question in the press con on August 22 in Oslo about the major stumbling block or difficulty in the peace negotiations of the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), Chair of the NDFP Negotiating Panel Luis Jalandoni considers an agreement on social and economic reforms “a major, major achievement.”
It is the the current agenda of the peace talks.
“We in the NDFP consider that an agreement in social and economic reforms will be a major agreement, the task that will be challenging to both sides,” said Jalandoni.
The difficulty lies in that finally providing the rights and interests of the farmers for land to till would go against the comforts of the landlords that own and control vast lands, as expounded by the NDFP in the opening of the peace talks.
“But to have an agreement of genuine land reform will mean about 75 million of the population out of 100 million who aspire for land reform, this will be a major agreement if both sides can bring it about and will give a push also for the simultaneously being negotiated political and constitutional reforms,” added Jalandoni.
“So I would like to stress this idea on social and economic reforms as a major, major task, challenge and achievement,” added Jalandoni, channeling this once-famous interjection or pop culture expression in the Philippines.
What would the discussion and agreement on social and economic reforms contain?
“We will be working on land reform, so that’s the first thing. And rural development, that’s the partner of land reform. And of course, the most important thing would be national industrialization. We have to put the Philippines on a good industrial footing so that it can develop economically,” said Julieta De Lima, Chair of the Reciprocal Working Committee on Social and Economic Reforms for the NDFP.
Other issues that would be tackled include workers’ rights and welfare, environmental reforms, social welfare, education and culture.
“We have to think of how to finance national industrialization and all the reforms that need to be made and I think it’s going to be a fairly long process of negotiations,” explained De Lima.
The GPH peace panel said they wanted to come up with substantial achievements in the peae process in six months to a year.
“If there is political will on the government side to undertake these reforms, especially because, for land reforms for example, people who are pro-people have been appointed, for social welfare we have progressives, for Department of Labor, I think we can speed up negotiations,” said De Lima.
President Rodrigo Duterte offered four Cabinet posts to the Communist Party of the Philippines, which the latter recommended to progressives.
