REUTERS) — Seventeen communist guerrilla leaders in the Philippines, granted bail by the courts to attend peace talks next week in Norway, vowed on Friday (August 19) to return home after the five-day negotiations rather than flee.
Seven weeks in office have earned President Rodrigo Duterte a reputation as an implacable foe of drug dealers, but he was elected in May on a promise to negotiate the end of two long-running insurgencies, by Muslims and communists.
About two dozen left-wing activists picketed outside the Philippine National Police headquarters until the rebels’ top leaders, Benito Tiamzon and his wife, Wilma, appeared to meet them.
At a news conference shortly after their release, the communist rebels said they will not run away from their responsibilities.
“We will return home. The negotiations in Oslo is only one part of the process and there are other talks happening in other venues, there are many groups who will talk about different issues,” said Benito Tiamzon, the the highest ranking leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
“To the remaining political prisoners, we will continue the fight to ensure your freedom because the only solution to unjust imprisonment is immediate freedom,” Wilma Tiamzon said, adding that there were still over 500 political prisoners held by the government, Muslim rebel leaders among them.
Talks brokered by Norway between the government and the Maoist-led rebels’ National Democratic Front stalled in 2012 over the government’s refusal to free communist leaders who had been in jail for decades.
Security forces feared the rebel leaders could take advantage of the peace talks to stay overseas, or use them as a pretext to consolidate their ranks and rebuild their guerrilla army.
In 1987, the founder of the communist party, Jose Maria Sison, went to the Netherlands months after being freed from nine years of detention, but never returned. He sought asylum in Utrecht and has lived there for nearly 30 years.
Tiamzon said the release of political prisoners gave them confidence that current talks have better prospects to end nearly 50 years of conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people.
He said the two sides hoped to negotiate a ceasefire in talks, which begin on Monday (August 22), and will discuss political, economic and constitutional reforms, among other issues.
Five rebel leaders still in detention hope to join the 17 traveling to Oslo for the talks.
