Why does the GRP refuse to declare a SOMO in five provinces of Mindanao for the release of the POWs?

Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal
Spokesperson
Communist Party of the Philippines
February 10, 2002

Gen. Eduardo Ermita, Macapagal-Arroyo�s adviser on the peace process, declared this February 8, that the GRP will not suspend military operations in five provinces of Mindanao for the release of the prisoners of war being held by the New People�s Army. Such refusal impedes the proper release of the prisoners of war under the custody of the Valentin Palamine Command of the NPA in Far South Mindanao, including Sergeant Jeremias Rosete and three other spies of the AFP.

Ever since, the release of prisoners of war of the NPA always carried the non-negotiable requirement that the GRP implement SOMO in areas to be covered by the release. The objective is to avoid encounters between the NPA and the AFP/PNP that would certainly endanger the lives of the prisoners, the NPA custodial unit, unarmed elements who have something to do with the release, and others.

Ermita asks why SOMO has to be implemented in an area as extensive as five provinces. Such is necessary to avoid the possibility of treacherous AFP/PNP operations along the route and area of release of the prisoners of war and to avoid the AFP/PNP�s bearing down on a limited location, which they would surmise had served as the prisoners of war�s place of detention. The NPA has learned a bitter lesson from the release of Philippine Army Major Noel Buan, because after he was released in Oriental Mindoro in Abril 2001, continuously and for a long time standing the AFP has been thrashing the province with large-scale and ruthless military operations.

Ermita also wants the NPA to simply let walk away and send home the the prisoners of war. This cannot be, since they remain the responsibility of the NPA for as long as there is yet no formal process of their turn-over to the GRP, which has to be officially witnessed by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the families of the prisoners, doctors and others who need to ascertain that the prisoners are alive and well treated and to see the actual release of the prisoners by the NPA.

But the GRP also has a malicious intent in refusing to implement a SOMO for the release of the prisoners of war: The GRP is now using this to make white appear as black and to confuse the issue. According to Silvestre Bello III, chief negotiator of the GRP peace panel, the revival of peace talks is being denied because of the �failure of the NPA to release its prisoners of war�.

This distorts and turns truth upside down: The NDFP is the one which has been persevering for the continuation of the peace talks. On the other hand, the Macapagal-Arroyo regime has been the one obstructing it. The past months, on the basis of one or the other convuluted reasoning the regime has time and again scuttled the resumption of peace talks that have already been scheduled.

The GRP�s intent at refusing to implement SOMO in areas of Mindanao to be covered by the release of the prisoners is to prevent their proper release and thus be able to utililize this as additional pretext for their continuing refusal to resume the peace talks, and to give priority and momentum to the launching of large-scale and intense military operations there by the AFP.

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