President Duterte issued a directive on Monday that it will release about 50 political prisoners if he sees a signed bilateral ceasefire agreement.
Philippine President Rodrigo Roa Duterte will release the political prisoners under the custody of the Philippine government once he sees a signed bilateral ceasefire agreement.
This is according to Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Silvestre Bello III, who also serves as the government negotiator, based on their discussion with the President during the Cabinet meeting on December 5, Monday.
Secretary Bello quoted President Duterte saying “produce to me a signed bilateral ceasefire agreement and I will release them within 48 hours. You can take my word for it”.
In August, after the formal negotiations between the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front (NDF), the negotiating arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), the NDF agreed to produce and sign a bilateral ceasefire agreement.
This is to replace the unilateral ceasefire which was earlier declared.
Before August, 19 NDF consultants were released to join the formal peace negotiations.
But the government and the NDF failed to meet the October 26 deadline following conflicts on issues on the mechanisms and the absence of releases of political prisoners.
Bello said that before he demanded for a bilateral ceasefire agreement, President Duterte had promised to release the aged and sickly political prisoners for humanitarian considerations before Christmas.
The Labor Secretary said that President Duterte told them that once he receives “even just a facsimile copy of the signed agreement, he will immediately order the release of Communist rebels”.
Earlier, the National Democratic Front said that the release must not be considered only a humanitarian move but a compliance to the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).
According to the NDF, there were 434 political prisoners in the Philippines but the government said that there were only 200 who are eligible to be freed.