By MARILOU M. AGUIRRE-TUBURAN | Davao Today
DAVAO CITY – Retired Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff General Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said he sees no conflict at all in his being a former military officer and his recent post as a peace adviser.
“As a man who has been into war, I understand what peace is all about,” Esperon said during a press conference initiated by the Mindanao Economic and Development Council (Medco) here recently.
He said he was not the first soldier who engaged in the peace process. He cited former retired general Manuel Yan, AFP Chief of Staff in 1968 appointed by former President Fidel Ramos as chair of the peace negotiations with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF); Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, former AFP Vice-Chief of Staff, appointed head of OPAPP by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2001; and Secretary Rodolfo Garcia, a retired general who now heads the Philippine Government (GRP) panel for talks with the MILF.
Esperon said he is keen on pursuing peace talks with the MILF if the Moro rebel group agreed to a ceasefire.
“A ceasefire is a decent thing to aspire in the early stage of the peace talks,” Esperon said.
He also said he will use the “soft approach” in dealing with insurgents–through civil-military operations and developmental activities in the peace process. When he was in the AFP, he used the right-hand or hard approach, which, he said, involved the use of arms.
President Arroyo appointed Esperon as head of OPAPP on June 6, replacing Medco Secretary Jesus Dureza. But militant groups criticized his appointment, saying that a civilian–instead of a military man–should be best suited for the post.
Peace and human rights advocates also doubted Esperon’s sincerity to negotiate peace with revolutionary groups like the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), when as former Chief of Staff in the Armed Forces he launched an all-out war against the Communist New People’s Army (NPA) and vowed to crush the revolutionary armed group by 2010.
President Arroyo extended Esperon’s term for three months supposedly to “continue his momentum” against the insurgency. In his last three months as Chief of Staff, Esperon vowed to dismantle 17 out of 87 guerrilla fronts across the country.
The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas in Southern Mindanao blamed Esperon for the relentless military operations and the deployment of soldiers in peasant and Lumad (indigenous) communities in Toril, Davao City; Baganga, Davao Oriental; and in Talaingod, Davao del Norte, where human rights violations such as forced evacuations were reportedly committed.
Suara Bangsamoro Partylist opposed Esperon’s assignment, saying that the government crackdown on the notorious group Abu Sayyaf Group in Basilan have led to the torture of innocent Moro civilians. Esperon used to head the AFP’s 103rd Infantry Battalion, which ordered the crackdown.
It was also Esperon who led the dismantling of MILF camp in Rajamuddah at the Liguasan Marsh in North Cotabato during deposed President Estrada’s all-out war campaign against the Moro rebels. Esperon commanded then AFP’s 602nd Infantry Brigade.
The Initiatives for Peace in Mindanao, a group of peace advocates, also claimed that under Esperon’s watch, the AFP implemented the Operational Plan Bantay Laya (Freedom Watch) which resulted to massive evacuations of communities, extrajudicial killings, disappearances and other human rights abuses against farmers, workers, activists, lawyers, religious and journalists.
Esperon was also linked to the massive cheating in the 2004 elections, when President Arroyo claimed to have won the elections. He was among the four generals mentioned in the “Hello Garci” tapes.
Gabriela Partylist Representative Liza Maza said that under Esperon’s leadership, the AFP reeked of graft and corruption. Maza cited Commission on Audit’s report that said more than 400 million pesos was not liquidated by the AFP excluding millions of pesos involved in inaccuracies in gas inventories and unsubstantiated book adjustments in 2006.
Talks with Communist rebels have been stalled since 2004.
Before it agrees to resume talks, the National Democratic Front required the government to stop the extrajudicial killings, the abductions, tortures and mass displacement of more than a million people and other human rights violations committed by the government troops; to drop the Communist Party of the Philippines, the NPA and NDFP from the list of terrorist organizations and to indemnify the victims of human rights violations during the Marcos dictatorship.
On May 13-15, weeks before Esperon assumed the OPAPP post, the GRP and the NDFP had an informal meeting in Norway.
In a statement, the NDFP has been saying it is “ready to engage in exploratory talks” and to agree on a “ceasefire” that will not mean “surrender” and “pacification of the revolutionary forces and the people.” (Marilou Aguirre-Tuburan/davaotoday.com)
Peace Process
