PHL hopes for peace deal with CPP-NPA-NDF within a year

Negotiators from both the government and the National Democratic Front have agreed to accelerate the negotiations to come up with a peace agreement in nine months to a year.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, the chairman of the GPH panel, said the government has adopted a timeline of nine months to a year.

Luis Jalandoni, the chairman of the NDF panel, said the negotiations would not be easy "but we will try to accelerate."

Bello and Jalandoni made the remarks as the two sides started the negotiations in Oslo, Norway in an attempt to end one of Asia's longest running insurgencies.

"We will do away with the usual sequencing and instead of the original sequence provided under the eighth joint declaration, we will consider a simultaneous discussion of the three remaining substantive issues of socio-economic reforms, political and constitutional reforms, and the end of hostilities and disposition of forces," Bello said.

"With this new process, we are confident that we will be able to achieve our timeline," he noted.

Jalandoni also gave an idea of how their first round of negotiations would go.

"We say that the mode of ceasefire will be taken also with the amnesty declaration for the release of the political prisoners and then also the number three ageanda will take up the acceleration," Jalandoni said.

Jalandoni, nonetheless, said that the discussions must not be rushed.

"It will not be easy. The road to peace has its humps and bumps... It will not be easy even though we try to accelerate," Jalandoni said.

"It has to be done thoroughly so it will be firm and stable," he added.

The government and the rebels hope to breathe new life into the peace process by discussing simultaneously – contrary to previous attempts – the outstanding issues of social and economic reforms, political and constitutional reforms, and an end to hostilities.

"On the part of the (government) panel, we have imposed a timeline of nine to 12 months," Bello told reporters.

"With this new approach, we are quite confident that we will be able to achieve our timetable," Bello said.

Jalandoni confirmed the timetable but was more cautious in his optimism about reaching a political settlement after 30 years of failed talks.

"I think we will try to do it in one year but it might take a little more time because the negotiations on social and economic reforms could take more time," he told AFP.

"It's more complicated than some may think," he said.

Established in December 1968, the Communist Party of the Philippines launched a rebellion three months later that has so far claimed the lives of 30,000 people, according to official estimates.

The New People's Army (NPA), its armed faction, now counts just 4,000 members, down from 26,000 in the 1980s, though it enjoys the support of the poorest people in rural areas.

The closed-door talks in Oslo wrap up on Friday. —NB/GMA News with a report from Agence France-Presse