The Philippine government has agreed to free at least two communist guerrillas and pledged not to arrest two others in an effort to revive long-stalled peace talks aimed at ending a bloody 40-year rebellion, an official said yesterday.
The concession was made to allow the four guerrillas to join peace talks that will resume on Aug. 28 in Norway, presidential peace process adviser Avelino Razon Jr said.
One of the suspected rebels, Elizabeth Principe, has been freed and another, Randal Echanis, may be released from detention soon, Razon said.
Two other communists at large but facing criminal charges — Vicente Ladlad and Rafael Baylosis — will not be arrested while involved in the talks, Razon said. They are among 87 rebel consultants in the peace process.
“We’re giving peace a chance,” Razon said.
Peace negotiations collapsed in 2004 after the communist New People’s Army blamed the Philippine government for its inclusion on US and European lists of terrorist organizations.
The rural-based communist rebellion, one of Asia’s longest, has claimed about 120,000 lives and has been blamed by the government for stunting economic growth. Rebel assaults have continued despite efforts to revive the Norwegian-brokered talks.
In the most recent attack, communist rebels stormed a military outpost in southern Davao del Norte {rovince at the weekend, seizing several assault firearms. They briefly held four people, including a soldier, to cover their escape and later freed the hostages unharmed, army spokeswoman Captain Rosa Maria Cristina Manuel said.
The renewed peace negotiations are expected to focus on rebel demands for social and economic reforms, rebel negotiator Luis Jalandoni said.
The broad agenda will include land reform, the country’s huge foreign debt, good governance, official corruption and alleged human rights violations by government forces, he said.
The rebels will also likely press a long-standing demand for the release of dozens of other political detainees, Jalandoni said by telephone from the Netherlands, where he lives in exile.
The 120,000-strong military has been carrying out sporadic offensives aimed at crushing the insurgency before Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo steps down in June next year.
The guerrilla force reached a peak of about 25,000 fighters in the middle 1980s during the time of dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Only 4,874 communist guerrillas remained as of May, down from 5,239 at the end of last year, the military said.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home
TIGHTENING: Zhu Hengpeng, who worked for an influential think tank, has reportedly not been seen in public since making disparaging remarks on WeChat A leading Chinese economist at a government think tank has reportedly disappeared after being disciplined for criticizing Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in a private chat group. Zhu Hengpeng (朱恆鵬), 55, is believed to have made disparaging remarks about China’s economy, and potentially about the Chinese leader specifically, in a private WeChat group. Zhu was subsequently detained in April and put under investigation, the Wall Street Journal reported. Zhu worked for the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) for more than 20 years, most recently as the Institute of Economics deputy director and director of the Public Policy Research Center. He
CHINESE ICBM: The missile landed near the EEZ of French Polynesia, much to the surprise and concern of the president, who sent a letter of protest to Beijing Fijian President Ratu Wiliame Katonivere called for “respect for our region” and a stop to missile tests in the Pacific Ocean, after China launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). In a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, Katonivere recalled the Pacific Ocean’s history as a nuclear weapons testing ground, and noted Wednesday’s rare launch by China of an ICBM. “There was a unilateral test firing of a ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean. We urge respect for our region and call for cessation of such action,” he said. The ICBM, carrying a dummy warhead, was launched by the