Why the continued encounters? Government adviser asks of Reds

THE PHILIPPINE government on Tuesday said it is seeking the communists’ explanation on recent attacks by leftist fighters to security forces as the state continues to question the rebels’ sincerity in reviving the stalled peace talks.

Members of the New People’s Army ( NPA), the communists’ armed-wing, raided a police station in Iloilo City last Sunday and seized communication equipment and various weapons, including assault rifles, pistols, and ammunition.

The government, in response, condemned what it called an “opportunistic” attack by the NPA, which came after the state reciprocated the Reds’ declaration to refrain from undertaking offensives in Mindanao.

Commission on Higher Education ( CHEd) Commissioner Prospero de Vera, who is among the government advisers in the negotiations with communists, said peace talks should continue “but it must always be within the parameters of having a conducive environment.”

“We will have to keep on telling them (communists) and asking them why, in spite of their pronouncements, clashes still happen on the ground. They have to be the one to answer that,” Mr. De Vera said in an interview at Malacañang yesterday.

“That’s why in the last round, in the fifth round, the President instructed the peace panel not to continue with the negotiations because the environment for conducive negotiations was not present,” he added.

Last month, Peace Process adviser Jesus G. Dureza said the government is “maintaining” its decision to withdraw from the fifth round of talks, adding that there are “no compelling reasons” to change that.

Negotiations were stalled after communist combatants ordered “intensified” attacks in response to President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s martial law declaration in Mindanao to combat terrorists linked to the Islamic State ( IS) group.

Ka Julio Montana, spokesman of the NPA’s Coronacion Chiva “Waling-Waling” Command, said in a statement on Monday that the target of the NPA attack in Iloilo were police officers who were allegedly involved in extortion activities.

But the military branded the NPA’s reason for the assault as “panis (cliche),” adding that the armed rebels “took advantage” when government forces were “spread thin.”

To note, the raid happened in the wake of the redeployment of the Army’s 82nd Infantry Battalion from Panay island, where Iloilo province is located, to Lanao del Sur to augment government forces battling proIslamic State ( IS) extremists in Marawi City.

For its part, Malacañang yesterday said Mr. Duterte is not terminating the peace process despite the NPA’s recent attack.

“As of this moment, there is no instruction from the President to discontinue the government’s peace negotiations,” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto C. Abella said in a press briefing. —