‘REDS’ TO GET 4 CABINET PORTFOLIOS

THE Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) will play a key role under a Duterte government because the group has been promised at least four Cabinet portfolios.

President-elect Rodrigo Duterte said he will offer the Departments of Agrarian Reform, Environment and Natural Resources, Labor and Social Welfare and Development to the CPP if the group wants to participate in his administration.

“They are the most vigilant group in the Philippines about labor so they would get it. DSWD [Department of Social Welfare and Development] at madami pang iba

[and many more] but those are the only departments I can concede to them, those four. Maganda na ‘ yan [ That’s pretty fair],” he added.

Duterte also named some of the personalities he is considering for various Cabinet posts.

He said he will ask his running mate, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, to choose between the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Justice.

If Cayetano opts to remain as senator, he said he will respect that.

According to the mayor, he asked former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Perfecto Yasay to serve as acting Foreign Affairs secretary for a year.

He also offered the Department of Finance top post to his friend, Carlos Dominguez, and the Department of Transportation and Communications to Clark Development Corp. president Arthur Tugade.

Meanwhile, Peter Laurel will be appointed as Education secretary while former Press the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.

Former Justice Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd will be named chief peace negotiator with the CPP.

Duterte said the CPP’s military arm, the New People’s Army, should also realize that “[ he is] with government and [ he is] also the enemy.”

“But I offer my hand in peace to [ Jose Maria] Sison and to the rest and we can talk,” he added.

Sison was Duterte’s former professor at the Lyceum of the Philippines University in Manila.

The mayor said Sison is welcome to return home after nearly three decades in exile in The Netherlands and participate in peace talks.

“Yes, he is welcome. I am happy with the statement that he is coming home. I would very much want to talk to him about resolving the insurgency problem,” Duterte added.