PALACE: 3 LEFTISTS IN CABINET MAY KEEP THEIR POSTS FOR NOW

Malacañang on Wednesday said the three leftists in the Cabinet would remain at their posts despite the escalating word war between the Duterte administration and the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said President Duterte still had trust and confidence in Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano, Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo and National AntiPoverty Commission lead convener Liza Maza.

“They’re there. As long as they’re there, we can assume they still have his full trust,” Abella told reporters.

“That is the assumption because no action has been taken against them as far as I know,” he added.

“The [New People’s Army] and these Cabinet members are different. They’re not members of the NPA as far as we can see. What is important is they are doing their job in their agencies, in their departments,” Abella said.

He said he could not say if the positions of the three Cabinet members would be affected eventually by the growing rift between President Duterte and the CPP.

“[At] this stage, I cannot say that. As far as I know, no action has been taken against them,” he said.

PSG ambush

President Duterte said he would no longer talk with the CPP because its armed wing, the NPA, continued to attack government security forces.

Formal peace talks between the government and the CPP were supposed to resume next month.

The President got angry after the NPA ambushed a convoy of the Presidential Security Group in Arakan, North Cotabato, last week.

He insisted that there should be a ceasefire first before peace talks could proceed.

“You cannot ambush me and then ask me to talk to you. If I’m dead, whom will you talk to? Crazy guys,” Mr. Duterte said.

The communist rebels, however, have not given up on the peace negotiations.

“I’m still hoping that peace talks with President Duterte can still be revived,” Luis Jalandoni, former head of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the umbrella group of the local communist movement, told the Inquirer by e-mail on Wednesday.

Jalandoni said he believed that after several weeks, the controversy between the administration and the CPP would die down and the peace negotiations would resume.