Palace: Duterte yet to issue formal notice on termination of talks

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte is yet to release the government’s formal notice of termination of peace talks with the communists, Malacañang said Wednesday.

“Officially, there’s none,” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella told a press conference when asked if Duterte already prepares a written termination notice to the communist group.

Duterte scrapped the peace negotiations with the communist group on July 20 as he lost his cool on the series of attacks

launched by its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA) against the security troops.

In his second State of the Nation Address (Sona) last July 24, Duterte reiterated that the government peace panel would no longer pursue the dialogue with the communist leaders.

“To the Lefts, I will not talk to you. Why should I?” the Chief Executive said in his Sona delivered at Batasan Complex in Quezon City. “I am a bully to the enemies of the state. So if you don’t want to talk to me, I do not want to talk to you and I do not want you. So you don’t want to talk, I don’t want it too.”

The termination of Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (Jasig) between the government and the communists would effectively put an end to the negotiations between both parties.

The Jasaig, which defined the mode of termination of peace negotiations, states that talks can only be terminated upon written notice provided by one part to the other. It is deemed terminated “30 days after the receipt of the notice of termination.”

This was not the first time Duterte terminated the peace deal with the communists. On February 4, Duterte was prompted to cancel the dialogue with the communist group, a day after it lifted the unilateral ceasefire with the government forces.

The talks resumed in April following the successful back-channel talks between the government and communists peace panels.

In a chance interview with Palace reporters on Monday, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the government peace panel is still awaiting Duterte’s “final instruction” regarding the cancellation of talks initially scheduled in August.

“We are waiting for the final instruction. To terminate the talks, we have to write them to inform them that we’re terminating. It will take effect 30 days after the receipt of the letter, if they receive the notice of termination, assuming that we send it,” Bello, government’s chief peace negotiator, said.

“We will write [the notice of termination] upon instruction of the President. If he said we send a formal termination, then we would do that,” he added.

Asked then if Duterte’s pronouncement was just a bluff, Bello said the President is serious in his remark not to push through the peace negotiations.