Rody not closing doors on peace talks with Reds
President Duterte is not closing the door to the peace process with communists, Malacañang said yesterday as the Maoist rebels rejected a plan to hold localized negotiations.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the President wants the communist rebels to display sincerity by stopping attacks against government forces.
“The President has not completely ruled out resumption of peace talks. What he wants to see is sincerity on the part of the CPP-NPA (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army),” Roque said in a press briefing. “The doors are not completely closed but he wants to see sincerity on the part of the CPP-NPA.”
Duterte called off the peace negotiations with the rebels last July after the CPP directed the NPA, its armed wing, to launch attacks against soldiers and policemen enforcing martial law in Mindanao.
The President placed Mindanao under military rule after Islamist militants occupied Marawi City last May 23. Marawi was liberated last month but Mindanao remains under martial law as government forces continue to track down terrorists in other parts of the island.
Duterte has since sent mixed signals on the peace process with the communists.
In a speech delivered last Oct. 5, Duterte said the peace negotiation with communists may not resume within his term “because it is not good for the country.”
Fifteen days later, the President said he would hold talks with the rebels but did not elaborate.
Duterte’s daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara DuterteCarpio, has announced plans to hold localized negotiations with the rebels as talks on the national level remain suspended.
But the CPP rejected the move, calling it a waste of time and money.
“Duterte’s local peace talks will surely fail in its aim of dividing the revolutionary forces waging a nationwide people’s war. The Duterte regime is wasting time and the people’s money in setting up these useless local peace committees, which will go nowhere and achieve nothing,” the CPP said in a statement.