Rebels reject peace preconditons

MANILA: Philippine Communist guerrillas are willing to resume peace talks with the government if there are no preconditions, their leader said yesterday.

Mr Duterte campaigned in 2016 on a promise to end the nearly 50-year Maoist rebellion, which has killed more than 40,000 people to date. He promised to find a political solution but abandoned peace efforts in November complaining of repeated rebel attacks.

On Wednesday, he ordered his cabinet to work on a truce. It was not immediately clear what prompted his change of heart.

Jose Maria Sison, founder and leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) who has been living in exile in the Netherlands since the late 1980s, said the two sides can resolve their differences during negotiations.

“There should be no preconditions on the resumption of peace talks,” Mr Sison said in a radio interview, adding both sides “bring different positions to the table”.

Jesus Dureza, a presidential adviser, said in a radio interview there should be no attacks from either side before talks resume and the rebels must stop their habit of extortion.

These were not conditions, he said, only moves to create an “enabling environment”.

The New People’s Army has attacked mines, plantations, construction and other businesses and collected “revolutionary taxation” to finance its rebellion.

Mr Duterte’s spokesman, Harry Roque, said the president also wanted the rebels to drop their plan to join a coalition government because “that is absolutely not on the table”.

Sison said both sides must comply with previous agreements and “remove all obstacles and hindrances to the peace negotiations”.

The government and the communists’ political wing, the National Democratic Front, have been in on-again, off-again negotiations since 1986. Previous agreements have fallen apart when the government re-arrested rebels involved in the talks.

A military spokesman, Brig Gen Bienvenido Datuin, said the army would support the government’s peace initiative but “will continue performing our mission and mandate of protecting the people and security the state”.

Defence and military officials also doubt how much control political leaders abroad have on their fighters at home after attacks during peace negotiations last year.