Duterte scraps truce with Left rebels

manila — The Philippine government will withdraw from a ceasefire with communist rebels, President Rodrigo Duterte said, as he ordered soldiers to prepare to fight and declared there would be no peace with the insurgents for a generation.

Duterte was angered by the deaths of six soldiers and the abduction of three since the New People’s Army (NPA) halted its unilateral ceasefire on Wednesday.

He complained that despite making multiple concessions to the communists, the NPA’s demands were “just too huge”.

The conflict between the government and the NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), has raged since 1968 and killed more than 40,000 people.

“I have lost many soldiers in just 48 hours, I think to continue with the ceasefire does not, or will not, produce anything,” Duterte said in a speech. “I am asking the soldiers: Go back to your camps, clean your rifles and be ready to fight.”

The ceasefires called by both sides were always fragile because they were unilaterally declared, with no rules to follow. Each side accused the other of violations.

Within weeks of taking office in July last year, Duterte made a peace process a priority and a prerequisite for his ultimate goal of introducing a federal system in the Philippines.

He offered leftists cabinet posts and promised — if peace talks succeeded — a portfolio for Jose Maria Sison, his former university professor and the CPP figurehead who lives in exile in the Netherlands.

Sison is listed by the United States as a “person supporting terrorism” and the Philippine government last week tried to convince Washington to remove him from the list.

“I’m really very sorry. I tried my best but like in the song, my best was not good enough,” Duterte said.

“There will be no peace in this land vis-a-vis the Communist Party. Let’s resume the war.” —