Philippines, communist rebels agree to temporary cease-fire
MANILA, Philippines — Negotiators representing the government of the Philippines and communist rebels agreed to a temporary cease-fire Wednesday, moving closer to ending one of Asia’s longest-running insurgencies.
The agreement was reached at peace talks in the Netherlands, two months after guerrillas killed three soldiers and nearly derailed the process.
“We have already agreed on the final outcome of the talks: lasting peace and sustainable development,” said Jesus Dureza, the government negotiator. “This is not a case of one party giving in or giving up.”
In addition, President Rodrigo Duterte, speaking before a gathering of prosecutors in Manila, invited Jose Maria Sison, the self-exiled Communist Party leader and Mr. Duterte’s former college professor, to return to the Philippines to seek treatment for an unspecified disease. “I said, ‘You tell Sison, because he’s sick, very sick, he can come home,’ ” Mr. Duterte said he told his representatives. “I’ll give him freedom of movement. I’ll even pay for his hospitalization.”
In January, the government said it would formally ask the United States to remove Mr. Sison from its list of international terrorists. Mr. Duterte did not say if a request had been made.
Mr. Duterte abruptly ended negotiations in February after rebels killed and mutilated three soldiers. He has called on the rebels to release any troops they have in custody and cease collecting so-called revolutionary taxes, which for years have helped finance their insurgency.
The rebel militia, known as the New People’s Army, said it would comply with the agreed terms and free a police officer, and three soldiers seized in separate raids in the country’s South, according to Fidel Agcaoili, the communists’ chief negotiator.
In exchange, Mr. Agcaoili called on the army to withdraw from at least a dozen towns in the southern island of Mindanao, where recent clashes have erupted.
The communists have waged war for 48 years throughout the country’s poverty-stricken countryside. At least 35,000 soldiers, rebels and civilians have been killed in the fighting.
The rebels ended an earlier cease-fire in February after accusing the government of reneging on promises, including releasing jailed guerrillas and sending troops to rebel-held areas in violation of agreedupon terms.