Ceasefire called off

MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte said he has revoked a ceasefire with communist rebels after the insurgents failed to reciprocate his declaration at the end of a 24-hour deadline yesterday.

Duterte had sought to bring the rebels back to the negotiating table in an effort to end one of the world's longest-running Maoist insurgencies that has claimed 30,000 lives since the 1960s.

"Let me now announce that I am hereby ordering for the immediate lifting of the unilateral ceasefire that I ordered last July 25 against the communist rebels.

"Correspondingly, I am ordering the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police to also withdraw the operational guidelines they issued in pursuance to that ceasefire declaration.

"I am ordering all security forces to be on high alert and continue to discharge their normal functions and mandate to neutralize all threats to national security, protect the citizenry, enforce the laws and maintain peace in the land," the statement read.

Formal talks were scheduled to begin in Oslo, Norway, on August 20. It was not immediately known whether this would push through.

Duterte issued the ultimatum after a government militiaman was killed and four others were wounded in what the military said was an ambush by the NPA in the southern province of Compostela Valley last Wednesday.

The rebels owned up to the attack, but said they were thwarting an Army offensive.

The NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, is believed to have fewer than 4,000 gunmen at present, down from a peak of 26,000 in the 1980s, according to the military.

However, it retains support among the poor in rural areas, and its forces regularly kill police or troops while extorting money from local businesses and politicians.