Are the rebels really committed to peace?

The attacks recently perpetrated by New People’s Army have once again raised serious doubts about the willingness of the communist rebels to commit to the success of the peace negotiations with the government.

While the government has been religiously doing its best for the negotiations to push through, the latest incidents only triggered questions about the rebels’ sincerity in the effort to achieve eventual peace in the country.

In the first incident, a member of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit was killed when NPA rebels attacked a convoy of the Presidential Security Group in Arakan in North Cotabato on Wednesday. On the same day, the rebels gunned down two members of the Philippine Marines in Palawan.

Two days later, the NPA assaulted a group of policemen in Guihulngan City in Negros Oriental. The fatalities, including the city police station chief, were responding to a report about a city councilor being attacked by the NPA when ambushed by the rebels.

Those incidents are just the latest atrocities committed by the NPA rebels. They have been staging several attacks against military and police outposts, government installations and private businesses these past months as if to challenge the Duterte administration to armed confrontation. Some of these incidents happened even during the ceasefire.

Good thing President Rodrigo Duterte has cancelled the peace negotiations. He said he is fed up with these NPA attacks across the country that he is no longer interested in returning to the negotiating table with the rebels.

The problem with the communist rebels is that their leadership seems to have lost control over their ranks. While their leaders are discussing peace with the government, they too are busy attacking government forces in the countryside.

We cannot really blame Duterte for suspending the peace talks with the communists. Since the previous administrations, the government has been doing its part agreeing to some demands set by the rebels for the sake of saving the peace process.