NPA kills 3 soldiers as Duterte eyes peace talks

Communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels killed three soldiers in the first fatal clash since incoming president Rodrigo Duterte expressed willingness to restart stalled peace talks, the military said yesterday.

The soldiers were on the island of Negros on Saturday investigating reports that NPA guerrillas were extorting money from villagers when they clashed with about 10 rebels, leaving three soldiers dead and two wounded, a military report said.

The violence comes just days after Duterte said he was open to resuming peace talks aimed at ending a decadesold insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

After his May 9 election victory, Duterte’s spokesman said the firebrand politician might release jailed communist rebels in an effort to reopen peace talks.

Incumbent President Benigno Aquino ended talks with the rebels in 2013 over the rebels’ demand for the unconditional release of their detained comrades, which the government was unwilling to grant.

Duterte, a hardline mayor accused of running vigilante death squads that have allegedly killed more than a thousand crime suspects in Davao City, is a friend and former student of the Netherlandsbased Jose Maria Sison, who founded the Communist Party of the Philippines in 1968.

Duterte, who takes office on June 30, has previously described himself as a socialist.

Running for almost half a century, the communist insurgency has claimed 30,000 lives, according to military estimates.

The rebels’ strength has dwindled to less than 4,000 fighters from a peak of more than 26,000 in the late 1980s, according to the military.

However it retains support among the deeply poor in the rural Philippines.

Meanwhile, the leftist peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas ( KMP) yesterday welcomed Duterte’s plan to resume peace negotiations with the communist-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

The KMP issued the statement after Duterte spokesman Peter Laviña said he would consider allowing exiled communist leaders to return for the talks and that he would review the status of political prisoners.

Laviña also said the Duterte administration would not be averse to releasing detained rebels so they could take part in the talks, and that it would also allow old and ailing ones to get treatment outside of prison.

KMP secretary general Antonio Flores said Duterte’s proposal to release political prisoners is a welcome development for peace.

“We are keeping our fingers crossed that peace negotiations between the NDFP and the incoming Duterte regime would lead to the forging of an agreement on social and economic reforms that include genuine land reform,” Flores said.