Lorenzana cool to resumption of peace talks with Reds

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana yesterday said he would not recommend the resumption of peace talks with communist rebels.

Lorenzana said if President Duterte would ask his opinion, he would oppose the revival of peace negotiations with the insurgents.

He said nothing good would come out of it because of the unreasonable demands of the rebels.

“I have been very vocal, spoken and in print, against any more talks with these terrorists. Nothing good will ever come out of it unless we agree to all their unreasonable demands. They will call that progress and take ownership,” Lorenzana said.

He cited CASER or the Compre- hensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reform as one of the demands that the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) has been harping about to gain leverage. With CASER, the CPP-NPA can break off easily from the negotiating table if the government doesn’t agree to any part of it, he said.

Lorenzana has been criticized for his opposition to holding peace talks with the rebels.

Some 61 lawmakers signed a resolution urging President Duterte to continue pursuing peace with the rebels.

One of the lawmakers, Anakpawis Rep. Ariel Casilao, said Duterte should not listen to Lorenzana.

He also accused Lorenzana, the military and the police of belittling the gains of the talks, by hanging on to the idea that the peace talks can only be reopened if the NPA lay down their firearms.

“Of course, the military and the police want the firearms of the NPAs surrendered for the simple reason that there only two sectors in the Philippines authorized by law to bear arms: the military and the law enforcement agencies. All others are outlaws,” Lorenzana said.

He said the communist rebels refused to surrender their firearms because this will defeat their ultimate objective of toppling the government through the use of force.

Lorenzana said some of the leftist leaders, mentioning Casilao and CPP founder Jose Ma. Sison, are disconnected from the government’s idea of progress as far as the peace talks are concerned.

He said the peace talks progressed from September 2016 to February 2017, with both sides declaring unilateral ceasefires, but the NPA did not stand down.

“Opportunistic as they are, they were just using the talks to further their ends,” Lorenzana said.

He added the CPP-NPA is eager to resume the peace talks because the NPA fighters and their supporters are surrendering in droves.

The President has given notice that any business establishments found paying and helping the NPA would be closed.

Lorenzana said the third reason is the impending decision of the court declaring the CPP-NPA as a terrorist organization.

He stressed the CPP-NPA will just use the peace talks with the government as their so-called democratic space to gain time and advantage to further their armed rebellion.

Last November, Duterte scrapped the peace negotiations with communists, accusing them of bad faith in attacking government forces while talks were ongoing.

Duterte has described holding talks with communists as a “waste of time.”

The Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC), on the other hand, hailed the 61 congressmen supporting the resumption of peace talks with the communists.

“PCEC welcomes the resolution and has consistently maintained that a just, lasting and sustainable peace cannot be achieved through armed means, but only through a determined and sincere commitment to see through the peace negotiations to its successful conclusion,” PCEC national director Bishop Noel Pantoja said in a statement. –