Drilon backs Duterte on talks with insurgents

Government engaged in ‘back channel talks’ with Communist Party of the Philippines

Opposition Senator Franklin Drilon has said he supports President Rodrigo Duterte’s call that the peace negotiations with the communists insurgents be held in the Philippines rather than abroad.

“I support the President’s decision. The venue of the next round of peace negotiations with the rebel groups should be the Philippines,” Drilon, the Senate Minority Leader said yesterday.

“It’s about time that we change the venue of peace talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF) and it is about time that it takes place on Philippine soil,” Drilon, who served as a peace process adviser in the past administrations, said.

The government had been engaged in “back channel talks” with the Communist Party of the Philippines — New People’s Army — National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) and several rounds of peace negotiations under the Duterte administration had been held in Norway and the Netherlands.

On Wednesday, the president unilaterally said he was cancelling the succeeding rounds of the talks and if the parlays do proceed, it should be held in the Philippines.

Direct involvement

Drilon, pertaining to insistence by Duterte to hold the talks in the Philippines said the insurgency is better settled by those directly involved.

“While the Norwegian government has played a valuable role in the country’s peace process, “the time has come for the Philippines and the CPP/NPA/NDF to talk among themselves,” Drilon said.

“The peace talks have always been held in an international ground but it did not seem to accelerate discussion. Let the real peace talks begin in a local arena. No third party this time,” the senator said.