Just anti-US rhetoric not enough, rebels tell Duterte

Communist guerrillas warned that a peace deal with President Rodrigo Duterte’s government is unlikely to be reached if he won’t end the Philippines’ treaty alliance with the United States and resist foreign control by other countries he’s trying to befriend, like China and Russia.

In a clandestine news conference in a New People’s Army guerrilla encampment tucked in the harsh wilderness of the Sierra Madre mountains southeast of Manila, regional rebel commander and spokesman Jaime Padilla outlined the advantages and downside of talking with Duterte to end one of the world’s longest-running Marxist insurgencies.

Founded in 1968, the rebels’ communist party has held peace talks with six Philippine presidents, including Duterte.

The guerrillas have found themselves in a dilemma due to Duterte’s moves they find reprehensible, including the killings of large number of poor drug users that sparked accusations of massive human rights violations against him.

While the president has gotten attention with his angry threats to end the presence of American forces in the country, stop joint combat exercises with US troops and terminate a defence accord with Washington, Padilla said Duterte has, so far, not formalised these utterances and instead has walked back on many publicly-stated policies.

“While the Duterte government hasn’t abrogated all these treaties, the New People’s Army will have no reason to enter into a friendship or alliance with him,” Padilla, 69, told a small group of journalists escorted into an encampment ringed by mostly young rifle-wielding guerrillas.

“That’s not negotiable because as long as the US military has a presence, the imperialist influence on Duterte’s government will remain,” said the bespectacled Padilla, who wore a Mao cap with his 9mm pistol within reach on a wooden table.