Duterte eyes consultations as Reds set to silence guns

MANILA, Philippines - President Duterte will need to first convene the National Security Council and consult Congress, the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police before deciding on matters involving the peace process with the Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front (CPP-NDF), such as declaring a unilateral ceasefire. 

The CPP-NDF said yesterday that its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), would declare a unilateral ceasefire not later than March 31.

The CPP-NDF is expecting the government to declare a similar ceasefire as part of an agreement reached during backchannel talks from March 10 to 11, the group said in a statement.

Consultations are needed to avoid any incident that may endanger the lives of police officers and soldiers and “aberrations in the system of talking about peace,” the President said yesterday.

Duterte said he would call for a meeting to determine whether “it would be good at this time” to declare a ceasefire with the communist rebels.

“We fight as warriors, but we do not kill people as criminals. I was furious when I learned that an Army soldier was shot 74 times,” he said, as he recalled an incident that prompted him to lift the ceasefire last month.

Duterte wanted the NPA to recognize that there is only one territory and Republic of the Philippines.

“They must release all hostages, including soldiers and civilians, and shun extortion,” he said.

“I want a ceasefire agreement in writing, the parameters established properly. To say that my soldiers and policemen cannot enter any territory, I do not recognize any territory for them,” he added.

In a speech during the groundbreaking of a drug rehabilitation center in Bukidnon yesterday, Duterte said he might have shared ideals with the communists, but stressed he is not a member of the group.

The President said he would do everything to preserve the trust and confidence given to him by the Filipinos who elected him.

“I asked the NPAs… I am a leftist that is why we have excellent rapport when I was mayor… We shared the same horizon about the society. I am a leftist. I am a socialist but certainly, I am not a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines. It’s a party of the extreme left.” 

Negotiators from both sides agreed on March 12 to resume the peace process in the Netherlands from April 2 to 6, a month after Duterte cancelled the talks.

The CPP-NDF urged Duterte to order the military to “slow down its ongoing military operations and aerial bombing and shelling campaigns in rural communities to help create a favorable atmosphere for the mutual ceasefire.”

To boost the peace talks , the communist group said it expects the government to release 19 elderly and sick political prisoners as well as five detained consultants of the NDF.

It said the NPA released on Friday two “prisoners of war” in Mati, Davao Oriental as a confidence-building measure and would set four more prisoners free.  – Christina Mendez, Artemio Dumlao