MANILA, Philippines — Let the rebels themselves decide whether they will return to the fold of the law, presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said yesterday.
Roque defended President Duterte’s move to provide a mechanism for localized peace talks with the communist rebels in the countryside.
Roque also criticized Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Maria Sison for living a “comfortable” life in the Netherlands while his comrades die in fighting for their cause in the Philippines.
“The government’s offer for localized peace talks is to the fighting insurgents on the ground and not to their alleged leaders living comfortable lives in Europe,” he said.
“We will wait responses of those who are risking their lives and limbs on what appears to be a hopeless cause,” Roque added.
Roque made the statement after the CPP rejected the administration’s call following the failure of backdoor negotiations with the rebels last June.
Duterte is set to issue an executive order that will allow local officials to initiate peace talks directly with New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in their areas.
Roque said under the guiding framework for localized peace engagement, the President and his men agreed that it should be nationally orchestrated, centrally directed and locally supervised and implemented.
Roque said the guiding framework will assist local government officials in the peace initiative in their respective turfs.
On Friday, the CPP said the proposal to hold localized peace talks is doomed to fail.
The CPP described it as a worn-out psywar tactic to project victory in the face of the failure of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to suppress the communist insurgency.
“The entire leadership of the CPP in the Philippines, along with the national command of the NPA and all revolutionary forces under the National Democratic Front (NDF) – from Luzon to Mindanao –firmly reject this pretend ‘localized’ peace talks,” the CPP stressed.
The NDF, the umbrella organization representing the CPP-NPA in the moribund peace talks with the government, said the move to hold localized peace negotiations is bound to fail.
“The collapse of the peace talks is Duterte’s own doing and so will the failure of its localized peace talks scheme,” NDF Negros spokesman Frank Fernandez said.
Fernandez said the primary intention of the localized peace talks is to create disunity.
The AFP, on the other hand, said the government is better off dealing with the Muslim rebels than the communist insurgents.
Military spokespersons Col. Edgard Arevalo and Col. Noel Detoyato said the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have shown their utmost sincerity in their desire to find a peaceful settlement of the Mindanao conflict.
On the other hand, the CPP-NPA-NDF, despite government efforts in reaching out to them, have not in any way wavered from their original plan of toppling the government.
Detoyato cited last Thursday’s visit of MILF leaders to the AFP headquarters at Camp Aguinaldo. Among the Muslim rebel leaders who visited the military’s main headquarters were Sammy Al Mansour, the chief of staff of the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces.
Detoyato said he was touched to see his former enemies at the AFP headquarters. He said he and his men fought hard against them in the Liguasan Marsh and in the mountains of North Cotabato during his service as a company commander. – With Jose Rodel Clapano, Jaime Laude