Government urged to declare 2-day Christmas ceasefire with CPP-NPA

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Imee Marcos called on the Armed Forces of the Philippines to declare a unilateral ceasefire with communist rebels to allow Filipinos to celebrate a “peaceful” Christmas.

Marcos urged the military to suspend offensive operations from December 24 to 25.

“Malaking bagay ang dalawang araw na ceasefire sa mga sundalo natin. Ang makapiling nila ang kanilang mga pamilya kahit sa loob na barracks ay sapat na para maipagdiwang nang mapayapa ang Pasko,” she said.

(A two-day ceasefire means a lot to our soldiers. To be with their families even inside barracks is enough to celebrate a peaceful Christmas.)

A ceasefire, which the military calls a Suspension of Military Operations, only covers offensive operations.

According to a SOMO issued by the Palace in December 2017, security forces "will continue to undertake defensive military and police actions and movements as may be necessary to secure civilian communities, government establishments and instrumentalities, military installations and bases, and will not be precluded from the right to self-defense."

Marcos said that the New People’s Army will not receive any sympathy from the public if they continue attacking government forces during the holiday season.

AFP is not inclined to recommend a truce between state forces and communist insurgents this holiday season because it can be used by the NPA to recruit and regroup, its spokesman Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo told CNN Philippines.

The information bureau of the Communist Party of the Philippines said the party has yet to come out with a statement on Marcos' call for a ceasefire and on the prospect of a ceasefire.

Borongan attack

An NPA attack on a police vehicle in Borongan, Eastern Samar last week that left a policeman and an elderly woman dead complicates the prospect of a holiday truce. The attack, done with an imporvised explosive device, left at least ten others, including an infant, wounded.

The government has said the attack could affect a possible resumption of peace talks, which have been on and off since 2016. 

The CPP declared a unilateral ceasefire during the 2018 Christmas season, which also coincided with the party’s 50th anniversary, despite peace talks already being called off at the time. The government, however, did not reciprocate by declaring a truce.

Christmas ceasefire has been a customary move by both sides since the launch of formal talks in the late 1980s.

In 2017, the peace talks with the rebel forces were formally scrapped after President Rodrigo Duterte collectively declared CPP and NPA as a “terrorist organization.”

But early in December, Duterte announced he would send Labor secretary Silvestre Bello III to the Netherlands to talk to CPP founder Jose Maria Sison in what the president called his “last card” for the effort to revive the botched negotiations.

Bello headed the since dismantled government negotiating panel. Sison, meanwhile, is chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, which represents the rebels at peace talks. — Gaea Katreena Cabico