MANILA – After President Rodrigo Duterte showed a sign of hope that peace talks with rebels might resume, the Communist Party of the Philippines said they are willing to negotiate with the government again.
It is up to Duterte if he wants to resume the peace negotiations he terminated via Proclamation 360, CPP founding chairman Jose Maria “Joma” Sison said.
But Malacañang was thinking twice. Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said on Sunday they were apprehensive in dealing with Sison who does not have control over his members.
“The standing policy of the (National Democratic Front of the Philippines) is to negotiate with the GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) anytime he (Duterte) is ready to resume the peace negotiations in accordance with The Hague Joint Declaration and further agreements,” Sison said in a statement released on Saturday.
Duterte terminated the peace negotiations in November last year.
“Ang problema naman kay Joma Sison ay gusto niya makipag-usap pero hindi naman niya kontrolado iyong mga nasa baba niya,” Panelo told a radio interview. “Habang nag-uusap, ina-ambush nila iyong mga pulis natin.”
Duterte, in a speech Friday, credited the rebels for helping him win the presidency in the 2016 elections, in what was perceived as a sign of hope for the resumption of the peace talks.
Hopes were high for the end of insurgency in the country when Duterte, a former student of Sison, assumed the presidency. Duterte would later become a fierce critic of Sison and the CPP amid rebel attacks on state law enforcement.
“Sabi nila we cannot be killing each other for the rest of our lives, e 50 years na kayong ganyan,” said Panelo. “Siguro mag-iba naman tayo ng ruta. Bigyan natin ng pagkakataon ang mga sarili natin, ang mga pamilya natin.”
Moreover Sison criticized the President for offering housing and work to rebels who would turn themselves in.
“Duterte is either trying to sound less hostile to the revolutionary movement or he is still hostile by trying to bribe the NPA fighters to surrender,” Sison said.
But the CPP leader agreed with Duterte that the NPA would continue to exist even when both of them were no longer alive.
“He (Duterte) is correct though in saying that the NPA will continue to exist even after he and I are gone from the surface of the earth, if by implication he means positively that the root causes of the armed conflict must be addressed and solved by social, economic and political reforms,” said Sison./PN
