MANILA – Whether or not the peace negotiations with the Communist Party of the Philippines resumes depends on President Rodrigo Duterte, according to the Department of Defense.
Sixty-one members of the House of Representatives urged the government to hold peace talks with the rebels again.
“I will have to defer to the decision of the President … but the Defense department will not approach the peace talks,” Defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana said on Monday.
Lorenzana, who is personally opposed to the peace talks, said he wants to know what the rebels want now.
“We have been talking to them for the past several decades, nothing is happening,” he said. “Now … it seems like they are begging for peace talks again, so I don’t know what the purpose of this is.”
In November last year Duterte signed Proclamation 30 ordering the termination of all peace negotiations and meetings with the rebels amid the acts of violence attributed to the New People’s Army, the communist party’s armed wing.
“I have to talk to the President first and get his sense because he gets to have more information that I do,” said Lorenzana. “It would be his (Duterte) decision [and] we have to abide.”
“But, personally, I am not in favor of it (peace talks),” the Defense official stressed.
As this develops, the Armed Forces of the Philippines called for support in thwarting the acts of the NPA, which is expected to celebrate its 49th founding anniversary on March 29.
“Our forces will continue to be on a proactive stance against all threats of violence and will exert every effort to preserve the peace in every locality,” the Armed Forces said in a statement on Monday.
But soldiers and police officers “cannot do it by themselves.”
“We call on our people to help in the preservation of peace in their community by reporting suspicious individuals or activities,” and avoiding public gatherings linked to the rebel group, said the Armed Forces. (PNA)
