Malacañang reiterated on Sunday that the government is still open to having peace negotiations with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front.
“The peace table of the OPAPP [Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process] remains open for the CPP-NPA-NDF, in consonance with the commitment of the government to have a significant peace process that would lead to a peace agreement,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said on state-run radio dzRB.
“The military operations are only being conducted in order to stop the violence being made by the NPA on the people, as well as ensure security and order in the communities where there is chaos,” said Coloma.
“In light with this, the government programs are continuing to be implemented to address poverty and lack of job opportunities, which are the root of the problems on insurgency in the country,” said Coloma.
“Just like what President [Benigno] Aquino [III] had said in the past, the opening of peace negotiations would depend on their [CP-NPA-NDF] willingness to participate in the peace process and go back to the negotiations,” said Coloma.
The military in December said that the half-century existence of theCommunist Party of the Philippines was laden with crimes perpetrated by its armed wing even as leaders of the communist group boast expanding reach in Northern Mindanao.
The contending forces traded accusations and counter-claims on the eve of the 47th anniversary of the CPP Saturday with the communist front citing strategic achievement that the military claimed was full of deceit to advance their cause.
Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos, spokesman of the National Democratic Front-Mindanao, claimed that the guerilla fronts established from 40 during the first year of President Aquino’s regime have risen to 46 in five regions in Mindanao, citing that “not one was dismantled despite the ferocity of the attacks” under the government’s counter-insurgency program “Oplan Bayanihan.”
In a statement, Madlos said that NPA rebels in Mindanao have expanded in the southern island despite facing 60 percent of the military strength.
Madlos said that “from the more than 200 towns and cities where [the rebels] operate, from only 1,850 villages in 2010,” they have expanded to 2,500 villages, with a number of “organs of political power” established up to the “municipal level.”
Madlos said that growth occurred despite the military deployment of about 60 battalions or more that 60 percent of the total strength of the AFP, not including the police and various militias organized by the military, such as the BULIF, Alamara, Gantangan, Bagani, Magahat and the Calipet group.
Fighting in Northern Mindanao, particularly in tribal areas in Caraga, Surigao del Sur and Surigao del Norte and Bukidnon, has increased following the reported atrocities committed by the NPA and the military’s retaliatory attacks to restore peace and order in the region.
So far, several dozens of lumad leaders have been killed by NPA but the CPP said it was the military that was responsible for the killings.
Capt. Jose Patrick Martinez, spokesman of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, said the CPP/NPA/NDF to project their existence, sowed threat which was paramount for them to pursue their armed struggle, in a civilized society they already lost their “ideology” because they shifted to banditry.