BULUAN, Maguindanao”•president Rodrigo Duterte says his administration could talk to the Moro secessionists and to the communist insurgents, but not to the terrorists.
He says the terrorists do not belong here. “I talk to the Bangsamoro, but I cannot talk to terrorists. You [terrorists] have your own war. If you believe that there should be war, get out; do not do it here,” Duterte said here on Wednesday.
In other developments:
• Special Assistant to the President Christopher Go on Thursday appealed to
the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army to show their sincerity when the government and the rebels resume the peace talks.
“The peace talks will soon start and I hope the NPA will respect the agreement. So I’m reiterating my appeal to be sincere with the peace discussion,” Go said here.
• Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the 45th founding anniversary of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines on April 24 was a reminder of the cycle of exploitation, abuse and deception committed by the communist movement and their supporters against the Filipino people.
“As the negotiating arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army, the NDFP represents what is wrong with the communist notion of peace. They talk peace with government far removed from the realities on the ground,” Lorenzana said Thursday.
Duterte was here late Wednesday afternoon to receive two commanders of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters who yielded to the military and local officials led by Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu and his son Board Provincial Member Jazzer Mangudadatu.
“If you cannot absorb what I am saying, let’s try it with your heart. Just see what it can do in the time of the young generations, when we are no longer here,” Duterte said.
“I am for the Filipino people, period. I am for the Moro people, period.”
The elder Mangudadatu said Maguindanao under him has had an unrelenting peace campaign, winning against the culture of guns among the Maguindanaon people.
Residents had also surrendered hundreds of unlicensed firearms to the military and civilian authorities, said Major-General Arnel de la Vega, commander of the Philippine Army’s 6th Infantry Division in Awang, Maguindanao.
“While gun ownership is part of the [Moro] culture, we cannot just allow loose firearms to proliferate. We have nowhere to go if we would just kill each other,” Duterte told about a thousand residents and local officials gathered at the Municipal Gymnasium here.
Mangudadatu expressed optimism peace could continually prevail with more of the province’s young people being won back into the fold of education through the Maguindanao Program on Educational Assistance and Community Empowerment.
The President said terrorism does not belong to the Filipino people.
“Terrorism is not ours; it’s not in the Islam that I heard from my grandmother. If you fight, it should not be here,” he said.
Duterte said he was more comfortable and hopeful in dealing with Moro separatism and the communist insurgents, but not with the terrorists. With PNA