President Rodrigo Duterte is insisting on conditions, including the holding of the peace talks in the country, for the resumption of the negotiations with the communist rebels, an official said Thursday.
Peace adviser Jesus Dureza said the resumption of the peace talks with National Democratic Front of the Philippines were still open, but Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison claims Duterte is just laying down the conditions for declaring martial law nationwide.
Malacañang also said the door for the resumption of the peace talks with the communists was still open subject to the conditions set by Duterte.
“The door for peace talks remains open provided that [Duterte’s] conditions are met,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement following the command conference held Wednesday night.
Dureza said Duterte wanted a stop to the collection of the so-called revolutionary taxes by the communists, to make the venue of the talks in the country, and to have a ceasefire agreement in which the armed members of the New People’s Army were encamped in designated areas.
“In the meantime, localized peace arrangements may be pursued by the local government units with the insurgents in their respective areas of responsibility,” said Dureza, adding that the terms were decided during the command conference convened by Duterte.
Sison said Duterte was lying.
“This is a desperate PR stunt to obscure the fact that the government has repeatedly terminated the talks and made it appear that it is the NDFP which closed its doors,” Sison said in a statement Thursday.
According to Sison, Dureza’s statement did not mention the fact that Duterte signed Presidential Proclamation 360 declaring the termination of the peace negotiations with NPA, NDFP and Communist Party of the Philippines on Nov. 23, 2017.
“This proclamation has never been rescinded. Just a few weeks ago, Duterte also derailed efforts to resume talks by canceling its
scheduled resumption,” Sison said.
He also believed that when the talks resumed in the local venues, Duterte would only take advantage of the situation by completely shutting down the talks.
“He knows fully well that the demand to hold talks in the Philippines is unacceptable and unworkable for the NDFP, unless he thinks the NDFP will be negotiating only to surrender the Filipino people’s aspirations and give up all its revolutionary principles,” Sison said.