The Communist Party of the Philippines on Friday rejected the localized peace talks with the government, saying they were “doomed to fail.”
In a statement released two days after President Rodrigo Duterte approved guidelines for localized peace talks with communist rebels, the CPP rejected the plan as a “worn-out tactic to conceal the continuing failure” of the military to defeat its armed wing, the New People’s Army.
The CPP also said the localized talks would be “a waste of people’s money” that would benefit local governments and the military.
“Only local government officials and military field officers are happy with the ‘localized peace talks,’ a money-making racket with hundreds of million [in] funds that will surely end up in their pockets,” the communist statement said.
It also said that the civil war between the government and the communists will continue despite the localized peace talks, and asserted that the National Democratic Front, the CPP’s political wing, was their sole representative in peace negotiations.
Duterte has ruled out power-sharing with the communists and insists that they stop collecting “revolutionary taxes” that it says is tantamount to extortion.
Earlier this month, Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate accused Department of the Interior and Local Government of sabotaging peace talks between the government and the NDF.
The administration earlier suspended the formal peace talks with the NDF for three months.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines said it supported the President’s decision to pursue localized peace talks with the rebels.
“The decision is very apt for the current trend in the field, and the Armed Forces is very much in support of President Duterte’s decision to localize the peace talks,” Armed Forces of the Philippines public affairs office chief Col. Noel Detoyato said.
He said the decision is very realistic as NPA rebels are surrendering to government forces in many parts of the country.
“Armed NPA regulars are coming down in so many areas around the country and local peace talks is the appropriate approach,” Detoyato said.
The AFP earlier announced that NPA forces nationwide are on the decline as some 7,531 rebels and supporters had been neutralized from Jan. 1 to June 28 this year, with 71 killed, 114 captured and 7,346 who surrendered.
Earlier, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said Duterte would issue an executive order on localized peace talks if the talks between the government and the CPP failed to materialize.
Roque said the guiding framework for localized peace talks was approved during Wednesday’s special cluster meeting of the security, justice and peace committees in Malacañang Palace.
The meeting was attended by the President, Senate President Vicente Sotto III, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, and some members of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines. With PNA