The Palace on Sunday was cautious about the prospect of reviving peace talks with the communist rebels.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said even the Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison has no control over the rebel forces on the ground.
“The problem with Joma Sison is he wants to talk, but he does not have control over his forces. While negotiating, he ambushes our police forces,” Panelo told radio dzBB on Sunday.
READ: Joma takes new swipe at Duterte
“They said, we cannot be killing each other for the rest of our lives, but they have been like that for 50 years. Maybe we should change our track. Let us give ourselves and our families a chance,” he said, pushing for a change of tactics.
Panelo’s remarks came after Sison said the CPP-National Democratic Front of the Philippines is willing to resume the peace negotiations whenever President Rodrigo Duterte is ready.
“The standing policy of the NDFP is to negotiate with the GRP anytime he is ready to resume the peace negotiations in accordance with The Hague Joint Declaration and further agreements,” Sison said.
In November last year, the President signed Proclamation 360, terminating the peace negotiations with the CPP-New People’s Army-NDFP.
Duterte has also started to offer housing and employment assistance for rebels who surrender as a way of ending the hostilities.
“Your underground movement will not amount to anything. But I am ready to accept you if you surrender. Bring your firearms, give it to me, and I will give you a house and a job. You can be sure of that,” the President told the communist rebels in a speech Friday.
READ: CPP-NPA ‘constraining’ Duterte to declare martial law
Defense Undersecretary Reynaldo Mapagu, chairman of Task Force Balik-Loob, echoed Duterte’s call for rebels to lay down their arms and “cooperate” with the government.
Mapagu asked rebel returnees to tell their former comrades to come home and reunite with their families for the Christmas season.
“I hope they would accept the government’s generosity to come back into society for them to be with their loved ones in time for Christmas,” the Defense official said in a statement.
He said former rebels can avail of a housing unit or assistance worth P450,000, skills training, livelihood opportunities, business capital, health care, and education for their children as long as they adhere to the rule of law.
“The assistance the government gives is personalized for the rebel returnees. It’s not ‘one size, fits all’ approach that everyone receives the same assistance then ceases,” he said.
TFBL implements the government’s reintegration program, calling on communist rebels to take the government’s offer through the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program. It then monitors and assesses the implementation of E-CLIP at the national level.
The government’s chief negotiator, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, said the administration would continue to pursue localized peace talks with communist rebels, despite Sison’s offer.
“You have to remember that our President already decided that in the meantime we will try the other track of the peace negotiations, which is the localized peace talks,” Bello said in an interview with the ANC news channel.
Despite the talk of peace, the Philippine National Police on Sunday alerted all field units to conduct counter-actions against members of the CPP-NPA following the recent attacks against police officers in various provinces.
The PNP said the increased activities by the communists could also be part of its “saber-rattling” tactics to project an image of strength to highlight the forthcoming CPP anniversary on Dec. 26, and bolster its extortion activities in the forthcoming election season.
in Negros Island, in coordination with the Armed Forces of the Philippines, launched a manhunt of a group of some 40 armed men who set on fire a bulldozer and a back hoe owned by PhilSouth Construction in Barangay Bolisong, Manjuyod, Negros Oriental in the evening of Oct. 18.
No casualties were reported in the incident.
Passengers of a commercial bus who witnessed the incident, told police investigators that the armed men shouted “ Mabuhay ang Bagong Hukbong Bayan” while setting the heavy equipment on fire.
Investigators are looking intoextortion as a motive for the incident.
Local officials of Negros Oriental denounced this latest communist attack, saying it stalled the construction of a vital farm-to-market road.
“Those behind this crime are resisting entry of development in the countryside that would have ushered government presence and availability of goods and services that will benefit people in the barrios,” PNP chief Oscar Albayalde said in a statement.
In separate incident, three policemen were killed while three others were wounded in an ambush by suspected NPA rebels in Barangay Napolidan, Lupi, Camarines Sur on Oct. 18.
The casualties were assigned as security escorts of Food and Drug Administration Director General Nela Charade Puno.
On Oct. 16, suspected communist rebels also ambushed a group of policemen in Aurora that resulted in the death of PO2 Ronald Ruidera.
“We condemn these latest acts of lawless terror by the local communist movement against symbols of government authority. We mourn their loss, but assure [the public that] the ends of justice will be served,” Albayalde said.
“This is not only an attack on the police, but an assault on a national agency that protects consumer welfare,” he added.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines on Sunday expressed support for the President’s fresh alls to NPA fighters to lay down their weapons and rejoin mainstream society.
“The AFP joins the Commander-in-Chief [President Rodrigo Duterte] in calling out to the terrorist NPA to lay down their arms as most of them have done and to avail of the offer to have a new lease of a peaceful, productive, and joyful lives with their loved ones in a community of fellow Filipinos welcoming and embracing them back to its fold,” military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo said in a statement sent to reporters.
The AFP spokesperson said the rebels should seriously consider this offer as their so-called “people’s revolution” is already passé.
“Hundreds who have already surrendered, and those who are still in the mountains but have already sent surrender feelers, now say that they now came to realize that while they were being pushed to fight it out in the front lines, the CPP [Communist Party of the Philippines] leadership in Europe and in the cities luxuriate in the money they extort from business persons,” Arevalo added. With PNA