DAVAO CITY—Presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Duterte says he will release all political prisoners if the leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front will agree to come home to talk peace.
Their coming home to negotiate will be his only condition, Duterte said Monday night.
He said the communist leaders—including CPP founding chairman Jose Maria Sison—could agree on when, where and how to come home and how to conduct the talks. The time frame would depend on how events developed.
“All I need is yes or no,” Duterte told reporters at the Leticia Suites here.
He said the release of the prisoners would be part of the confidence-building measures between the two sides.
Those to be released could include the couple Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, the chairman and finance head of the CPP, respectively. The couple were arrested in Cebu in 2014.
Duterte said there could be a workable plan to bring the Tiamzons back into society.
“I might even decide to free all of them before the talks [could start],” Duterte said.
He said if the leaders of the CPP-NDF were confident that his government would work for everybody, especially the poor, “I can welcome them back.”
When asked about the criminal charges filed against the political detainees, Duterte said the detainees could be pardoned.
“[Talking] peace must be in good faith. I do not have an agenda—just do not fool me,” Duterte said.
The formal peace negotiations with the CPP-NDF was stalled starting in 2004 after the communists withdrew from the negotiating table on account of the renewed inclusion of Sison and the CPP-NPA in the US terrorist list.