DAVAO CITY—President-elect Rodrigo Duterte hopes to enter into a ceasefire agreement with the communist New People’s Army after the rebel force agreed to release a captured Davao police chief to him next month.
“We hope to arrive at a sort of truce in the coming days. There’s still a war going on and we cannot expect prim and proper behavior on either side. I cannot tell the [Philippine] Army to stop because I’m not yet in Malacañang,” Duterte told reporters in an interview Tuesday.
Duterte made the remark as incoming Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello confirmed that he and incoming peace process adviser Jesus Dureza will be flying to Oslo on June 13 to start preliminary talks with communist rebels aimed at ending a nearly five-decade-long insurgency.
Bello said that aside from attending conferences while in Oslo, he and Dureza will be talking at the same time with Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Ma. Sison and National Democratic Front chief negotiator Luis Jalandoni, who are on self-exile in The Netherlands.
Bello didn’t gave any assurance whether the communist leader will be returning to the country with them in July.
Duterte’s remarks came after NPA rebels attacked the police station of Governor Generoso town in Davao Oriental on Sunday and abducted three people, including the town’s police chief.
The abducted police officer was later identified to be Chief Inspector Arnold Ongachen. The other victims were a policewoman and a female civilian whose identities remain unavailable.
Duterte has expressed openness in dealing with the Reds with “no preconditions,” which includes the release of many political prisoners and the issuance of safety conduct passes to Sison and other peace negotiators.
The president-elect confirmed that he has already spoken with the commander of the NPA, the armed wing of the CPP in the area.
He added that he is set to rescue the individuals who were abducted, adding that the Presidential Security Group ought to join him.
“I will go there to retrieve (hostages),” he said. “They can join if they want, I don’t have any problem.”
Peace negotiations with the left have been stalled for over a decade as the government refused to release prisoners with links to the CPP.
