SIX days is not a long time for a ceasefire to last; the cessation of hostilities that is declared every year between the military and the communist rebels over the Christmas and New Year holidays last longer. More importantly, they hold.
So, there was a keen sense of disappointment when the unilateral ceasefire declared by President Rodrigo Duterte during his first State of the Nation Address on Monday was abruptly lifted Saturday over a single incident—an ambush staged by the communist rebels in Davao del Norte that left one militiaman dead on Wednesday.
In the days following the ambush, Duterte demanded an explanation from the communists—and gave them a deadline for declaring that they, too, were interested in a truce. A deadline Friday was extended to Saturday, when top communist leaders led by Jose Ma. Sison in The Netherlands, asked for more time—but no reciprocal ceasefire was forthcoming.
Instead, the New People’s Army, the communist movement’s armed wing, issued a statement accusing the “two-faced” Armed Forces of violating its own ceasefire in Davao del Norte by launching a military offensive by militiamen attached to the 72nd Infantry Battalion.
The ambush, the statement said, was in line with orders from top NPA officials to maintain their alert status in response to Duterte’s ceasefire.
On Saturday, Duterte withdrew the truce he had declared, prompting Sison to heap scorn on the President for issuing a “hollow and empty” ceasefire.
“Duterte is too quarrelsome and he immediately resorts to confrontation,” Sison said in Filipino from his place of self-exile in Utrecht, in The Netherlands. “If he does not want peace, then so be it…. He thinks he has gotten himself a personal servant. That cannot be. Duterte can never order the revolutionary group to follow what he wants.”
Sison also blamed the military for not following Duterte’s instructions, which he claimed led to the ambush in Davao del Norte on Wednesday.
Sison said Duterte should have waited for a few hours after the CPP failed to meet his 5 p.m. deadline on Saturday.
But after heaping a barrage of insults on Duterte, Sison said he remains confident that the formal resumption of peace negotiations in Oslo this month will push through as scheduled.
“This exchange of words, regardless of the temperature, these are just words. What we are trying to resolve here is the very real fighting on the ground. If the Duterte administration really has political will, we can easily overcome this exchange of words,” he said.
“As far as I’m concerned, the resumption of the formal talks will continue,” Sison added.
Armed Forces chief Gen. Ricardo Visaya put the military establishment’s own spin on the developments, saying the communists had “missed a golden opportunity to manifest their commitment” to peace.
There are bases for arguing both sides.
Certainly, the failure of the communists to respond swiftly to the President’s unprecedented offer and to capitalize on the goodwill on both sides represents a wasted opportunity. That the communist leadership could not reciprocate several days after the President’s declaration suggested that they were either insincere or that they did not have a firm grip on their forces on the ground.
The Davao del Norte ambush and the antagonistic statement issued by the NPA in its aftermath did little to improve matters.
On the other hand, there is something to be said for Sison’s long view that formal talks next month in Oslo will move peace forward, regardless of the hot rhetoric of the last few days. A crucial element, however, seems to be an actual reduction in the fighting on the ground—and this, in the public’s eye, is where the communists can do so much more.