COMMUNIST rebels on Friday offered to “cooperate and coordinate” with the Duterte administration in its fight against terrorism should the government return to the negotiating table, but President Rodrigo Duterte demanded they first rescindits orders to the New People’s Army to intensify attacks on government troops.
After last-minute backchannel talks between negotiators of the government and the National Democratic Front in The Netherlands, the NDF said the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the NPA may be bound by a ceasefire agreement in specific areas to “counteract the Maute group and the Abu Sayyaf.”
“In this connection, all panelists, legal and political consultants and other personnel in the peace negotiations must be allowed to return to the Philippines and subsequently attend the fifth round of formal talks,” Fidel Agcaoili, chairman of the rebel panel, said in a statement.
Agcaoili also suggested a ceasefire agreement “in specific areas of cooperation and coordination … pending the issuance of ceasefire declarations that are unilateral but simultaneous and reciprocal.”
He said both sides “must stand together to oppose and fight terrorism, terrorist groups and acts of terrorism.”
“We must condemn and must be resolved and determined to counteract the Maute group and Abu Sayaff which are wreaking havoc in Marawi City,” he said.
“By terrorism we mean actions that intimidate, terrorize and harm civilians solely or mainly in violation of human rights and international humanitarian law,” he added.
The fifth round of formal talks originally scheduled to end June 2, Friday was aborted May 28 as a result of a rebel call to increase attacks on government troops as a way of opposing martial law, which Duterte declared in Mindanao to combat the Maute group terrorists.
Duterte, however, said that he would not allow Peace Process Secretary Jesus Dureza and government chief negotiator and Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello to proceed with the fifth round of talks unless the Communist Party of the Philippines signs a unilateral ceasefire document.
“On our fight with the NPA, I don’t know what will be the developments because Agcaoili wrote to me and I’ve shown it to the officers. They have offered to fight alongside us against terrorism,” Duterte said.
“I will not allow any talks on my behalf, [by either] Dureza or Bello. I will not allow them or authorize to go back to the negotiating table without them [the communists] signing a document [saying they] would stop fighting,” he added.
Duterte also said he was not keen about the latest communist proposal.
Duterte earlier threatened to arrest and jail NDF consultants who might return to the Philippines after the aborted talks.