PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Friday said he will no longer talk peace with the communist rebels and ordered the military to train its guns on the New People’s Army after it has retaken Marawi City from Islamist terrorists.
The President said Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairman Jose Maria Sison was “100 percent correct” when he said talking peace was unnecessary because of Duterte’s “obsession with martial law and mass murder,” and vowed to “bully” communist rebels for years to come.
“I can fight for another 50 years. Let us agree to fight. And let us be ferocious with each other,” Duterte said. “No quarter given, no quarter asked. That’s the way it should be.”
Responding to a communist complaint that he was bullying the National Democratic Front to accept terms of surrender, Duterte said in Filipino: “You’re not mistaken—I’m really bullying you.”
“Let us stop talking. I’m tired. It’s a great expense to be sending people there for nothing. So I might as well just use the money for whatever. Let’s start fighting, stop talking … I will not talk, I will not even whisper,” he added.
In a chance interview, Duterte said that the government will be abandoning the peace talks along with the supposed backchannel talks, saying that the NDF was no longer interested in pursuing talks amid its continued criticism of some of his policies and the NPA’s relentless attacks on state troops.
He also ordered the arrest of all NDF consultants who were given temporary freedom to hold talks with the government.
“They have to surrender or we will hunt them down,” Duterte said, then addressed the consultants directly.
“Do not resist, surrender—because our agreement is that I will release you conditionally so that you can participate in the talks and make it successful…. That was the original idea for releasing you,” he added.
The Office of the Solicitor General earlier asked the Supreme Court and several regional trial courts handling the cases against the communist leaders to recall the bail grant earlier given to them, after backchannel talks were called off Wednesday amid the renewed attacks by communist rebels, including one against members of Duterte’s security detail.
Five officers of the Presidential Security Group were wounded in an NPA ambush in Arakan, North Cotabato on Wednesday while NPA rebels in Palawan province also gunned down two members of the Marines and bombed a military truck the day before.
In his meeting with members of the government peace panel led by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III late Tuesday night, Duterte ordered the suspension of the fifth round of talks with the communists, which was supposed to resume by August.
Peace Process Secretary Jesus Dureza then said that the resumption of formal talks would depend on the rebel group’s commitment to follow certain guidelines for a possible ceasefire deal with government—including the suspension of operations against the military and the police and stopping all their extortion activities.
Meanwhile, in a speech before government troops fighting the Islamic State-inspired extremists, Duterte, who once raised hopes of ending the decades-long communist insurgency, said Thursday he would unleash security forces against the NPA after the government liberates Marawi City.
“There is a strong resurgence, the NPA is coming back again. After we have crushed terrorists in Marawi, we will reorient and target the NPA,” he said.
“While the Duterte administration remains committed to peace, it will not tolerate armed groups that undertake terroristic acts against government soldiers and civilians,” National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon said.
Esperon said that while there are real and imminent threats in Mindanao, government forces will also not allow other terroristic acts against civilians by the New People’s Army.
The National Security Adviser also defended Duterte from Sison’s tirades, saying that he is not obsessed with martial law but with good governance, developing Mindanao, and serving the people.
In a statement, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana expressed support for the President’s decision, saying communist rebels only reciprocated government’s sincerity with “double talk and treachery.”
“We are all for peace. Who would not want our country to be peaceful? But we can only talk about peace when both sides mean what they say,” Lorenzana said.
Lorenzana also blasted rebel attacks amid the ongoing siege in Marawi City, where more than 500 have died and roughly 400,000 have been displaced in the conflict zone and nearby areas.
“As our security forces continue to fight terrorists in Mindanao and as the government gets ready to start the recovery, reconstruction, and rehabilitation of Marawi City, the treacherous communist terrorists have once again shown their utter lack of empathy towards our suffering countrymen,” he said.
NPA gunmen killed six policemen in an ambush in Negros Oriental, one day after Duterte canceled backchannel talks with the communists.
Reports reaching Camp Crame identified the slain policemen as Supt. Ariel Arpon, the chief of police of Guihulngan City; SPO2 Necasio Tabilon, PO3 Jordan Balderas, PO2 Alvin Paul Bulandres, PO2 Alfred Dunque and PO1 Abines Silvano.
The identity of the slain civilian, the driver of the municipal councilor was not immediately available.
Two other policemen were wounded in the attack and were taken to a hospital in Dumaguete City.
Early last week, NPA rebels struck in four separate areas in Luzon and Mindanao killing two Marine soldiers in Palawan and wounding of five members of the Presidential Security Group in Cotabato.
The NPA rebels also wounded an army soldier in a roadside explosion in Bataraza, Palawan.
In Davao City, Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said she was drafting an executive order for localized peace talks with communist rebels, even as negotiation on the national level were put on hold.
In Congress, the leftist party-list group Anakpawis expressed its dismay over the cancelling of backchannel talks with the communists.
Senator Panfilo Lacson expressed his full support for the President’s decision to call off backchannel talks with the NPA.
“It’s a no-brainer decision,” said Lacson, a former chief of the Philippine National Police who belongs to the majority bloc in the Senate.
“How can the government talk peace when the other party by their action, is not willing or at least not sincere? “ said Lacson.
Presidential Security Group spokesman Col. Mike Aquino said communist rebels, posing as members of Davao Task Force and wearing military uniform, fired upon a two-vehicle convoy bringing along 10 members of the PSG en route to Cagayan de Oro City at a fake checkpoint placed by rebels.
Lacson also underscored the need to reassess the government peace initiatives and consider looking at a localized forms or levels of peace negotiation.
“It might work if we allow LGU’s to initiate under clear and strict guidance and supervision from the national government as to the parameters,” said Lacson.
Gregorio Honasan said the government must not give up on the peace process, but agreed with the suspension of the peace talks.
“We can’t talk and fight at the same time,” said Honasan, former army colonel who mounted coup attempts during the time of the late President Ferdinand Marcos.
“If we have no control over attacks against government troops and installations, we must condemn them,” he said, referring to the NDF. With Maricel V. Cruz and Macon Ramos-Araneta