DAVAO CITY—President Rodrigo Duterte said Sunday he would not leave the country to negotiate peace with the communist rebels and would not agree to a coalition government.
“I am ready to listen to anybody, even to [Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria] Sison, lecture on me how to improve the lives of Filipinos. So I have to find the peace. But there are lines that I cannot cross,” Duterte said.
He revealed that the CPP has previously asked him to go to Amsterdam to discuss the elusive peace with Sison, but he refused to travel to the foreign country.
“You know, it would not look good for a President to be chasing the elusive peace. I would have crossed the fine line of governance. I told Sison that he should come home and I would spend for everything,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino.
Duterte also said that while he is open to negotiations, “a coalition government is out of the question.”
The President sounded more conciliatory than he did when he broke off talks with the communists in anger over several rebel attacks on government forces.
“Look, I cannot fight forever with my own countrymen. I am not a soldier. I am not a policeman. I am just a worker of the government tasked to make it easy for everybody,” he said.
Duterte said that it is about time that the government start talking peace with the CPP-NPA since he, 73, and CPP founder Sison, 79, were getting old.
He said there was still a small window for peace, saying he would give negotiations two months once Sison returns to the Philippines for talks.
He said the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the CPP, should keep their arms inside their camps while the two sides talk peace.
