President Rodrigo Duterte said that formal peace talks with the communist rebels may resume in July as he called on the rebels to put down their arms to restore peace and order in the country.
In a speech before newly elected Central Visayas barangay captains in Lapu-Lapu City on Thursday night, President Duterte said he would be talking with Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison and will start the talks in July.
But in an interview with GMA News Online, Sison said talks could resume on June 28 in Oslo and lead to the signing of an interim peace agreement.
He said the formal talks would resume if the National Democratic Front of the Philippines negotiating panel “agrees to a stand down agreement” with the government negotiating panel.
The CPP and the New People’s Army, he said, should also agree to the stand down order for the formal talks to resume.
“The stand down agreement creates a favorable atmosphere for the resumption of the formal peace negotiations and the interim peace agreement to be signed in Oslo hopefully on June 28,” he said.
In the House, Bayan Muna Party-list Rep. Carlos Zarate assailed Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and the military for issuing statements that “spoil and sabotage” the peace negotiations between the government and the National Democratic Front.
“Stop monkeywrenching the… peace talks,” Zarate said, referring to the statements issued by Lorenzana and Army Maj. Gen. Rhoderick Parayno doubting the success of a stand down of forces between the government and the NDF.
“They launch attacks on the peace process in all fronts but fail to put forward a paradigm that would effectively address the root causes of the armed conflict,” Zarate said. “Their default solution to the problem is still the US-prescribed combination of psychological warfare and military counterinsurgency operations that they have been doing for decades and have been proven to be a failure and a waste of lives and resources.”
Zarate called on peace advocates to be watchful of what he called “spoilers and saboteurs” as both sides work for a comprehensive agreement on socioeconomic and political reforms.
