President Rodrigo Duterte mocked self-exiled communist leader Jose Maria Sison over the latter’s purported difficulty in hearing, even as he renewed his invitation for a one-on-one talk.
In a speech Monday, President Duterte said he wants to ask his former professor what he wants in exchange of ending the decades-long communist insurgency.
“We’re trying to have a talk. But what I want, I told Sison, ‘You come home and we will talk alone.’ Just the two of us. I don’t want a panel,” Duterte said.
“Sabi nila medyo bungol-bungol na daw. Ah, mas maganda ‘yan (They say he is hard of hearing. Ah, that’s better),” the President said.
Sison earlier rejected Duterte’s invitation to hold peace talks in the Philippines, citing security risks, but expressed willingness to meet the President in a neutral venue near the country.
He also said the Royal Norwegian Government, as third party facilitator, should help in securing the necessary political, legal and security guarantees.
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In his speech, Duterte also slammed the communist rebels, calling them “plain bandits.”
“They are just plain bandits. There’s no ideology left. They collect from farm enterprises, burn trucks—it does not really make any sense,” he said.
Rebels have been losing supporters because many have already surrendered, Duterte said, echoing the military line.
The President said he had rendered the communist insurgency irrelevant with the distribution of some 180,000 hectares of land to farmers under the government’s agrarian reform program.
He also urged members of the New People’s Army to surrender to the government and reintegrate into mainstream society.
“I hope that the communists here will join the government. The government has funds and if you come down from the mountains, I’ll give you a condo,” he said.
Senator Christopher Go, a close aide of the President, renewed his appeal to the rebels to show sincerity in peace negotiations.
Go said he was addressing his plea to the organized Left and to the Moro fronts as he urged them to work for peace with the government.
“I want peace, especially in Mindanao, with the Moro rebels, and with the Left. The President also wants long-lasting peace,” he said. With Macon Ramos-Araneta
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