While President Rodrigo Duterte has left a “small window” open for the possible resumption of peace talks with communist rebels, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines should still make good on their end of the bargain, Malacañang said on Sunday.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo made the remark after Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison called for the reopening of the peace negotiations following the President’s remark that he and the communist leader will go “hand in hand to the mouths of hell.”
In a speech during the miting de avance of the ruling PDP-Laban party in Pasig City, President Duterte said they will both die a natural death and go straight to hell.
“This Communist Party, I think we should just let our natural lives end because Sison is old,” Duterte bared late Saturday evening, who previously ended the government’s peace negotiations with the NDFP in March.
“If ever we’re at the same age, I’d be happy to go with him hand in hand to the mouths of hell. We won’t even be accepted in heaven,” he added.
The 80-year-old communist leader quipped that he has “absolutely no intention” to accompany Duterte in his trip to hell “whether this [may] be a medieval religious presumption or a figure of speech for historical infamy.”
For Sison, he will remain “steadfast and militant in being loyal to the just cause of the Filipino people in fighting for their national sovereignty, democratic rights, social justice, and real economic development.”
“I invite Duterte to change course from the direction of hell, mend his ways and resume serious and sincere peace negotiations with the NDFP through duly-authorized negotiating panels within the framework of The Hague Joint Declaration,” he said.
“I am not blinking but I am winking at my former student to indicate to him that he can avoid getting hell from the Filipino people and their revolutionary forces by acceding to the reforms needed for a just peace,” he added, hoping that the two “can work together to respond to the demands of the Filipino people for social, economic, and political reforms.”
Sought for comment, Panelo said the Chief Executive is still open for negotiations with the NDFP if the communist group remains honest with their intentions.
“He [Duterte] has been saying that he leaves a small window open for peace talks provided that the group on the other side of the table is true to their purpose,” Panelo told Radyo Inquirer.
“Not in the way that we’re negotiating and then they will assault, ambush, commit arson, and kill. It should not be like that,” he added.
The Palace official, meanwhile, doubted Sison’s honesty in his words and the exiled top communist leader’s authority over the rebels on the ground.
“Is Sison honest? Is he still being followed by his men? I think, the problem maybe is his people don’t listen to him anymore,” Panelo said.
Last month, the President said he would look for “new methods” to talk with the communists.
Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez then said Duterte ordered them to create a new peace panel that will “directly engage the people on the ground to address the fundamentals of the problem.”