Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Monday the government would still accept fighters of the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, who would be surrendering to it.
He made the statement after President Rodrigo Duterte said he would stop accepting members of the NPA surrendering to government forces because of their continuing hostility.
On Monday, Duterte also said he was tired of listening to Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairman Jose Maria Sison about the state of his health.
“I’m tired of listening to Joma Sison,” Duterte told reporters after leading the National Heroes Day rites at the Heroes’ Cemetery in Taguig City.
“Look at how degenerate he is. He doesn’t have an ideology. He just keeps an eye on the health of other people,” Duterte said.
On Sunday, the 79-year-old Sison challenged Duterte, 73, to release both their medical records to the public.
Lorenzana said Duterte could have made his statement about rejecting surrendering communist fighters out of frustration.
But he said there was a budget allotted for communist rebels surrendering to the government. “We have money allotted for that to rehabilitate them and to allow them to lead normal lives,” Lorenzana said.
He said the communist rebels who had surrendered to them were all sincere.
In March, Lorenzana said, 4,000 NPA members and sympathizers surrendered to the government, but the CPP denied his statement.
The formal resumption of the peace talks between the government and the communist groups was scheduled to proceed on June 28 in Norway, but it did not push through as Duterte said he wanted more public consultations before returning to the negotiating table.
In July, Duterte said he was ready for another 50 years of war with the communist groups because the latter only wanted “power sharing and a coalition government.”