The communist rebels should stop their attacks if they are sincere about talking peace, Malacañang said Monday.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said the reported ambush of the New People’s Army in Borongan City, Eastern Samar, on Friday put the rebels’ sincerity in “question with respect to peace talks.”
That ambush resulted in the killing of a police officer and two civilians.
“If the NPAs really want to talk, they should stop what they are doing,” Panelo told reporters.
“When you do that, your sincerity is in question with respect to the peace talks.”
Meanwhile, despite the announcement of plans to revive the peace talks with the communist rebels, the Department of National Defense on Sunday said the efforts to whittle down their armed members, either by combat or peaceful means, will continue.
“Our efforts to bring them down to join the society for those who are willing [to reintegrate with mainstream society] will continue. Our combat operations against their armed components will also continue. No let-up even during the peace talks,” Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a message to reporters.
He made the comment when asked whether the planned peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army would have a bearing on the government’s efforts to eliminate the insurgency
Panelo could not tell yet if that attack would affect President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to resume the peace negotiations with the communist leaders that he had terminated in 2017.
“Let’s see how the President will take it. I’lll ask him,” he said.
Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito G. Galvez Jr. also condemned the attack, saying it ran counter to the Duterte administration’s efforts to find a peaceful solution to the communist problem.
“As the government tries to address the roots of the insurgency, the rebels continue to mount attacks. This is deplorable,” Galvez said.
He also vowed that justice would be served on the perpetrators of the attack that wounded 15 people including three children.
“Those who committed this crime will not escape the long arm of the law. They will have to pay for the atrocities they committed,” Galvez said.
Panelo could not tell yet if President Duterte would declare a ceasefire with the NPA this Christmas.
“The President defers to whatever recommendation those people on the ground give him,” he said.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, the government’s chief peace negotiator, told the Manila Standard that he met with communist leader Jose Maria Sison in The Netherlands on Dec. 7 to 8 in a bid to revive the peace negotiations.
Bello was joined by Hernani Braganza, who served as government negotiator for the back-channel talks with the NDF while the formal talks remained stalled, while Sison was accompanied by NDF chairman Luis Jalandoni and NDF chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili.
The agreements forged during their meeting have yet to be publicized. With PNA
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