Malacañang said yesterday President Duterte was not closing his doors to talk peace again with the communist rebels despite his recent order to the Armed Forces of the Philippines to “crush” the New People’s Army.
In a press briefing, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said Duterte made the order because he cannot allow government troops to just perish.
However, he said this doesn’t mean that Duterte was not interested in reviving the peace talks anymore.
“The President, as we always hear him, he always leaves a space, the window ajar for any peace negotiation with them,” he said.
“But he will not allow the attacks, the assaults against our forces. That is why if they attempt to do that, the order is to crush them,” he added.
Early this month, Duterte revealed that he ordered Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III to return to the Netherlands and talk to Communist Party of the Philippines founder Joma Sison after scraping formal negotiations in 2017 due to the other party’s insincerity.
Panelo said that if the communist rebels were sincere in making peace with the government, the venue of the negotiations should not matter.
“According to Joma Sison, if it’s here, he doesn’t want it. But as far as we’re concerned, if you’re sincere, the venue is not important,” he said.
“The President has always been sincere, he always opens talks. But the problem on the other side is that they keep on attacking the forces. So you cannot be standing, sitting idly and watch them terrorize or kill our own people, kaya ayaw niya ‘yun,” he added.
Despite Duterte’s announcement of wanting to revive the peace talks, suspected members of the NPA detonated an improvised explosive device in Borongan City, Eastern Samar last week, killing a police officer and a 69-year-old woman and wounded several others. (Argyll Cyrus B. Geducos)