Malacañang yesterday challenged Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Ma. Sison to cancel their unilateral ceasefire with the government, saying they have violated in the first day of the holiday truce.
Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo made the statement after Sison demanded the government order the suspension of military and police operations against the communist rebels or he will order the cancellation of the 16-day ceasefire.
Panelo said the orders from the government were not forthcoming despite Sison’s threat.
“He threatens to cancel the ceasefire if these orders are not shown to the National Democratic Front panel. These orders are not forthcoming,” he said.
“Sison and his comrades can proceed with the cancellation of the ceasefire and the President will oblige them. In the first place, they have violated their own declared unilateral ceasefire. So there is not even logic in their threat,” he added.
Duterte agreed to declare the 16-day nationwide unilateral and reciprocal ceasefire with the communists to build a conducive environment for the formal resumption of the peace talks which the President scrapped in November 2017 due to the insincerity of the other party.
However, suspected members of the New People’s Army launched attacks in Camarines Norte and Iloilo on Dec. 23. The attacks claimed the life of one soldier and wounded eight others.
Despite this, Panelo said Duterte was giving the communists the chance to explain why they broke their own ceasefire on the first day of the truce.
The President also said that he wants Sison to come home to the Philippines for a face-to-face meeting before the resumption of the peace talks but the rebel leader said he will only return once there were developments in the peace talks.
Sison said he prefers to have the one-on-one talk with Duterte in any other Asian country to avoid “spoilers” or the people who supposedly wanted to derail the peace negotiations. (Argyll Geducos)
