President Rodrigo Duterte is the “biggest spoiler” of the peace talks between the government and communist rebels, exiled Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison said.
Sison cited Proclamation 360 issued by the president in November last year that terminated the peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) panel.
The proclamation was issued weeks after the New People’s Army (NPA) ambushed members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) in Arakan, North Cotabato.
“Duterte has never revoked Proclamation 360 by which he has terminated the said peace negotiations. He has also cancelled and aborted the June 28 to 30 resumption of formal peace talks in Oslo and has thereby continued his termination of the peace negotiations,” Sison said in a statement issued late yesterday. The communist leader was referring to the proposed resumption of the talks on June 28 after agreeing to it during the backchannel talks held earlier last month in The Netherlands.
The government, through Peace Process Adviser Jesus Dureza, also said Duterte would review the signed agreements, including the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (Caser) and the ceasefire, for three months.
Last week, Sison said the NDFP is no longer inclined to engage with the government but he retracted his statement the next day, saying only the NDFP national council has the authority to withdraw from the talks. In his recent statement, Sison said the NDFP does not have to cancel peace talks with the government.
“The NDFP should simply allow Duterte to have the distinct dishonour of having sabotaged and terminated these negotiations so many times within a short period since May 2017,” he said.
Sison maintained that the NDFP would reject the “demand” of Duterte to hold peace negotiations in the Philippines.
He also lashed out at Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana after the latter reminded Sison to stop his “tantrums.”
“Lately, (Duterte’s) sidekick Lorenzana has already expressed total opposition to the GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines)-NDFP peace negotiations. (Lorenzana) misrepresents the level of mutual agreement by the negotiating panels on social and economic reforms as socialism even as these are bourgeois-democratic in character. It is truly impossible to negotiate with a regime that is dominated by pathologically rabid anti-communists,” Sison said.
National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr, meanwhile said the CPP and the New People’s Army (NPA) are as “equally dangerous” as terrorist groups inspired by the Islamic State (IS).
“The CPP-NPA has been committing the same brutal atrocities like the Daesh. CPP-NPA terrorists killed more than 10,000 soldiers, policemen and civilians in one of the largest running insurgencies in the history of the world,” Esperon said in his speech during the United Nations high-level conference of heads of counter-terrorism agencies in New York City on Friday.