Lorenzana wants peace talks terminated with rebels

Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana is poised to recommend the termination of peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).The rebels were bent on ousting President Rodrigo Duterte, he said, noting that the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the NDFP held their “largest People’s Congress” in October to November 2016 and Central Committee Plenum in December 2016.There was a unilateral ceasefire during these meetings, the Cabinet official noted.“During these two occasions, (the communists) crafted a three-year plan to advance the revolutionary movement that included the planning for the Oust Duterte Movement if PRRD will not agree to a coalition government,” the Defence chief said, using the initials of the president.In January 2017, the communists’ national military commission used the lull in fighting to consolidate forces and recover their lost mass base. Lorenzana also accused four leftist appointees of the president of betrayal, for using “their positions to advance the CPP’s revolutionary movement.” He did not name the Cabinet members.Upon Duterte’s assumption to office in 2016, he named Judy Taguiwalo to the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Rafael Mariano to the Department of Agrarian Reform, James Mark Terry Ridon to the Presidential Commission on the Urban Poor, Liza Maza to the National Anti-Poverty Commission and Joel Maglunsod as undersecretary of the Department of Labour and Employment.Taguiwalo and Mariano were rejected by the Commission on Appointments last year while Ridon was sacked by the president due to excessive foreign trips.Lorenzana recalled the Aquino administration’s recommendation to end peace talks in 2013, wherein the government panel concluded that they were “taken for a ride” by the NDFP.“The GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) panel then made serious studies and they believed the (NDFP) panel is not truthful, sincere and honest except to get concessions such as the release of high-ranking party members and giving their armed components (opportunity) to recover lost grounds and mass base,” he stressed.Based on “foregoing deliberate actions,” he added, the communists were “not sincere” in talking peace, he said.“They are employing the revolutionary dual tactics to show semblance of peace but continually conducting violence and terror acts on the ground,” Lorenzana said.Another reason why Lorenzana wants the peace talks cancelled is that the CPP-NPA-NDFP “can’t comply” with the preconditions of Duterte.The conditions set by the president were no coalition government; no arson, attacks and collection of “revolutionary taxes;” and a stop to recruitment and mass mobilisation, among others.Lorenzana also claimed that majority of the indigenous cultural communities (ICCs) and indigenous peoples (IPs) were opposed to a ceasefire, fearing that armed rebels would go back to their areas.“The IPs also wanted the CPP-NDF-NPA to publicly apologise for their act of crimes and terrorism against the ICCs/IPs for almost 50 years where almost a thousand IPs were murdered by the NPA,” he said.The CPP yesterday responded to the statement of Lorenzana, calling him a “war promoter” and a “consummate militarist.”“To Lorenzana and his ilk of fascists, including Duterte himself, the only solution to the civil war in the country is the military solution. This is the old 1930s dogma promoted by the US military, who sees profit in every war it instigates and foments,” the CPP said in a statement.It also noted that the defence chief, a former Philippine military attache in Washington, was a “big US military sales agent” in the Philippine government.“To him, the only solution is to recruit more and more soldiers to the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) in order to lay siege on thousands of barrios nationwide and sow terror among people,” the CPP said.“He is the zealous US sentry that ensures that the AFP will always remain as the key pillar of US (hegemony) in the Philippines,” it added.Malacanang yesterday brushed aside a threat by CPP founding chairman Jose Maria Sison to oust Duterte, calling the exiled leader “arrogant.”In a news briefing in Maasin, Southern Leyte, Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr expressed doubt on whether Sison could muster support for his latest threat, saying the CPP leader would never see his dream of ousting the government turn into reality.“Joma Sison is really arrogant. He thinks he is the country’s saviour. Imagine, they said they would oust the president, they said he would not finish his term. Joma Sison, wake up, dream on,” Roque said.“You cannot oust a government while you’re in Europe. You’ve been there for a long time. Come home so you’ll see that the situation is now different,” he added.Sison’s threat came immediately after Duterte postponed the resumption of formal peace negotiations between the government and the NDFP scheduled for June 28.The CPP leader has accused Duterte of sabotaging the peace talks to lay the ground for the imposition of martial law nationwide by postponing the peace talks.“It’s relatively easier and more productive for the NDFP to participate in the Oust-Duterte movement,” Sison said last week.