No more peace talks once even an AFP soldier gets hurt by communist rebels’ attack, particularly using land mines. This was the warning issued by President Rodrigo Duterte to the communist rebels on Wednesday, August 10.
Duterte is particularly infuriated by land mines used by the rebels. Land mines tend to harm even civilians, especially when they’re near military operations. The president said, “The conduct of war dictates that you don’t use land mines, especially that some soldiers are living with their families in camps.”
Speaking before soldiers and officers in Labangan, Zamboanga del Sur, the chief executive warned the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) about their continuing aggression against the AFP despite calls for peace talks from the government. He assured them “that if one more soldier of the Armed Forces dies or gets hurt, then they should forget the peace talks.”
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It will be remembered that the president declared a unilateral ceasefire swith the CPP-NPA-NDF on July 25 as a sign of goodwill. But days later, he revoked it after the communists did not immediately reciprocate. Later, they asked for more time to consider the ceasefire.
Since then, Duterte has been issuing critical remarks against the communist leaders, specifically Jose Maria Sison, CPP founder.
However, the CPP leadership would not be budged by Duterte’s threats and instead called attention to the fact that no political prisoner has been freed so far. They blamed this on Duterte’s alleged receptiveness to the military being its commander-in-chief.
Recently, however, the CPP declared that it would declare a unilateral ceasefire with the government on the resumption of peace talks in Norway, which is on August 20, 2016.
“To further support peace negotiations, the CPP is willing to issue a unilateral ceasefire declaration separately but simultaneously with the Duterte government on August 20,” the CPP announced last Sunday, August 7, a day after Duterte called off the unilateral ceasefire he had declared.
The communists blamed the failure of the Duterte ceasefire on the AFP. They alleged that the military did not comply with what was expected of them in a ceasefire.
“Over the course of five days that the Duterte ceasefire declaration was in effect, there was zero compliance on the part of the AFP. Its public expression of support for the ceasefire declaration was not reflected on the ground,” the CPP maintained.
“The CPP said it refused to order its armed wing, the New People’ Army, to go on a ceasefire while operating troops “showed no plans on letting up in their search-and-destroy operations and frenzied offensives that terrorize civilian communities,” the CPP added.
Just three days after the Duterte ceasefire was declared, the NPA ambushed a group of militiamen in Davao del Norte. The attack left one dead and three injured.
Thus, Duterte’s warning that if even one soldier gets hurt by another communist armed attack, there will be no more peace talks to look forward to.
Sources: (news.abs-cbn.com, cnnphilippines.com)
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