PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte will not allow the government's resumption of peace negotiations with the communist group, unless the latter demonstrates sincerity, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said Tuesday, April 3.
"The President said that there will be no peace talks, as long as they (communist rebels) do not show sincerity," Bello, the state's chief peace negotiator, said in a radio interview.
Bello issued the remark after the Communist Party of the Philippines' (CPP) armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA), reportedly torched 10 construction heavy equipment in far-flung villages in Duterte's bailiwick in Davao City on Black Saturday, March 31, and Easter Sunday, April 1.
Presidential Adviser on Peace Process Jesus Dureza, in a statement, said the government condemned the NPA guerillas' "senseless destruction" of heavy equipment in Davao City.
He said the communists' consecutive attacks during the observance of Holy Week "anger" the government.
The NPA's persistent attacks have irked Duterte and prompted him to issue Proclamations 360 and 374 last year, formally terminating the peace talks and branding the CPP-NPA as terror organization, respectively.
Bello said there would be no revival of talks with the CPP's political wing, the National Democratic Front (NDF), if NPA members do not stop arson attacks.
"If communists show sincerity that they want peace, [negotiations] may resume. They should first stop arson attacks because such has relation to extortion. They torch anything if they do not get revolutionary tax. That must stop," he said.
Dureza added that the presence of an enabling law is crucial to revive the government peace panel's dialogue with the NDF consultants.
"This [latest NPA attack] unnecessarily squanders whatever gains we have been quietly getting lately in our common efforts with the CPP/NPA/NDF leadership to achieve just peace through the negotiations table," he said.
"As we have been emphasizing, the presence of an enabling environment will be the sole determining factor for the resumption of peace talks. We are therefore saddened by the consequent setback these attacks bring to our efforts," Dureza added. (SunStar Philippines)