Communists to ask Duterte to end US military presence as requirement for peace

From Coconuts Manila (Jun 3): Communists to ask Duterte to end US military presence as requirement for peace

[Video report:  News@6: Davao City Mayor Duterte, nilinaw ang posisyon sa ilang isyu kabilang ang EDCA  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKwCZ7qpu2Q]

It's a pretty tall order.

"Communist rebels said on Thursday, Jun 2, that they would ask the incoming government of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte to end the military presence of the United States in the Philippines for allegedly violating the country's sovereignty," reports Virgil Lopez on GMA News Online.

The report noted: "Specifically, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) would push for the junking of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA)." Duterte has addressed the VFA and EDCA during the campaign season. He basically said the agreements need a closer look and they should be scrapped if they trample on Pinoys' rights.

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA), created a commission that founded the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). The NDFP serves as "an umbrella organization for the CPP-NPA and other mass revolutionary organizations."

Fidel Agcaoili, one of the negotiators of the NDFP with the government, was quoted as saying, "From the very beginning, we have always stood on the basis of principled self-respect and national sovereignty. We cannot allow the presence of US military bases here."

Agcaoili emphasized that this demand was "non-negotiable" even with the Philippines ongoing territorial dispute with China.

The report indicated that "the incoming Duterte government and the NDFP are preparing for preliminary talks for the framework of the peace agenda to be held soon in Oslo, Norway, whose government acts as a go-between in the negotiations that have been stalled halfway through the term of outgoing President Benigno Aquino III."

For the record, "the VFA allows combat exercises between American and Filipino troops each year" while the EDCA, on the other hand, "permits the US to build structures, store as well as pre-position weapons, defense supplies and materiel, station troops, civilian personnel and defense contractors, transit and station vehicles, vessels, and aircraft for a period of 10 years."

http://manila.coconuts.co/2016/06/03/communists-ask-duterte-end-us-military-presence-requirement-peace