CPP to Duterte: Let's both declare separate unilateral ceasefires on Aug. 20

From InterAksyon (Jul 31): CPP to Duterte: Let's both declare separate unilateral ceasefires on Aug. 20

The Communist Party of the Philippines suggested Sunday to President Rodrigo Duterte that they declare separate unilateral ceasefires on August 20, when formal peace negotiations are scheduled to resume.

The suggestion came a day after Duterte withdrew the unilateral ceasefire he declared during his first State of the Nation Address on July 25, after the rebels failed to meet a 5 p.m. deadline he set on July 30 for them to reciprocate his gesture.

The President set a deadline after a government militiaman was killed and four others wounded by the New People’s Army in Davao del Norte Wednesday. The military claimed the militiamen were pulling back to their patrol when attacked, but the rebels said they were responding to an Army offensive.

The CPP said it was supposed to declare its own ceasefire 8 p.m. Saturday but Duterte took back his declaration around an hour before that. The CPP said it had been “refining” the draft it had been working on since June precisely to reciprocate the President’s declatration.

In its statement on Sunday, the CPP said it was “too bad” Duterte took back his ceasefire, which the rebels had welcomed “as a measure to promote” the negotiations but said it hoped this would not affect the schedule for the talks to resume in Oslo, Norway or keep him from reissuing another declaration on August 20 or for the government “to make good its promise to release all peace consultants” of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and other political prisoners.

The CPP said the timeframe of the mutual ceasefires as well as “points for cooperation and coordination” to prevent “armed skirmishes, misunderstandings and miscommunications during the course of the peace talks” could be discussed once the declarations are exchanged.

More prudence, flexibility

At the same time, the CPP said it was “quite capricious” and “disconcerting” of Duterte to set a deadline for the rebels “to act in accordance with his whims,” even as it took a dig at him, noting that “despite his anti-crime bravado, it would seem he has shown the drug lords and protectors of criminal syndicates more flexibility and accommodation.”

“It is advisable for (Duterte) to exercise a little more prudence and display more measured temperament as a way of appreciating the situation from a broader historical perspective in order to avoid such impulsive acts as imposing ultimatums by the hour on a conflict that has spanned nearly fifty years,” the CPP said.

It also stressed that it would “not allow itself to be browbeaten to order the NPA to go on a ceasefire while operating troops of the AFP showed no plans of letting up in their search-and-destroy operations and frenzied offensives that terrorize civilian communities.

It pointed out that, aside from the Davao del Norte incident, “combat units of the AFP have remained active in civilian communities throughout the country, from Isabela to Sorsogon, Northern Samar to Surigao del Norte, to Compostela and even in Duterte's home province of Davao del Norte where AFP combat troops continue to wage armed offensives.

The CPP said: “To say the least, continuing offensives of the AFP prevented the CPP from declaring an interim ceasefire sooner.”

http://interaksyon.com/article/130958/cpp-to-duterte-lets-both-declare-separate-unilateral-ceasefires-on-aug--20