Quezon City mayor to join gov‘t peace panel for talks with CPP-NDF

From GMA News (Aug 6): Quezon City mayor to join gov‘t peace panel for talks with CPP-NDF

Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista may become part of the government's negotiating panel with the Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front (CPP-NDF).

Ares Gutierrez, chief of the Quezon City government's Public Affairs and Information Services Office, told GMA News Online on Saturday that Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III informed the mayor on Thursday that the government's panel has decided to include him in the talks.

Gutierrez said Bautista and Angeles City Mayor Ed Pamintuan, president of the League of Cities of the Philippines, will be part of the panel in the resumption of the peace talks in Oslo, Norway on August 20.

He said Bautista had volunteered to be part of the government's peace panel with the CPP-NDF because of his past dealings with leftist groups and the uniformed men as the mayor is a military reservist.

Bautista first expressed his intention to join the negotiating panel during a meeting with Bello and other negotiators during the first State of the Nation Address of President Rodrigo Duterte last July 25.

The mayor made formal his request in a letter to the government's negotiating panel and President Duterte, Gutierrez added.

"The mayor has always been a peacemaker. He was driven by a strong sense of duty to step forward and help make this fresh talks work," he said.

The mayor has yet to be formally notified by the panel of the appointment.

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/576622/news/nation/quezon-city-mayor-to-join-gov-t-peace-panel-for-talks-with-cpp-ndf