Defense chief: Why do Reds want peace talks?

From Malaya Business Insight (Mar 27): Defense chief: Why do Reds want peace talks?

DEFENSE Secretary Delfin Lorenzana yesterday said he is opposed to the resumption of peace negotiations between government and the communist movement.

He said the government has been pursuing peace with the communists in the past decades but nothing has happened. The Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army, have been involved in the armed struggle for 49 years.

Lorenzana said government must determine what the communists “really want this time because we have been talking to them for the past several decades and nothing is happening.”

“I will have to defer to the President if he wants to pursue the talks but the defense department, we oppose the peace talks,” Lorenzana told a press briefing at the headquarters of the Naval Air Group in Sangley Point in Cavite City.

He issued the statement a day after at least 60 members of the House of Representatives signed a resolution calling on President Duterte to revive the talks.

“Why are they forcing the government, pleading to resume the peace talks again? I don’t know the purpose of this,” Lorenzana said.

He said efforts to resume the talks could be a move to prevent the CPP-NPA from being tagged a terrorist group, and to prevent more NPA members from surrendering.

The military earlier said at least 4,000 rebels and supporters have surrendered this year.

“Maybe they are trying to salvage themselves because they are about to be considered as terrorists and secondly, a lot of them are surrendering in droves everyday so they are trying to use the peace talks as a last ploy to stop surrenders and avoid the terrorist tag,” he said.

Signatories of the resolution are members of different political parties. One of the authors is Rep. Carlos Zarate of the party-list group Bayan Muna which is associated with the communists. The resolution is asking Duterte to “listen to the clamor of the people” to resume the talks, which it said will be beneficial to peasants and workers.

The CPP-NPA has been in the US list of foreign terrorist organizations since 2002.

In December last year, Duterte declared the CPP and NPA as terror groups. A government petition for the declaration is pending with a Manila court.

The month before, he cancelled the peace negotiations because of NPA attacks on government forces even while the talks were ongoing. Duterte started talking peace with the CCP-NPA-National Democratic Front of the Philippines in 2016 shortly after he became president.

Peace adviser Jesus Dureza said Sunday only “an enabling environment conducive to negotiations” would convince government to resume the talks.

Lorenzana said the communist should show sincerity first, by agreeing to a bilateral ceasefire agreement, before the government agrees to resume the talks.

“We are asking for bilateral ceasefire... But these people, the CPP-NPA is insisting on fight and talk but I don’t believe in that. If we talk, we should stop fighting first,” said Lorenzana.

PNP chief Ronald dela Rosa encouraged his men to take advantage of the good weather to launch tactical offensives against the NPA.

“This summer season, we are taking advantage of good weather to launch our own tactical offensive operations against the CPP-NPA front organizations and support systems particularly CPP-NPA personalities who are wanted by law for criminal offenses,” he said.

He reminded police stations nationwide to step-up their defense plans I preparation for the NPA’s 49th anniversary on March 29.

The NPA traditionally launches attacks on remote and isolated police or military stations to mark its anniversary.

“I am instructing all PNP regional directors to put in place all necessary counter measures to strengthen defenses of soft targets and avoid being caught flatfooted in cases of offensive enemy actions... Police units are instructed to double its efforts in launching offensive operations against local insurgents by mobilizing the barangay information networks and other intelligence sources in the community to deter CPP-NPA hostilities,” he said.

Rep. Tom Villarin (PL, Akbayan) slammed Dela Rosa.

“Instead of an all-out peace regardless of weather conditions, the Duterte government has used the coercive powers of the state to wage a bloody war against a long-drawn insurgency that has taken roots because of poverty and injustice,” said Villarin, one of the signatories of the resolution.

Villarin said instead of peaceful and long-lasting solutions, the government has embarked on a “myopic” and even a “senseless war of attrition.”

“It takes more than bullets to kill an idea or a thousand offensives to find lasting peace,” he said.

http://www.malaya.com.ph/business-news/news/defense-chief-why-do-reds-want-peace-talks