President Duterte is mulling the creation of a new five-member panel that will talk peace with communist rebels.
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech during the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) campaign rally at the Bacolod City Government Center Football Field in Negros Occidental on April 11, 2019. (SIMEON CELI JR./PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
After terminating the formal negotiations with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army, the President said he might tap three military representatives and civilians to form the new peace panel.
“If you want to talk to me, I’ll send someone else. You talk to each other. I don’t want to talk anymore,” he said in the Visayan dialect during his visit to Bukidnon last Saturday.
“I’ll look for another way and new people to talk to. Maybe one, two, or three from the military, and… Maybe around five. Two civilians and three from the military,” he added.
Duterte said he abolished the previous government peace panel since the talks with the rebel group were unsuccessful. “I abolished the peace panel too. It’s been three years but I wasn’t even able to achieve anything,” he said.
He also took a swipe at communist leader Jose Maria Sison for not helping with the peace talks. “The talks were often interrupted because your chief is hotheaded, that fool. Maybe it’s because of old age,” said Duterte, who often traded insults with Sison in his public speeches.
Last month, the President announced the permanent termination of the government’s peace talks with the communist terrorist group, saying the rebels could try to talk peace with his successor instead. The government instead will create a new panel that will supervise localized peace engagements.
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