Dureza advises Pres. Duterte to maintain ceasefire with NPA

From the Philippine News Agency (Feb 1): Dureza advises Pres. Duterte to maintain ceasefire with NPA

Office of Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAAP) Secretary Jesus Dureza on Wednesday advised President Rodrigo Duterte not to lift unilateral ceasefire with the communist groups.

Dureza made this recommendation to the President after New People’s Army (NPA)’s spokesman Ka Oris announced on Wednesday that the rebel group is ending unilateral ceasefire effective February 10.

"On the part of the Office of the Presidential Peace adviser, we respectfully recommend to President Rodrigo Duterte that the government continues to maintain and uphold the unilateral ceasefire to sustain peace in the communities where our people desire to live in peace,” Dureza said in a press statement.

Dureza also recommended that government forces should continue to be relentless in their campaign to protect the civilians from harm and terrorism.

The OPAPP official expressed dismay at NPA’s withdrawal but said “we respect their decision.”

"This cancellation came just after some progress were made in the third round of peace talks in Rome where negotiating panels from both sides agreed to further discuss a bilateral ceasefire in The Netherlands sometime end of this month,” Dureza said.

Last Tuesday, Dureza expressed concerns over the recent series of attacks and harassments allegedly perpetrated by the communist rebels in some areas of the country.

"We agree that the situation, with various incidents on the ground, had become untenable to sustain without the guidelines and protocols that a bilateral ceasefire provides," Dureza said.

"This gives more impetus and encouragement to our earnest task of forging a sustainable ceasefire agreement," he added.

Despite reports of NPA attacks, Dureza said the government is still hopeful that the search for peace will continue and the tragedy of Filipinos fighting fellow Filipinos will come to an early end.

"As we always stress, the road to peace is not easy to traverse. What is important is that we all stay the course," he said.

In an effort to achieve peace with communist rebels, President Duterte declared a unilateral ceasefire right in his first state of the nation address or SONA on July 25 last year.

The President, however, lifted the declaration on July 31 after the Communist Party of the Philippines (CCP) failed to meet deadline to reciprocate the government ceasefire.

On August 21 last year, President Duterte restored the unilateral ceasefire five days before the peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front (NDF) was held in Oslo, Norway.

 http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=960088