Davao City (CNN Philippines) — Incoming president Rodrigo Duterte said Thursday (May 26) the National Democratic Front (NDF) submitted its list of nominees to the new Cabinet after his three-hour meeting with a representative of the rebel group.
The incoming president declined to disclose the names on the list of less than 10 “impressive nominees,” submitted by NDF peace panel spokesperson Fidel Agcaoili on Tuesday (May 24). The list included four women.
He earlier said he will open the labor, agrarian reform, environment and social welfare departments to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
CPP founder Jose Maria Sison said they will nominate persons who are not members of the party.
“If it’s just a matter [that] they are identified with the left, it is not an issue with me,” Duterte said.
He said he talks to the left because he wants peace in the country.
The government and the NDF, which represents the communist rebels, have had on-and-off talks since 1986 to end the 47-year-old Maoist insurgency. The latest round of negotiations under President Benigno Aquino III is being brokered by Norway.
Duterte said he is now having second thoughts about his offer of the environment department to the rebels.
“I forgot that we have a very serious problem (in) mining and the only way you can deal with the mining people is you have to use the military,” he said.
He said he won’t accept hardcore rebel leaders in his government but he wants Sison, who was once his teacher in college, to be a consultant.
Sison fled to the Netherlands when the Marcos regime ended and peace talks failed in 1987. He has since been living in the Dutch city of Utrecht where the NDF negotiators hold office.
Duterte is also reaching out to Nur Misuari, founder of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
He plans to visit Misuari in Sulu, where the rebel leader has gone into hiding after facing criminal charges over the 2013 Zamboanga siege, which displaced over 10,000 people and left more than 200 dead.
He said he will not ask Misuari to surrender. Instead, he said he will give Misuari a safe conduct pass, but he will bring up the issue of people linked to MNLF who are involved in crime.
“That (will be) one of the critical points of our talk,” he said.
Duterte said he will also revive the Sulu Sultanate’s claim to Sabah, which is seen as one of the root causes behind the Moro rebellion in the south.
While the claim may put a strain on the ties between the two countries, Duterte did not say how he will manage relations between Manila and Kuala Lumpur.
