Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 21) — Communist rebels will benefit more from the creation of a new and “inclusive” government peace panel, Malacañang said Thursday as it defended its decision to terminate its current roster of negotiators.
“There will be creation of panels, localized nga eh. Lalo ngang pabor sa kanila (It will be more favorable for them),” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a media briefing.
He was responding to a statement made by Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Maria Sison that the termination of the government’s peace panel shows that President Rodrigo Duterte “has no interest in the peace negotiations,” stressing that the President has repeatedly ignored the Left’s openness to peace talks.
Panelo said Sison “read it wrongly,” insisting that localized peace talks would be good for the rebels. The government has been pushing for local government officials to talk to rebels in their areas, but has not released guidelines in doing so. The CPP, meanwhile, said they will never participate in localized peace talks.
Malacañang on Monday terminated the services of its peace panel members, including chief government negotiator and Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III.
Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez, Jr. in a statement Thursday said a new panel will be formed composed of different sectoral groups, local government units, and the military, stressing that their “presence are essential to the peace negotiations.”
Duterte walked away from on-off peace negotiations with the rebels in November 2017 as both sides accused each other of ceasefire violations. The CPP and its armed wing New People’s Army has waged a five-decade insurgency, the longest-running in Asia.
