Duterte’s ‘plan’ to crush NPA ‘set to fail’ — CPP

Communist rebels gather somewhere in Southern Mindanao FILE PHOTO/Karlos Manlupig

President Rodrigo Duterte reportedly plans to crush the New People’s Army (NPA) before 2018 ends, but the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) believes that it is “set to fail.”

The CPP issued the statement after its founder Jose Maria Sison declared that communist rebels and peace consultants “can no longer negotiate” with the Duterte administration.

Duterte, the communists said, “did not budge an inch” in demanding the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) to sign a bilateral ceasefire agreement.

“Duterte’s Oplan Kapayapaan aims to crush the New People’s Army (NPA) before the end of 2018,” the CPP said on Friday.

“He is interested only in creating the illusion of peace, not attaining just and lasting peace. Duterte’s concept of peace is acquiescence to oppression and exploitation,” it added.

But the CPP claimed: “Duterte’s Oplan Kapayapaan is set to fail.”

The communists explained that Duterte was “antagonizing the broad masses of peasants and minority peoples as a result of unmitigated killings, illegal arrests and detention, conscription, forcing people to ‘surrender’ and rampant military abuses.”

“He is alienating himself from the rural masses by seeking to convert thousands of hectares of land to commercial plantations and mining sites,” the CPP said.

Duterte reaction

In an interview with reporters in Panglao, Bohol province, on Thursday, President Duterte brushed off Sison’s statement, according to a report from the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

“I am here as a worker of government and my main task is to seek, find the peace of the country. If they are not willing to talk to me, that’s fine, I have no problem. So we continue with the war,” he said.

The President added: “If you want to cease overthrowing governments, fine. You want to talk? Come here. If you don’t want to, fine.”

Reacting to Sison’s statement, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a text message to reporters: “Spoken like a true terrorist.”

Jesus Dureza, the President’s peace adviser, has said the talks were merely postponed to allow public consultations on the agreements so far reached between the government and NDFP negotiators.

These, he said, would build both goodwill and support for the peace negotiations among the people.

Reached by the Inquirer through a text message on Thursday, Dureza declined to comment on Sison’s statements.

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