Duterte says peace talks not totally hopeless if Reds agree to conditions

President Rodrigo Duterte leads the inauguration of the Malayan Colleges Mindanao (MCM) in Matina, Davao City on Saturday, July 7, 2018. (Photo from an RTVM video)

DAVAO CITY — President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday said that peace with the communists could still be salvaged if the rebel leadership would agree to his conditions for the resumption of talks.

In a speech during the inauguration of the Malayan Colleges Mindanao (MCM) here, the President said he was giving a small window to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) to reach a common agreement with the government.

“But for the small window I gave to myself and [CPP founding chairman Jose Maria] Sison, we have to have some common agreement [in] 60 days,” Duterte said. “Then after that, if nothing happens, I tell you, prepare for war because this rebellion of the communist party will go on.”

Among his conditions were for the communists not to ask for power-sharing or a coalition government as well as the cessation of hostilities between government troops and the New People’s Army (NPA).

The president would want the NPA to “surrender and restrict themselves in their camps.””

“I do not want to disarm them,” he added.

Presidential peace adviser Jesus Dureza said the president would also want an end to the rebels’ extortion activities through the so-called revolutionary tax.

The president would also want negotiations to be held in the country and that rebel commanders in the countryside could engaged in localized peace talks with local military and civilian authorities.

Sison denied they had asked for a power sharing as a precondition to the resumption of talks with the Duterte administration.