Duterte intent on pursuing land reform – with or without talks with Reds

President Rodrigo Duterte speaks at the National Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Summit 2018 at the SMX Convention Center in Lanang, Davao City on Friday, June 22, 2018. (Photo from an RTVM video)

DAVAO CITY – President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday said he was determined to redistribute land to the people “with or without the talks with the communists.”

“I will go ahead and forge a good land reform until the end of my term. I’ll distribute it all,” he said in a speech at the National Information and Communications Technology Summit 2018 held at the SMX Convention Center here.

Duterte said he distributed more than 1,000 land titles during his June 20 visit to Cabatuan, Iloilo alone.

Land reform was among the substantive agenda in the peace negotiations between the government and the National Democratic Front.

It is part of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER), which the communists said would end landless that had fueled the decades-old insurgency. /atm