Localized peace talks waste of people’s money—Sison

Jose Maria Sison

LUCENA CITY—The government’s plan to hold localized peace talks with communist rebels will just be a waste of people’s money, exiled Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chair Jose Maria Sison said on Friday.

“This is a stupid waste of public money,” Sison said in a statement as he reiterated his opposition to the holding of peace talks between officials of local government units (LGUs) and New People’s Army (NPA) rebels operating in their areas.

“It is a kind of racket, with the local political followers and military agents of Duterte pocketing the money for the fake (NPA) surrenders,” he added.

On Thursday, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said President Duterte would soon issue an executive order to formalize the guidelines on localized peace talks.

No Palace reaction

Roque said the government was allowing LGU officials to engage in localized peace talks after the negotiations between the government and the communist-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) bogged down anew.

Malacañang, he said, would not dignify any more statements by Sison with a reaction.

“Duterte is really crazy. He wants to negotiate with his own shadow,” said Sison, the NDFP’s chief political consultant who has lived in self-exile in the Netherlands since 1987.

He branded the localized negotiations as an “old discredited psywar tactic” that would turn out into staged peace talks between the government and “fake” NPA rebels.

The NDFP, the insurgents’ political arm, had previously ruled out localized peace talks as a method of negotiation to deal with the decades-old rebellion. It said NPA units were not authorized to engage in peace negotiations.