Sison hopes for resumption of peace talks after elections

LUCENA CITY—Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison is hoping that the lawmakers to be elected in 2019 will help push for the resumption of the peace talks between the Duterte administration and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

“If you ask the candidates for the Lower House and the Senate, I am sure that almost all of them will be in favor of the peace negotiations,” Sison said on Friday, in an online interview from his base in Utrecht, Netherlands, where he has lived in self-exile since 1987.

“Those who are reactionary and less intelligent will precondition the talks with the surrender of the [New People’s Army] and the more intelligent or progressive ones will say that the talks must address the roots of the armed conflict and lead to comprehensive agreements to lay the basis for a just and lasting peace,” he added.

Sison serves as chief political consultant of the NDFP, the umbrella group of all communist-led underground organizations in the country.

But Sison acknowledges that the resumption of peace talks will depend on President Duterte. —DELFIN T. MALLARI JR.