President Rodrigo Duterte has assured two peace negotiators of the communist insurgents they will not be arrested if they return to the country for informal talks, though he will not meet with them.
The President made the assurance after Luis Jalandoni and Fidel Agcaoili of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) called off plans to visit Manila due to security concerns.
“Agcaoili said they will no longer come here because they will be arrested. I will not have you arrested,” the President said on Thursday night during the 35th anniversary of the Army Reserve Command at Camp Regio de Dios in Tanza, Cavite.
“This Agcaoili and Jalandoni would come here and talk to me. I said, ‘Why should I talk to you? You talk to [chief government negotiator Silvestre] Bello [III] and [presidential peace adviser Jesus] Dureza,” he added.
Agcaoili and Jalandoni, along with Coni Ledesma, a member of the NDFP negotiating panel, had planned to meet with Dureza and Bello for informal talks in the country.
Arrest warrants
In scrapping their plan, Jalandoni cited the statement of Interior Secretary Eduardo Año that the two NDFP officials would be arrested once they set foot on Philippine soil by virtue of arrest warrants against them.
Mr. Duterte earlier said he was considering the request of the NDFP negotiators to meet with him, though he said he would consult the military first.
In November 2017, the President canceled peace talks with the NDFP, the umbrella organization of underground communist groups, due to the unabated attacks on government troops and civilians by the insurgents.
The peace talks were supposed to resume in June in Norway, but the President called it off so the government could hold public consultations and review existing agreements with the NDFP.
Left’s ‘final draft’
On Thursday, he challenged Jose Maria Sison, the self-exiled founding chair of the Communist Party of the Philippines, to present the insurgents’ “final draft” of a peace agreement.
“I’ll talk to Sison. Give me the final draft, and if I like it, I’ll pass it on to the military and the police. I’ll [ask] them, ‘Is this all right with you?” Mr. Duterte said. “Because if it’s not accepted by the military, the police, there will be a coup d’état.”
The President said he would also talk to the Senate President about the final draft.
The President also told leftist groups not to worry, as he would not decide on the peace talks on his own. “This is a democracy. We share powers here for the benefit of, for the good of the country,” he said.