Executive Order 70 another Duterte anti-peace move – Joma

LUCENA CITY – Exiled Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison said President Duterte’s Executive Order No. 70 was another stumbling block in the possible reopening of the peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

“EO 70 is one more presidential issuance to terminate and prevent the resumption of peace talks at the appropriate national level between authorized representatives of the GRP (government) and NDFP,” Sison said in a statement from his base in Utrecht, The Netherlands on Wednesday.

Under the EO, which was signed on Dec. 4, Duterte directed the adoption of a national peace framework and institutionalizing the whole-of-nation approach to attain “inclusive and sustainable peace” in the country to supposedly “address the root causes” of the armed conflict.

Sison added: “It is in line with the anti-peace Proclamations 360 and 374, Memorandum Order 32, the arrest of NDFP peace consultants and the deployment of Duterte death squads in both urban and rural areas against suspected revolutionaries and critics of and opposition to the
tyrannical and corrupt Duterte regime.”

On Nov. 23 last year, President Duterte signed Proclamation No. 360 that terminated the peace talks with NDFP.

The President accused the CPP of insincerity and denounced its armed wing, the New People’s Army for its continued attacks on government forces that also victimized civilians.