President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech during the Thanksgiving gathering he hosted for the Armed Forces of the Philippines Council of the Sergeants Major at the MalacaÒan Palace on December 10, 2019. KING RODRIGUEZ/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO
President Rodrigo Duterte is daring Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison to come home to the Philippines for a “one-on-one” talk ahead of a resumption of formal peace negotiations, Malacañang said on Thursday.
The Palace condemned the attacks on policemen and soldiers by communist New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas in Iloilo and Camarines Norte provinces on Monday, just hours after the government and the CPP separately declared a truce for the holiday season.
Two police officers were wounded and one soldier was killed, while six others were injured, in the attacks.
He won’t be arrested
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo assured Sison on Thursday, the 51st anniversary of the founding of the CPP, that no warrant for Sison’s arrest would be enforced if he would come home for talks with Duterte.
“The President is daring him to come home to the Philippines and have a one-on-one talk with the President. Even when there’s no government panel involved, no panel on the communist side,” Panelo told reporters.
“He’s asking him to come to the Philippines. There will be no enforcement of any warrant. Just come to the Philippines and talk with him,” Panelo said.
He added that Duterte did not set conditions for Sison’s return to the Philippines.
“He did not mention any condition. What he said was, ‘I want to talk to him one-on-one,’” Panelo said. “The stand of the President, he either takes it or leaves it.”
Sison decided to leave it.
“I would be putting the prospect of peace negotiations at risk if I make myself available for any kind of attack by military and police officers who think they can end the revolutionary movement by getting rid of a single person like me,” Sison said in an online interview with the Inquirer from exile in Utrecht, the Netherlands, on Thursday afternoon.
Asked if talking with Duterte via Skype, as they did in 2016, was possible, Sison said, “Skyping is not advisable for discussing serious matters of high importance.”
On Sunday night, Duterte ordered the reconstitution of the government’s negotiating panel in preparation for the resumption of peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), the political arm of the CPP.
Duterte also declared a ceasefire with the NPA and directed the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to suspend all offensive operations against the rebels during the holiday season.
The government’s declaration followed the CPP’s own ceasefire declaration earlier on Sunday. The declarations came after government and rebel negotiators meeting in Utrecht, the Netherlands, recommended on Saturday a truce between the two sides from midnight of Dec. 23 to midnight on Jan. 7.
The NPA launched the attacks half an hour apart on Monday morning, drawing condemnation and accusation of truce violation from the PNP and the military.
No written orders
Sison said there was no violation of the ceasefire, as the government had not issued written orders to the police and the military for a cessation of offensive operations. Without the written orders, he said, the ceasefire was not in effect.
In an earlier online interview with the Inquirer on Thursday, Sison warned that the CPP would withdraw its stand-down directive to the NPA if the government would not produce its ceasefire orders to the police and the military.
“I think that the NDFP is ready anytime to recommend to the CPP the withdrawal of its ceasefire order to the NPA if the [government] fails to show to the NDFP, the press and the public the official copies of [the truce orders to the police and the military],” Sison said.
CPP founder Jose Ma. Sison listens to NDF member Fidel Agcaoili and chair Luis Jalandoni during a meeting at the NDF headquarters in Utrecht, Netherlands. Photo taken April 29, 2007.
ERNIE U. SARMIENTO
But the CPP, NDFP and NPA were not imposing a deadline on the government, Sison said, without elaborating.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana rejected Sison’s demand.
“Why would we submit any document to Sison? Who is he?” Lorenzana said in a message to the Inquirer on Thursday.
“The Armed Forces of the Philippines issued the directive for ceasefire in compliance to the directive of the President. It is independent of the CPP-New People’s Army’s self-imposed ceasefire,” Lorenzana said. “What Sison and his minions do in implementing their ceasefire is their problem.”
Lorenzana warned that any attack on government troops during the truce “will be met with force.”
“While our field commanders have complete control of their troops, Sison [does] not. He goes to this rants in his attempt to save face and be reÂ-levant. What a pathetic figure,” Lorenzana said.
Chance to explain
Panelo condemned the attacks on government forces on Monday, but said the government was giving the rebels a chance to explain why they violated the ceasefire.
“Since the President has always been open, giving a little window in the pursuit of peace, he will wait for the explanation coming from them,” Panelo said.
Duterte, he said, “wants to know facts” about the attacks.
“He’s waiting for the report and for the explanation why they made the attack[s],” Panelo added.