No ceasefire with communist rebels ‘ever again under my term’ – Duterte

MANILA, Philippines — There will be no ceasefire with the communist rebels during this year’s holiday season — or “ever again” —during this administration, President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday.

“There will be no ceasefire ever again under my term as president. For all intents and purposes the ceasefire is dead,” he said during his weekly nation address.

Duterte said the resumption of peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front (NDF), the negotiating arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines, was likewise “dead.”

“When I walked away from the talks because we cannot understand each other. Maybe we were talking in different dialects, I don’t know why, but I simply cannot understand the way it was being carried by the other side, the way it was being played,” he added.

“For all intents and purposes, the ceasefire is dead. And the peace talks between the NDF, the NPA [New People’s Army], along with all of you – I am identifying you because I have seen the records; you are really communists,” Duterte said.

He also said he would also name all of those involved with the NDF before the end of his term.

Earlier, the Armed Forces of the Philippines recommended to the President not to declare a suspension of military operations with the New People’s Army (NPA).

The AFP spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo, said the NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), showed “incapacity for sincerity and for being unfaithful to a covenant….many times in the past.”

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