Gov’t still prefers local peace talks with communists
New People’s Army (NPA) | INQUIRER.net file photo
MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU) on Monday said it would continue pushing for local peace initiatives to address the root causes of the communist insurgency and ensure that former rebels would have better lives.
Undersecretary Wilben Mayor, spokesperson for OPAPRU, said the government was adopting the stand of the previous administration to do away with national peace talks with leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army and National Democratic Front.
Mayor said the OPAPRU, under Acting Presidential Adviser Isidro Purisima, was following the five-point peace reconciliation and unity agenda that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had laid down. One of them is to end local communist armed conflict.
