Duterte asked if PH-NDFP ‘agreement with the devil’ includes Norway

SEEING RED Vice President Sara Duterte assumes vice chairmanship of National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac), a body created by her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte in 2018, to address the decades-long communist threat. (File photo from INDAY SARA DUTERTE Facebook page)

MANILA, Philippines — Two lawmakers disagreed with Vice President Sara Duterte’s view that peace talks with communist rebels are like a deal with the devil.

One of them asked if the devil includes Norwegian government, which was a third party in the Oslo agreement.

In an ambush interview on Thursday, ACT Teachers Party-list Representative France Castro posed this question.

“Well, hindi ko alam kung sino ang tinutukoy niya, kung sino yung devil niya, ‘no?” Castro wondered.

(Well, I don’t know who she is referring to, who is her devil, right?)

“As a VP, dapat nag-a-advocate din siya ng peace kasi lagi niyang sinasabi ‘yan, the school should be a zone of peace,” the lawmaker observed.

(As a VP, she should advocate for peace because she always says the school should be a zone of peace.)

“Pero yung pakikipag-peace negotiation sa mga rebelde ay tinuturing nyang devil’s agreement,” she said.

(But she considers peace negotiation with rebels as devil’s agreement.)

“So, ibig sabihin, pati yung third party, yung Oslo, yung Norway, kasama din ba dun sa tinutukoy nya na kasama dun sa devil’s agreement?” Castro asked.

(So, this means that even the third party, Oslo, Norway, are they also included in what she was referring to as devil’s agreement?)

Ako Bicol Party-list Representative Raul Angelo Bongalon also questioned Duterte’s statements.

“Deal with the devil? I don’t know what she’s talking about,” Bongalon said.

“Definitely, kung ano po ang ikagaganda ng ating bansa, dun ho tayo,” he noted.

(Definitely, whatever is good for our country, we will side with that.)

“And that is why we will have a committee hearing and the committee on justice to adopt the concurrent resolution with regard to the peace talks,” the lawmaker added.

Duterte previously told President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. that peace talks with National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) are “an agreement with the devil”.

NDFP represents Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and New People’s Army (NPA) in the negotiations.

In November 28, Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity Carlito Galvez Jr. said Philippine government and NDFP have reached a tentative agreement to seek a peaceful resolution.

Representatives from Norwegian government served as witnesses in the meeting.