Duterte vows to forge coalition with CPP, MNLF if elected president
Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. INQUIRER MINDANAO FILE PHOTO
DAVAO CITY, Philippines—Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has firmed up speculations over his interest in running for president in the 2016 elections when he said he would forge a coalition government with the Communist Party of the Philippines if ever he were elected as the next president.
During the Dec. 21 episode of his Sunday television program, Duterte said anew that he hoped the coalition government would end the 46-year communist rebellion.
It was the second time he mentioned about forging a coalition government with the Left. The first instance was during last week’s release of two soldiers held captive by the New People’s Army in Davao del Norte.
“I am open to a coalition with revolutionary forces and other patriotic forces,” said Duterte. Until recently, the mayor was vocal in rejecting efforts to make him run in 2016.
“I guarantee that it will not be a communist government as it will retain the basic fundamentals of a democratic society,” he added.
The National Democratic Front had brought up the proposal for a coalition government in August 2005.
But both the past and the present administrations had rejected the idea.
Duterte said should he agree to a coalition government as president, he would retain the control of the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), eliminate paramilitary groups and start the government “with a clean slate,” by implementing genuine land reform and national industrialization. The insurgency, he said, has been going on for the last 46 years and arrogance would never solve it.
Duterte also said he would also forge a coalition with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
Reacting to Duterte’s statement, CPP founding chair Jose Maria Sison wrote on his Facebook page that “Duterte should become president if he is willing to have a democratic coalition government with revolutionary forces and other patriotic and progressive forces of our people.”
“We can have a common program of action: real national independence and territorial integrity, democratic empowerment of the working people, economic development through genuine land reform and national industrialization, and social justice,” Sison added. “What the revolutionary forces want is what the people demand.”
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