Reds given 5 p.m. ultimatum

Somewhere in the the Mindanao hinterland area on Saturday, Communists New People Army rebels perform a parade display during the celebration of their 41st founding anniversary of Communist Party of the Philippines.  INQUIRER MINDANAO FILE PHOTO

President Rodrigo Duterte has given communist guerrillas until 5 p.m. Saturday to officially silence their guns or he would lift a unilateral ceasefire he had declared ahead of peace talks scheduled for next month.

The ultimatum came after a member of the Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Unit (Cafgu) was killed and four others were injured on Wednesday in an ambush by the New People’s Army (NPA) in Mindanao.

READ: Militiaman killed, 4 hurt in NPA ambush in Davao Norte

The violence has threatened to imperil peace talks set to resume in Oslo, Norway, in August, and just two days after the presidential directive was announced in Duterte’s first address to joint chambers of Congress.

“I will wait for that declaration, 5 p.m. tomorrow,” the President said after visiting the wounded militiamen. “If I don’t get a word from them (by 5 p.m., Saturday) then I will order the lifting of the ceasefire.”

“So I am asking you, are you ready to declare a ceasefire or not?” the President asked.

Window of opportunity

In Manila, presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said the rebels have been given a small “window of opportunity” to explain their side of events. “The onus remains on their side. So whatever trust there is must be firmed up from their side,” he said.

He said the government was still hoping at this stage that the weeklong talks would still push ahead as planned on Aug. 20, despite the violence.

On Wednesday, the military said members of the Communist Party of the Philippines’ (CPP) armed wing, the NPA,  ambushed the Cafgu unit returning to their base in Kapalong in Davao del Norte province, leading to the casualties.

Disheartening attack

Silvestre Bello, chair of the government peace panel, called on the CPP-NPA to reciprocate President Duterte’s announcement “in order to immediately stop violence on the ground, protect our communities from conflict and provide an enabling environment for the resumption of formal peace negotiations.”

Bello said he confronted Fidel Agcaoili of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the rebels’ political front, about the violence and asked him to look into it. Agcaoili said  the rebels have been on active defense mode since July 26, but vowed to look into the incident.

However, he hit back at the rebels for carrying out the ambush “barely two days after this ceasefire declaration.”

“It is disheartening that the (NPA) failed to respect the unilateral ceasefire declared by President Duterte last Monday,” Bello said.

NPA claims attack

If the rebels reciprocated it could “build trust and confidence on the peace process and more importantly bring peace in our communities for the good of the people,” he said.

The rebel leadership has placed its fighters on “active defense mode” while guerrillas await a ceasefire order, meaning they would not stage attacks but would fight to defend if they came under fire.

Aris Francisco, an NPA spokesperson, stressed that contrary to military reports, the slain Cafgu members were not returning to their base as claimed by the military but were involved in active combat operations despite President Duterte’s order to silence guns.

“Nothing can be farther from the truth,” Francisco said, adding that the militiamen were in fact involved in a July 5 ambush that wounded a rebel also in the town of Kapalong in Davao del Norte.

He charged that the military ignored the unilateral ceasefire and were “twisting the facts” to sabotage the upcoming talks.

“Its troops were clearly on combat operation and not engaged in ‘civilian activities’ in direct violation of GRP President Duterte’s ceasefire order,” Francisco said.

Communist party chair Jose Ma. Sison advised President Duterte, his former student, not to be hasty in his decision.

Duterte dismayed

“President Duterte should be patient and not expect quick surrenders from highly principled and experienced revolutionaries who  have a growing mass base against the rotten ruling system of big compradors and landlords,” he said, adding that it took the government at least three days to “make clear” the contents of its ceasefire.

The President, who met with officers and men of the military’s Southern Luzon Command  on Thursday prior to his Mindanao trip, was clearly dismayed by the developments.

He also sought to assure military and police officials in Quezon that while he was pursuing talks with the communists, he would never agree to a coalition government with them.

“I would like to assure everybody here in this room that I will never, never agree to a coalition government,” he said.

He also appealed on troops to support his peace initiatives, noting that many from both sides of the conflict have died in the communist insurgency that has stretched on for more than four decades as one of Asia’s longest and deadliest rebellions.

Doubt

On Friday, he visited the 60th Infantry Battalion base in Asuncion, Davao del Norte, where he was briefed by military officials. Also present were tribal leaders from the town of Kapalong, where the ambush occurred.

Col. Ricardo Nepomuceno, commander of the 1003rd Brigade in the south,  said the Cafgu unit was passing by Sitio Kamunoan in Barangay Gupitan in Kapalong to observe the ceasefire, when they were attacked without provocation by guerrillas.

“We shall continue to abide by the ceasefire while we continue to secure the communities (and) other vital installations against NPA attacks,” said Maj. Gen. Rafael Valencia, the commander of the 10th Infantry Division.

The President rejected a pullout of troops from the area, and stressed the NPA needed to do away with “the element of hate.”

“You doubt (my sincerity),” he said. “I am not threatening you. If you don’t want (peace), it’s OK with me.”  With reports from Delfin T. Mallari Jr., Inquirer Southern Luzon; and Allan Nawal, Karlos Manlupig, and Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao/TVJ

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