President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. SIMEON CELI JR./Presidential Photo/FILE
Militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) on Saturday said that President Rodrigo Duterte is “sorely mistaken” if he thinks that an order for an all-out war and aerial bombardment will end the armed rebellion in the country.
“Many regimes since the time of Marcos have resorted to the same and ended up failing. Indiscriminate bombings of civilian communities will merely highlight the cruelty of the ruling system and the fascist character of the state,” Bayan Secretary General Renato Reyes said in a statement.
“Duterte may yet end up as the number one recruiter of the New People’s Army (NPA) if he insists on treading the beaten path of fascist repression,” he added.
Reyes urged Duterte to return to the negotiating table, and to make use of the ongoing backchannel talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) rather than engaging to an all-out war.
Duterte on Thursday once again ruled out peace talks with the communist rebels and declared that the police and the military can now pursue them.
He lamented that the NPA targeted non-combatants when they shot dead four members of the Scene of the Crime Operatives of the local police in Bansalan, Davao del Sur, during an ambush.
READ: Duterte to AFP: Drop bombs on NPA rebels, flatten hills
Reyes stressed that the issues related to armed engagements are best resolved through peace negotiations.
“The NDFP has already opened the possibility of a negotiated bilateral ceasefire, achievable via the release of all political prisoners and the cessation of military operations in revolutionary areas,” he further explained.
“Whatever the decision of Duterte, so long as the roots of the armed conflict remain, a militarist solution will never succeed. Same goes with the deceptive ‘development support and security plan’ under the misnomer of Oplan Kapayapaan,” Reyes added. IDL