Reds blame Duterte for blocking peace talks

By “unilaterally canceling” peace talks with communist insurgents, President Duterte “bears full responsibility” for blocking agreements on socio-economic reforms required to resolve the roots of armed conflict.

This was the gist of the statement issued on Thursday by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) which called out Mr. Duterte for stalling opportunities for peace.

Julieta de Lima, chair of the NDFP’s Reciprocal Working Committee on Social and Economic Reforms (RWCSER), pointed out that this was the third time in six months that the President had scuttled talks with the Left.

“His (Duterte’s) latest scuttling of the talks comes at a time when unprecedented advances have already been achieved in forging agreements on urgently needed socio-economic reforms to alleviate mass poverty and resolve the roots of the armed conflict,” De Lima said.

“President Duterte bears full responsibility for the failure of the talks… because of his sudden turn-around and heightened hostility toward the revolutionary forces and the people,” she added.

The President on Wednesday ordered the termination of talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), accusing the party and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), of failing to reciprocate the government’s peace overtures.

De Lima claimed that four days before Mr. Duterte again decided to call off the talks, the NDFP and the government panels had signed draft documents on agrarian reform and rural development and on national industrialization and economic development that could benefit millions of Filipinos.

The draft agreements, she said, provide for the distribution of free land to tillers, farmers and fisherfolk; the immediate installation of agrarian reform beneficiaries; as well as the inclusion of plantations and large-scale commercial farms in the scope of agrarian reform.

The government and the CPP-NDF also agreed on national industrialization and strategies to enhance Filipino industrial capacity by ensuring that foreign investments contribute to the development of the national economy and by nationalizing public utilities.

De Lima said the documents were the result of a series of technical meetings between the two panels in October and November.

She pointed out that both sides were hoping to complete the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms by January next year.

“The NDFP-RWCSER regrets the unilateral cancellation of talks on such vital social and economic reforms which, if implemented, would have immediately benefited tens of millions of oppressed and exploited Filipinos,” De Lima said.