Robredo urges resumption of talks with communist rebels
LUCENA CITY—Vice President Leni Robredo on Wednesday urged President Duterte to continue peace negotiations with communist rebels to end the bloody, decades-old rebellion.
“The quest for peace in negotiations should not stop and should instead continue,” Robredo said in a phone interview.
She visited Mulanay town in Quezon province’s Bondoc Peninsula to turn over cooking tools and laboratory equipment which she solicited for public schools in the area.
Not only the military
The Vice President said Mr. Duterte should have left the fate of the stalled peace talks with the communist-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines not only to the military but also to the government peace panel led by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III.
“It is right that the military should be on top of it, but the [government] peace panel should also be involved because that’s the main reason why they were formed—to search ways and solutions for lasting peace,” Robredo said.
Fresh attacks
“All-out war do not always have a good result,” she added.
On Tuesday, four soldiers and five civilians, including two children, were wounded in an ambush staged by communist rebels in General Luna town, some 40 minutes’ drive from Mulanay.
Another group of New People’s Army rebels also raided a coconut plantation in San Francisco town on Monday and briefly held six people. —Delfin T. Mallari Jr.
