President Rodrigo Duterte said formal peace talks with communist rebels may resume this July.
“I’m talking to [Communist Party of the Philippines Founding Chairman Joma] Sison. We will start the talks maybe mid July, in July,” Duterte said in a speech before newly elected Central Visayas barangay captains in Lapu-Lapu City on Thursday night.
However, sought for comment in an online interview, Sison said the peace talks may happen this June and not July, as Duterte has said.
“The formal talks are expected to resume on June 28 in Oslo and lead to the signing of the interim peace agreement,” Sison said.
He said the formal talks would resume if the National Democratic Front of the Philippines negotiating panel “agrees to a stand down agreement” with the government negotiating panel.
CPP and the New People’s Army, he said, should also agree to the stand down order for the formal talks to resume.
“The stand down agreement creates a favorable atmoaphere for the resumption of the formal peace negotiations and the interim peace agrement to be signed in Oslo hopefully on June 28,” he said.
“It is premature for the GRP [Government of the Republic of the Philippines] or anyone to suggest that the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations be in the Philipines,” he added.
“Foreign neutral venue as mutually agreed upon in JASIG [Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees] is the best. Philippine venue at this time would make the peace negotiations vulnerable to control by the GRP or to sabotage by ultra-reactionary elements.”
INQUIRER.net has sought comment from Presidential Adviser on the Peace Peace Process Jesus Dureza but he has yet to respond as of posting time. /vvp