Communist rebels may abruptly end ceasefire – Joma Sison

LUCENA CITY — If the government won’t immediately present its written ceasefire orders to state-security forces, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) may pull out its stand-down order to New People’s Army guerrillas, top rebel leader Jose Maria “Joma” Sison said Thursday.

“I think the NDFP (National Democratic Front of the Philippines) is ready any time to recommend to the CPP the withdrawal of its ceasefire order to the NPA if the GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) fails to show to the NDFP, the press and the public the official copies of the SOMO (suspension of military operation) and SOPO (suspension of police operation),” Sison, CPP founder, revealed to the Inquirer in a Facebook interview from his base in Utrecht in The Netherlands.

However, Sison said the CPP-NPA-NDFP are not imposing a deadline to the government presentation of its ceasefire order to the military and police.

He did not elaborate.

Sison said they have been demanding for the copies of the SOMO and SOPO through Labor Secretary and government peace negotiator Silvestre Bello III.

On Monday, a soldier was killed and six others were wounded when NPA guerrillas ambushed the Army soldiers in Labo, Camarines Norte.

Half an hour later, Red fighters also ambushed policemen in Tubungan, Iloilo. The policemen escaped but two of them were wounded.

The respective NPA units in Camarines Norte and Iloilo denied initiating the attacks and claimed that they only acted in self-defense against the continuous operations by the government forces.

Sison, NDFP chief political consultant, retorted: “It seems that Duterte cannot control all the military and police officers under him or in the first place he has been faking interest in ceasefire and resumption of peace talks in order to unleash a brutal campaign against the people and the revolutionary forces.”

Sison accused President Duterte of having “no real and sincere interest in ceasefire and resumption of peace negotiations.”

“I think that the people and the revolutionary forces are ready to intensify the people’s war for national and social liberation,” Sison vowed.

On Sunday, President Duterte approved the recommendation of the government peace panel and the NDFP for a nationwide ceasefire over the holidays.

The President subsequently instructed the Department of National Defense and the Department of the Interior and Local Government, together with the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police, “to issue an official declaration therefore and communicate the directive for a national armistice with the CPP-NPA-NDF to their respective agents and armed units for due observance during the period.”

The supposed truce began at 12:01 a.m. Monday and would end at 11:59 p.m. on Jan. 7.

Sison maintained that the issuance of the SOMO and SOPO “is crucially important” for the NDFP, CPP and NPA to have the documents.

“Because the ceasefire order of the Central Committee of the CPP to the NPA becomes effective only upon the issuance of these SOMO and SOPO,” he argued.

Edited by LZB