NDFP orders NPA to help AFP fight terrorists in Marawi

Communist rebel negotiator Fidel Agcaoili (right) gestures during a rare news conference, Thursday, June 2, 2016 in Quezon City. At left is negotiator Randall Echanis. (Photo by BULLIT MARQUEZ / AP)

DAVAO CITY – The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) has instructed members of New People’s Army units near Marawi City to redeploy and help the Armed Forces of the Philippines fight Islamic State-inspired terrorists.

“The NDFP has already instructed the Moro Revolutionary Liberation Organization (MRLO) inside Marawi to assume home defense tasks against the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups, ” Fidel Agcaoili, chief negotiator of the NDFP, said on Wednesday. “It has also directed units of the New People’s Army close to Marawi to redeploy for the purpose of mopping up, holding and blocking operations.”

Established in 2005, the MRLO is an underground revolutionary Moro organization that has produced numerous fighters for the NPA operating in Western Mindanao, the Zamboanga Peninsula, and North Cotabato.

Agcaoili said revolutionary forces should coordinate and cooperate with the military. But the details of the ground rules should first be discussed and agreed on by the peace panels of the NDFP and government.

“The MRLO and the NPA can coordinate and cooperate with the AFP by keeping a safe distance, maintaining independence and initiative and avoiding problems of getting mixed up with the AFP and PNP units,” Agcaoili said. “The localized ceasefire, coordination and cooperation can be agreed upon if the GRP and NDFP negotiating panels meet first and discuss matters in detail.”

The NDFP asserted that the meeting between the two parties should happen immediately, explaining that foreign and local forces against President Rodrigo Duterte were now conspiring to overthrow his administration.

“It is not too late to have such a meeting of the GRP and NDFP negotiating panels because the terrorist attack on Marawi might still be prolonged or, if not suppressed soon, might recur in other parts of Bangsamoro,” Agcaoili said. “The US, anti-Duterte sections of the AFP and PNP (Philippine National Police) and local anti-Duterte parties and groups have already begun a campaign of destabilizing the Duterte regime for the purpose of overthrowing this with a coup.”

The fifth round of talks between the government and the NDF, which was scheduled to take place from May 27 to June 2, was put on hold after the government decided not to participate following the directive of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) to the NPA to intensify its attacks as response to martial law in Mindanao.

The NDFP explained that the CPP only made the directive after Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said that the NPA would be one of the targets of the martial law implementation.

In an effort to address the issue, the NDFP recommended to the CPP to reconsider its directive but explained that it would take time for them to communicate and implement it.

Sources said that while the NDFP was still waiting for the official response from the CPP, the determination of the NPA to help government forces in the fight against terror groups would be the best response from the communist group. /atm

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