Duterte to consult security execs before talks with Reds

President Rodrigo Duterte will have to consult first his Cabinet security cluster before peace talks with communist rebels can resume, Malacañang said on Sunday.

Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said the President would want “lasting peace” for the country but he would also have to consult other branches of government about the peace negotiations with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front of the Philippines (CPP-NPA-NDFP).

“To resume talks necessitates President Duterte to consult first with the members of his security cluster, considering the many lives lost, civilian and government property destroyed before returning to the negotiating table with the CPP-NPA-NDFP,” Abella said in a statement.

“The President likewise has to confer with the other branches of government regarding matters [that] require their consent/approval,” he said without elaborating.

Abella said the President would want the nation protected from terrorism and that his “lasting goal is sustainable and lasting peace.”

“In spite of PRRD’s firm position to protect the nation from violence and terrorism, his fundamental goal is sustainable and lasting peace, which in this case begins with addressing the social injustice as the historical root of conflict,” he added.

Abella issued the statement after the President on Saturday said he was “not averse to the idea” of resuming the peace talks.

“If you want to resume the talks, I am not averse to the idea, but let me sort out first the other branches of government,” Mr. Duterte said after the NPA freed a captive policeman in Davao.

“I share power with Congress and the Supreme Court, and so, don’t ask something in a hurry and for those [things] that are not really acceptable to the other branches of the government. We need to talk sincere,” he said.

“Don’t be in a hurry because we have been fighting for 50 years, and I have to consider the position of military and the police who invested lives [in this war],” he added.

Formal peace talks between the government and the CPP were supposed to resume last month but the President got angry after the NPA ambushed a convoy of the Presidential Security Group in Arakan, North Cotabato in July.

He insisted that there should be a ceasefire first before peace talks could proceed.

“You cannot ambush me and then ask me to talk to you. If I’m dead, whom will you talk to? Crazy guys,” Mr. Duterte said.