Communists declare 16-day holiday truce

December 22, 2019

The Communist Party of the Philippines has unilaterally declared a 16-day ceasefire with government troops  starting Monday.

The CPP’s Central Committee on Sunday ordered “all commands and units of the New People’s Army (NPA) and the people’s militias a nationwide ceasefire order that will take effect from 00:00H of 23 December 2019 to 23:59H of 7 January 2020.”

But the CPP Central Committee said its unilateral ceasefire order “shall take effect upon issuance of the corresponding and reciprocal ceasefire orders in the form of Suspension of Military Operations (SOMO) and Suspension of Police Operations (SOPO) to be issued by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).”

It explained that “the purpose of the reciprocal and unilateral ceasefires is to generate a positive atmosphere conducive to the holding of informal talks preparatory to the formal meeting to resume the peace negotiations.”

The CPP made the announcement as President Rodrigo Duterte will announce on Monday if he will accept the ceasefire recommendation by the government and National Democratic Front peace panels. DMS