Duterte orders peace officials to inform Netherlands-based Reds of cutting peace talks

November 21, 2017

President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday that has ordered his peace officials to inform communist rebel leaders based in the Netherlands that he was not interested to pursue the peace talks with them.

"As of yesterday, I have decided to cut talks with the NPAs (New People's Army)," Duterte said in a speech in Taguig City.

He said he told Presidential Adviser on  the Peace Process Jesus Dureza and chief government negotiator Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, “You tell the guys there in the Netherlands, I am no longer available for any official talk."

Among the self-exiled leftist rebel leaders are Jose Maria Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines; Luis Jalandoni, former chief negotiator of the National Democratic Front, political wing of the CPP-NPA, and his wife Maria Consuelo "Coni" Ledesma; and Fidel Agcaoili, current NDF peace panel head.

"Let's just have war," Duterte said, adding, "so I have to build a strong army."

Last Saturday, Duterte said he would issue a proclamation to declare the NPA as a terrorist organization, similar to the United States' inclusion of the leftist group in its list of foreign terrorist organization since 2002. Celerina Monte/DMS