Duterte rejects Reds’ offer to help military fight terrorists

June 2, 2017

President Rodrigo Duterte rejected on Friday the offer of the National Democratic Front to fight with the Armed Forces of the Philippines against the Islamic State-linked Maute Terror Group. In a speech in a military camp in Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay, Duterte said he received a letter from Fidel Agcaoili, chief negotiator of the National Democratic Front, the political wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army, making an offer for the leftist rebels to fight the terrorists. "They have offered to fight alongside with us against terrorism...I'm not keen about it," he said, adding he also showed Agcaoili's letter to military officers. But Duterte acknowledged the rebels' "show of goodwill." Philippine security forces have been fighting Maute militants who have been occupying Marawi since May 23. Duterte said he would not allow the government peace panel to go back to the negotiating table until such time that the CPP-NPA-NDF could produce a ceasefire document. "I will not allow any talks on my behalf...I will not allow them (Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza and government peace panel head Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III) or authorize to go back to the negotiating table without them signing a document, theirs is unilateral, they say that they would stop fighting," he said. The government peace panel refused to participate in the 5th round of peace talks in the Netherlands last week after the CPP ordered to its combatants to intensify attacks against government troops following Duterte's declaration of martial law in Mindanao due to the Marawi crisis. (Celerina Monte/DMS)