Duterte wants military to end communist insurgency ”now”

August 28, 2019

President Rodrigo Duterte has expressed hope that the military could end the problem on communist insurgency in the Philippines. In a speech Tuesday night during the 31st anniversary of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program held in Quezon City, Duterte vowed that his administration is addressing land reform, which is being used by the communist New People's Army to recruit members. "These rabble-rouser communists, what they have been doing is to fool the people, promising number one the land reform. So that what the government should do is to take away from the the richest issue of them all, land," he said. Duterte said the government could not afford another five decades of facing insurgency problem in the country. "I do not think that we can afford to wage a war another 53 years. So, I am telling the military, 'Can we end it now?' We cannot afford to pass it on to the next generation. They could no longer bear it. It has to be now," the President said. "And I'm serving notice to everybody that in the coming months, it will be --- not really bloody, but there will be at least, a little trouble for our country," he added. The communist insurgency in the Philippines is considered as the longest in Asia. In late 2017, Duterte terminated the formal peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army-National Democratic Front and even declared the CPP-NPA as terrorist organizations. Celerina Monte/DMS