Military wants top rebel leaders out of peace talks

MANILA, Philippines — The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is pushing for the exclusion of communist rebels leaders from the peace talks that the government plans to hold with local guerrillas.

Col. Edgard Arevalo, AFP spokesman, said the military will recommend to President Duterte to terminate the peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) leadership headed by party founder Jose Ma. Sison.

In pushing for localized peace talks, Arevalo said the military will leave it to local government units (LGUs) and other stakeholders how to deal with the NPA leadership in their respective communities.

“The AFP position, as expressed by the Secretary of National Defense, is direct and unequivocal. But our suggestion to terminate the peace talks does not mean that the military is against the peace talks. What we want is a peace process that is transparent, genuine and sincere, a peace talk that embodies the desire of our people to put an end to all those fighting so that peace and progress can come in,” Arevalo said.

The only role of the military is to provide security to LGUs that will respectively negotiate with local NPA leaders as well as to receive rebels and supporters who will surrender.

The localized peace talks will be held in various areas of Mindanao, he said, adding that this is in response to the resolution signed by 600 leaders of Indigenous Peoples (IPs) in the region for the government to stop dealing with Sison and his group and instead refocus its efforts in striking a peace deal with the local NPA leaders.

“Under the local peace talks mechanism, the LGUs will be doing the talking and not the military. The military will just play a supportive role by providing security during negotiations,” Arevalo said.

The AFP, in a recent command conference, has reported to the President the plans of the CPP-NPA-NDF leaders to take advantage of the peace talks to advance their own agenda.

Without the military openly admitting this, the operations brief apparently prompted the President to order the review of back-channel talks between the government and the CPP-NPA-NDF for the resumption of peace talks.

Several security observers, meanwhile, said that the localized peace talks are doomed to fail unless the government is able to dismantle the shadow governments of the Left in rebel-infested areas.

These communist shadow governments are most common in far-flung communities of Davao and Caraga regions, functioning within a locality where there are existing duly constituted authorities.

The CPP-NPA-NDF shadow governments include regional, provincial, city, town, barangay and sitio leaders with own armed enforcement units, such as the so-called Militia ng Bayan.

No clue

The AFP has no proof of the alleged connivance of some Church leaders with communist rebels to oust President Duterte.

Arevalo said there is no evidence on the involvement of other groups, including the Church, in the communist plot against Duterte.

“We don’t have that report (involvement of the Church in ouster plot) but the Palace has many sources of information,” Arevalo said.

Palace spokesman Harry Roque said on Monday that some Church officials could be conniving with communist rebels to oust Duterte.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines had already denied that the Church is involved in any destabilization plot.

Following his “your God is stupid” comment, President Duterte appears to be on a collision course with the Catholic Church as well as other Christian denominations in the country.