MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte has expressed hope that the next administration would succeed in talking peace with communist rebels who have been fighting with the government for more than five decades.
Duterte acknowledged that the communist rebels are right about the feudal setup in the Philippines and recalled being a friend of the rebels when he was still a mayor. He said his relationship with them changed when he became the president because the safety of the nation is now in his hands.
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"Kung hindi kayo maghinto, away talaga tayo (If you don't stop, we'd really quarrel with one another). But we were friends," Duterte said during a visit to families affected by tropical storm "Agaton" in Capiz last Saturday.
"But I hope that whoever comes in next after me, they would try to reconnect and I pray that it would succeed. I am just for the nation. Everything that I do, everything that I say, it is really about my country, nothing else," he added.
Filipino Maoist insurgents have been waging an armed struggle against the government for more than 53 years, making it the longest-running communist rebellion in the world, according to some experts.
In 2017, Duterte announced that he was terminating the peace talks with communists because of their "acts of violence and hostilities" and their supposed failure to display sincerity in pursuing lasting peace. He declared that the talks have been terminated permanently two years later.
Duterte has also accused the communist rebels of pushing for a coalition government, a power-sharing scheme that he said would violate the constitution.
"I hope that we will find peace with the communist. I do not want a quarrel with you," the president said.
"Fifty-three years in the making, you cannot even take over a barangay and yet you continue to kill my soldiers, my policeman, and barangay captains... I’m making this appeal...You know, you can fight 53 years in the making. You want another 53 years? And you think that you can win a barangay or a city? Not in a million years," he added.
Duterte said he tried to make the rebellion irrelevant by implementing land reform and distributing "something like 160,000 hectares" of land.
"When I think of my country, I hope that next year... I hope and I pray that the next administration will be much better than mine (in) all aspects," he added.
Last month, Duterte warned Filipinos against party-list groups that he claimed are supporting communist rebels who aim to oust the government. He has also accused communists of infiltrating international bodies and using state funds to support the insurgency.