Reds reject local peace talks

BAGUIO CITY  – Communist rebels yesterday said they would not hold localized peace talks with the government, dismissing them as “pretend talks.”

“Localized peace talks are a sham, waste of people’s money and doomed to fail... a worn-out psywar tactic to project victory to conceal the continuing failure of the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) to suppress people’s resistance and stem the steady growth of the NPA (New People’s Army),” the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said in a statement.

“This pretend localized peace talks will not involve even a  single genuine revolutionary force,“ the CPP said. “Duterte will certainly be  negotiating only with his own shadow.”    

Malacañang on Thursday said it is preparing an executive order that would pursue localized peace talks in lieu of formal negotiations with the National Democratic Front.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said an agreement was reached during a recent meeting of the Cabinet cluster on security, justice and peace.

Roque said a proposed seven-point guiding framework  would assist local officials in conducting peace initiatives in their respective areas.

However, the CPP said only local government officials and military officers are happy with localized peace talks.

“It is a money-making racket with  hundreds of millions of funds that will surely end up in their pockets,” the group said.

The CPP cited the Balik-Baril and Comprehensive Local Integration Program for rebel-returnees, saying these are “corruption-riddled programs.”

“With funds coming directly from Malacañang, military field officers have been overzealous in their effort to conjure the illusion of mass  surrenderees... Hundreds of local residents are being rounded up... then misrepresented before the public as  surrenderees,” the CPP said.

As this developed, 13  NPA rebels surrendered to the 53rd Infantry Battalion in Guipos, Zamboanga del Sur on Thursday.

The surrenderees cited the betrayal of the promises of NPA leaders and the government’s intensified campaign against communist rebels for their decision to lay down their arms, Lt. Col. Marlowe Patria said.– With Jose Rodel Clapano, Roel Pareño