Thread: Philippine Communist Rebels Threaten to Intensify Attacks

Communist rebels waging one of Asia’s longest-running insurgencies on Wednesday warned of intensified attacks against government targets in the Philippines, as a scheduled round of peace negotiations this month faltered.

President Rodrigo Duterte, a self-declared socialist, has said that talks would only resume if Jose Maria Sison, leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), came home from self-exile in the Netherlands.

Originally announced for June 28, the talks were to be hosted by the Norwegian government in Oslo, but Manila recently announced that they would not go ahead.

On Wednesday, the New People’s Army (NPA), the CPP’s armed wing, said Duterte’s condition to hold talks in the Philippines was “totally unacceptable to the revolutionary forces.”

“The NPA will surely frustrate the aims of the Duterte regime by waging extensive and intensive guerrilla warfare,” the rebel group said in a statement.

The condition was like “insisting that peace talks be held in the territories under the political authority of the revolutionary forces – something that Duterte will definitely not accept,” the NPA said.

The guerrillas accused the government of holding the talks hostage as Duterte consolidated his power amid increasing opposition to his administration that has overseen police-sanctioned killings in the name of a brutal anti-drugs campaign.


Invitation to Sison still stands

The NPA also accused the president of wanting to “establish a fascist dictatorship and impose nationwide martial law.”

The NPA has been waging a rebellion that has killed tens of thousands in the Philippine countryside since 1969, making the insurgency one of the world’s longest and deadliest. Military estimates placed the NPA strength at more than 5,000 scattered in more than 60 guerrilla fronts nationwide.

Duterte opened peace negotiations with the communists shortly after he took office in 2016. He freed top CPP officials and gave them safe-conduct passes to join talks in Europe, but he subsequently scrapped negotiations after the NPA continued with attacks in the countryside.

He has said there would be no more talks during his term, but he later softened his stand saying that he was willing to meet personally with Sison.

His chief assistant for the peace process, Jesus Dureza, however, announced that talks scheduled to resume later this month had been cancelled. He did not give any reason why, but he has travelled to Europe ostensibly to meet with CPP officials.

Duterte’s spokesman, Harry Roque, said Wednesday that the president’s invitation still stood and that troops were under orders to ensure Sison’s safety and immunity from arrest.

“He assures Sison’s security, even logistics support that the CPP-NPA would need during the peace talks,” Roque told DZMM radio in Manila, transcripts of which were made available to reporters.

“And even if the talks produce nothing, he would personally take Sison to the airport, so he can leave the country,” Roque said, referring to Duterte.

He said Duterte was sincere in his offer, but also wanted the communists to reciprocate his offer by making true on their promise to silence their guns, stop targeting military installations while the talks were ongoing and cease from collecting so-called “revolutionary taxes” – a euphemism for extortion.


Top cadre caught

Meanwhile, authorities said that Julio Llanes, one of the top communist leaders in the central Philippines, was arrested Wednesday.

Llanes, a squad leader of the CPP-NPA, was caught in the central province of Capiz after four months of police intelligence monitoring, according to police Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao, regional police chief.

Llanes, who was included in the defense department's list of most wanted terrorists, is wanted for spearheading an ambush early this year that left one soldier and two pro-government militiamen dead, police said.


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I suppose you cant blame sison for not wanting to come out of exile. Didnt work out to good for aquino stepped of the plane in manila and got a bullet to the head

Communist Rebels End Talks with Philippines

Philippine communist rebels who have been waging one of Asia’s longest-running insurgencies closed the door on Thursday to further peace negotiations with the government of President Rodrigo Duterte.


Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison said the insurgent group would instead join moves to oust Duterte, who recently cancelled proposed back-channel negotiations with the rebels that were scheduled for this month.


“It is relatively easier and more productive for the NDFP to participate in the oust-Duterte movement and to prepare for peace negotiations with the prospective administration that replaces the Duterte regime,” Sison said in a statement from exile in the Netherlands.


He was referring to the movement’s political front, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).


“The broad united front of patriotic and democratic forces has become strong enough to call for and cause the ouster of Duterte,” he said. “While the urban-based oust Duterte movement is growing, we and the people have to fight and defeat the offensives of the military and police.”


Told of Sison’s threat, Duterte said in the central island of Bohol: “If he doesn’t want to talk, so be it.”


His brief comment came after an equally short statement from his own spokesman, Harry Roque, who said that the communist leader’s statement was “spoken like a true terrorist.”


In a surprise announcement last week, the government said it had cancelled all back-channel talks with the CPP for the next three months and was reviewing all earlier peace initiatives with the communists.


This included the possibility of revoking an agreement giving top rebel officials immunity from arrests during negotiations.


Duterte, who describes himself as a leftist and was once a university student of Sison, opened talks with the rebels shortly after he won the presidency in 2016.


As part of confidence-building measures, he freed all jailed top CPP officials to join talks in Europe aimed at ending the communist rebellion, which had dragged on since 1969 and left thousands dead.


But he subsequently ended the negotiations, angered by the rebels’ continued attacks on government troops in the countryside. He later softened his stance and invited Sison to fly home to personally negotiate, an offer that the communist leader rejected for security reasons.


On Thursday, Sison accused Duterte of doublespeak, noting that the military has also continued its attacks on communist bases in far-flung areas.


He also questioned Duterte’s proclamation last year putting the CPP and its military wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), on a list of terrorist organizations. The Duterte administration is also seeking a court order that would officially tag some 600 communist rebels as terrorists.


“These are definitely obstacles to the resumption of peace negotiations with Duterte regime,” he said.



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