Bello to meet Jose Maria Sison in Duterte's 'last card' for peace

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte is sending Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III to the Netherlands to talk to communist party founder Jose Maria Sison in what the chief executive called his "last card" for the effort to revive the botched negotiations between the government and the communists.

Duterte scrapped the peace talks between the government and the communists in 2017 after the rebels launched successive offensives against the military and the police.

The president has also accused the National Democratic Front, the communists' negotiating panel, of pushing for a coalition government, a power-sharing setup that Duterte said would violate the constitution.

But months after the termination of the talks, Duterte urged Sison to come to the Philippines to resume the negotiations, even offering to shoulder the communist leaders' daily expenses. Despite the offer, the negotiations did not move forward and clashes between government forces and the communist guerillas continued.

Duterte, however, is not giving up on the peace talks with the rebels just yet.

"There can never be a statement that would end finality in everything that you say in public. I can only say that's it, I don't want to talk to you guys. Forget it. But you know...three times we attempted to talk sense and it has always failed. I cannot stop, I cannot say I don't want to talk. That's not a statement of a leader, of a president," the President said during a situation briefing on the effects of typhoon "Tisoy" in Albay.

"This is the first time I will reveal it. I am sending Secretary Bello. He was a communist and he should go there talk to them," he added.

Bello was the chief of the government panel that negotiated with the communists, who have been waging an armed struggle against the government for five decades.

Duterte declined to elaborate on Bello's trip to the Netherlands but hinted that something would be offered to Sison, who has been in self-exile in the European country since 1987.

"You know, you should understand that the quest for the longing for peace is always there, not for the military and the police but for everybody. The doors must be open always or there must be at least one channel, if everything closes, that you can talk to," the president said.

"I cannot talk about it. I'm sending him back to Sison and talk to him about (it) and you will know about it when the right time comes. If he agrees, this is what I will call my last card. When I say my 'last card', my time is running out," he added.