Government, NDFP panels agree to recommend Christmas ceasefire

MANILA, Philippines — The panels of the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, which represents communist rebels at peace talks, have agreed to recommend "unilateral and reciprcal nationwide ceasefires" from December 23, 2019 to Janauary 7, 2020.

According to a joint statement posted on Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison, the ceasefire is meant to "generate a positive environment" that will lead to informal talks that could in turn lead to a formal return to the peace table after President Rodrigo Duterte scrapped the talks in November 2017.

READ: OPAPP: New panel to oversee localized 'peace engagements' with Reds

Parties will issue separate ceasefire orders and "respective armed units and personnel of the Parties shall cease and desist from carrying out offensive military operations against the other" while the ceasefire is in place.

"These shall be measures of goodwill and confidence building during the traditional celebrations of [the] Christmas and New Year holidays," the statement, signed by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III and negotiatior Hernani Braganza, and by Luis Jalandoni and Fidel Agcaoili of the NDFP negotiatiing panel, reads.

Kristina Lie Revheim signed as witness and as representative of Norway, which is third-party facilitator of the peace talks.

In a statement, the Philippine National Police said it "will abide by, and support whatever the decision of the president will be."

Duterte this month announced he was sending Bello, who used to head the government peace panel before it was dissolved, to meet with Sison as a "last card" for peace.

The government has insisted, though, that the talks be held in the Philippines, a condition that Sison has said cannot be met yet.

He said that the NDFP would not "[submit] itself to the control of the peace process by the regime and come under the control and surveillance of the military."

'Hit squad'

The signing of the December 21 joint statement comes as security officials claim to have killed three rebels in an operation in Quezon City whom they said were "part of the special teams directed by the CPP leadership to assassinate senior government officials that include the president."

A report by The STAR quotes Interior Secretary Eduardo Año as saying police "got to them first and we will not stop until every one of them is arrested and brought before the bar of justice."

In a December 19 statement in response to a claim by National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. that the New People's Army was planning to assasinate high-ranking government officials, the CPP said there is no "NPA hit list".

It said Esperon's claim "only aims to sow intrigue in order to sabotage the planned resumption of formal peace talks."

It also said, however, that "while the NPA keeps no 'hit list' supposedly with Esperon's name in it, the people will not fail to remember his many crimes and may seek justice with their revolutionary army." 

At the Armed Forces of the Philippines anniversary on December 17, Duterte said in Filipino that the NPA and terrorist group Abu Sayyaf still pose problems for the country. "I'm telling our soldiers if these state enemies resist, crush them so we can end the problem of Filipinos," he also said.