(Eagle News) – The Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza said the Philippine government is “dismayed” with the announcement of the New People’s Army (NPA) to withdraw the unilateral ceasefire effective February 10.
The announcement was made by NPA spokesperson “Ka Oris” Madlos on Wednesday morning, February 1.
Dureza rued that “this cancellation came just after some progress were made in the 3rd round of peace talks in Rome where negotiating panels from both sides agreed to further discuss a bilateral ceasefire in The Netherlands sometime end of this month.”
“We are dismayed with the announcement of New People’s Army spokesman Ka Oris withdrawing their unilateral ceasefire effective Feb 10,” he said. “We respect their decision.”
Dureza said that the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) will recommend to President Rodrigo Duterte that the “government continues to maintain and uphold the unilateral ceasefire.”
“On the part of the office of the presidential peace adviser, we will respectfully recommend to President Rodrigo R. Duterte that the government continues to maintain and uphold the unilateral ceasefire to sustain the peace in the communities where our people desire to live in peace,” he said.
“This will provide an enabling and conducive environment to the on-going peace talks. At the same time, we will recommend that government forces continue to be relentless in their campaign to protect the civilians from harm and terrorism,” Dureza said.
He said that they agree that “the situation, with various incidents on the ground, had become untenable to sustain without the guidelines and protocols that a bilateral ceasefire provides.”
“This gives more impetus and encouragement to our earnest task of forging a sustainable ceasefire agreement,” Dureza said.
He said that despite these setbacks, the Philippine government is still hopeful that the search for peace will continue and that the tragedy of Filipinos fighting each other would end.
The fight of the CPP-NPA-NDF is considered one of the longest running insurgencies in the world.
“As we always stress, the road to peace is not easy to traverse. What is important is that we all stay the course,” Dureza said
