Duterte orders ceasefire with communist rebels
Credit to Author: Aric John Sy Cua| Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2019 12:57:15 +0000
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte ordered a nationwide ceasefire between the government and the communist rebels and the reconstitution of the administration’s negotiating panel.
In a statement late Sunday, Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said the truce will start at midnight on Monday and will end on January 7, 2020 at 11:59 p.m.
Panelo said the President has instructed the Department of National Defense and the Department of the Interior and Local Government, together with the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police, to “issue an official declaration therefore and communicate the directive for a national armistice with the CPP-NPA-NDF to their respective agents and armed units for due observance during the period.”
(The CPP is the Communist Party of the Philippines. The NPA is the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the CPP while the NDF or the National Democratic Front is the party’s political unit.)
Panelo said the President has also ordered the reconstitution of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) Negotiating Panel, naming Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea among its members.
The nationwide ceasefire comes after Duterte called for the resumption of peace talks with the communists in a bid to end the decades-long insurgency.