President Rodrigo Duterte visits government troops who are engaged in a battle with the Maute terrorist group in Marawi City on July 20, 2017. During his speech, Duterte told the troops that after the Marawi crisis, the government will launch offensives against the New People’s Army next.(ACE MORANDANTE/ PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)
DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Pres. Rodrigo Duterte reacts to the Communist Party of the Philippines by saying it all too well: that he is, indeed, a bully.
During his speech before the business sector at the 4th Davao Investment Conference at the SMX Convention Center here Friday, Duterte lashed out at communists and challenged them to fight for another 50 years.
Duterte reacted to the statement of the communists calling him a bully after he announced that he will not talk if the New People’s Army will not stop its offensive against government troops in Mindanao.
“It is a strongman’s act of bad faith aimed at bullying the NDFP to bow to his terms of surrender,” the CPP said in a statement Thursday, July 20.
The backchannel talks that were supposed to jump start the cancelled fifth round of the formal talks was stopped by the government an NPA encounter with the Presidential Security Group on Wednesday.
The government wanted the CPP to sign a bilateral ceasefire agreement with the government, end the NPA’s offensives, and stop the collection of revolutionary tax before resuming the talks.
“Correct. Tama ka dyan, 100 percent. I bully people who try to topple government. That is my job to bully you and to kill you because there is war going on between us and you. When the time comes, maybe I will kill you if I have the chance,” Duterte said.
“Let us renew the fighting for another 50 years, it’s what you want,” Duterte added, addressing his former professor and CPP founding chairman, Jose Maria Sison.
Duterte also tagged the CPP as the number one enemy of the state.
“Who are you threatening? You want to destroy this country? We will join you. Bully? I am a bully,” he said.
He said he is tired of talking with the communists.
Fidel Agcaoili, National Democratic Front of the Philippines peace panel chair, said they believe Duterte is “not for change.”
“The cat is out of the bag. Duterte is not for change or even a modicum of reforms in Philipine society,” Agcaoili told Davao Today in a Facebook interview Friday.
Agcaoili said Duterte is gearing for a repeat of the martial rule of former President Ferdinand Marcos “and the patronage politics of old semicolonial and semifeudal system.”
Duterte’s recent pronouncements came a day before the Congress is set to hold a joint session to discuss the extension of Martial Law untilDecember 31, a move that came upon Duterte’s urging.
The CPP said the Philippine president is now laying foundations for “authoritarian rule”.
“By cancelling the scheduled talks with the NDFP, GRP President Duterte is showing he no longer has need for peace negotiations with the NDFP amid waging a triple war of death and destruction under its US-supported martial law rule. His order today to rearrest the NDFP’s consultants is a violation of the JASIG and violates their democratic rights under the CARHRIHL,” the CPP said.
The issue on the signing of a bilateral ceasefire was also the reason why the government refused to participate in the fifth round of talks last May. The government said the silencing of the guns will provide a conducive environment for the peace talks.
But the NDFP said there can be no ceasefire unless substantial economic and political reforms are in place. The fifth round of talks that was supposed to take place in August will tackle the comprehensive agreement on social and economic reforms, the agenda that was touted by both parties as the “heart and soul” of the peace negotiations. (davaotoday.com)
