Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello, who is also the concurrent Chairman of the Government Panel for Peace Negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines said the recent Davao blast will not affect the ongoing peace negotiations. (davaotoday.com file photo)
DAVAO CITY– The government panel negotiating peace with the National Democratic Front assured that the night market blast here on Friday will not affect the ongoing peace talks.
Labor Sec. Silvestre Bello, the government chief negotiator, said that “in fact this bombing will underscore the need to push the talk.”
“The reason why we talk is to end this chaos in our country,” he said.
Bello said that if the two parties will agree in a common ground and there will be peace settlement already ” with a time frame of one year then it will have a huge impact to avoid this kind of chaos.”
On the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) statement blaming the bombing to the United States, Bello said that “it is normal since they are anti-America, but is should not distract our government since our president is determine and has the political will to push this peace process”.
The Southern Mindanao Regional Party Committee of the CPP released a statement Saturday condemning the bombing it called as “US-imperialist instigated”.
It said the bombing “was carried out and masterminded by no other than the world’s greatest terrorist: the US imperialist hegemony which is threatened by the Duterte government’s positive gestures toward the country’s anti-imperialist revolutionary forces and Duterte’s consistent pronouncements against US intervention in Philippine affairs.”
“The heinous attack in downtown Davao City, home to GRP Pres. Rodrigo Duterte, was clearly the handiwork of peace saboteurs, ultra-rightists AFP cliques, and big drug lords—all anti-Duterte forces that conspire with US imperialism to subvert the Duterte government,” the CPP said.
It said that the improvised explosive device used by the suspect “is hardly coincidental” to have similarities to the explosives found in the wreck of CIA agent Michael Mering’s hotel room in Davao City and the ones used in the Davao International Airport and the Sasa Wharf bombings in March and April 2003 respectively.
“So to is the fact that the bombing occurred in the hometown of the present GRP President, a city that has historically spurned US incursions for military basing or combat exercises,” said Siegfred Red of the CPP.
“GRP Pres. Duterte, then city mayor, has been witness to how the US terrorist network and its puppet fascist reactionary wreaked havoc in Davao City more than a decade ago. Disgruntled junior officers of the AFP divulged that the US-Arroyo regime masterminded the bombings that killed 38 and wounded 180 people,” he said.
Meanwhile, the authorities is still investigating the group behind the incident. The police also has the artist sketches of the persons of interest on the deadly blast. (davaotoday.com)
