BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Apolinario Gatmaitan Command in Negros belittled a statement issued by the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division of a possible localized peace talks between government troops and the New People’s Army rebels.
“There are no localized peace talks with any organ of political power of the People’s Democratic Government in the entire Philippines, because it certainly cannot address the roots of the civil war in the country,” Negros-NPA spokesman, Ka Juanito Magbanua, said.
Magbanua described it as sabotage to the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
“It’s a trap laid down by the 3ID to lure the revolutionaries into its milking scheme dubbed Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program,” he added.
Maj. Cenon Pancito, 3ID spokesman, earlier raised the possibility of a localized peace talks with the NPA in Western and Central Visayas.
With this development, the provincial government of Negros Occidental, led by Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson, decided to create a provincial peace panel that will hold exploratory dialogs with communist rebels, in compliance with a national government directive, to be guided by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.
Lacson said the peace panel will be a multi-sectoral body that will include the private sector, including the Church and the academe.
Meanwhile, the Apolinario Gatmaitan Command of the NPA also condemned the military and police for peddling fake surrenderees as supporters and members of the NPA to avail of the bounties they themselves cooked up through the e-CLIP and advance their careers amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.*
