Rebels deny demanding for a coalition government

National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) chief peace negotiator Fidel Agcaoili on Tuesday, July 3, denied the claims of several officials of the government that communist rebels were demanding for a coalition government.

“For the record, the NDFP has never put forward any demand for a coalition government,” Agcaoili said in a statement.

“This has been clarified several times by Prof. Jose Maria Sison to the GRP [Government of the Republic of the Philippines] and the Third Party Facilitator, the Royal Norwegian Government, since October 2017,” he added.

Agcaoili issued his statement after Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the ongoing review of all peace documents and agreements revealed that “it lays down the foundation of power-sharing towards coalition government.”

Aside from Lorenzana, Interior Officer-in-Charge Eduardo Año and Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. hit back at Sison, founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), after he said that there is “high probability” that President Rodrigo Duterte won’t complete his six-year term as he will be “forced out” of the Palace through “a surge in anti-fascist protest actions or some other means.”

In his statement, Agcaoili said it was lawyer Alexander Padilla, the chief peace negotiator during the administration of former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, who “raised the spectre of a coalition government.”

“So, an allegedly anti-Aquino regime has adopted the false narrative of its archenemy to waylay the peace talks,” he said.

“At any rate, it looks like the orchestrated lies and attacks of Lorenzana, Año, and Roque against Prof. Sison have sounded the death knell on the peace talks under the Duterte regime. The peace spoilers seem to have won the day!” he continued.

Peace negotiations between the communist rebels and the government were postponed, according to Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza last June.

The talks were supposed to resume on June 28, but it did not push through as the Duterte administration wanted to hold more consultations with the public. Dureza added that the President ordered him to “reset” and work on an “implementable” peace deal.