{"id":277466,"date":"2020-12-03T02:02:32","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T07:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=277466"},"modified":"2020-12-03T02:02:32","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T07:02:32","slug":"prrd-gives-weight-to-afp-proposal-to-nix-holiday-truce-with-reds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/12\/03\/prrd-gives-weight-to-afp-proposal-to-nix-holiday-truce-with-reds\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD gives weight to AFP proposal to nix holiday truce with Reds"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte talks to the people after holding a meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) core members at the Malaca\u00f1ang Golf (Malago) Clubhouse in Malaca\u00f1ang Park, Manila on November 30, 2020. KARL NORMAN ALONZO\/ PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte will give much importance to the Armed Forces of the Philippines\u2019 (AFP) recommendation not to have a truce with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People\u2019s Army (CPP-NPA) this holiday season.<\/p>\n

In a press briefing from Palawan, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said that although Duterte has yet to decide on the matter, he gives \u201ca lot of weight\u201d to the recommendation of the AFP.<\/p>\n

\u201cAko po\u2019y tagapagsalita lamang<\/em>\u00a0(I am just spokesperson), I cannot second guess the decision of the President. But\u00a0ang ma-a<\/em>-assure\u00a0ko sa inyo yung mga ganyang rekomendasyon ng<\/em>\u00a0AFP (but what I can assure you is that recommendations from the AFP), the President gives it a lot of weight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque said the decision remains with Duterte as the AFP\u2019s commander-in-chief.<\/p>\n

\u201cPakikinggan po \u2018yan<\/em>\u00a0(He will listen to the recommendation) but ultimately it\u2019s only the President who will decide,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In a press statement on Thursday, AFP spokesperson Marine Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo said the AFP is not inclined to recommend a truce with CPP-NPA, noting that terrorists have been demonstrating insincerity in previous agreements.<\/p>\n

“The AFP \u2014 wishing and longing for a peaceful Yuletide Season for the Filipino people notwithstanding \u2014 will not recommend to the Commander-in-Chief (President Rodrigo Duterte) a holiday ceasefire with the Communist Terrorist Group (CTG),” he said.<\/p>\n

Arevalo pointed out that the ceasefire period was just being used by the NPA to continue attacking and killing government troops and civilians.<\/p>\n

He explained that there were cases in the past that the CPP-NPA reneged from their own ceasefire declaration.<\/p>\n

Quoting National Democratic Front of the Philippines negotiator Luis Jalandoni, Arevalo said the CPP-NPA will only seek peace talks to give themselves the chance to regroup, refurbish, recruit new members, and recoup their losses.<\/p>\n

“Luis Jalandoni, an NDF (National Democratic Front) negotiator, boldly declared that they push for peace negotiations not really to bring about tranquility, but to pursue armed struggle. They broker peace covenants as a means to an end which is to overthrow the government,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said the AFP will not allow the CPP-NPA to trample upon people\u2019s desire for peace, especially during the holiday season.<\/p>\n

However, he said the AFP will respect the President\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

The CPP-NPA-NDF is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte will give much importance to the Armed Forces of the Philippines\u2019 (AFP) recommendation not to have …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":277248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-277466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":277470,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277466\/revisions\/277470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}