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The
military proposed on Thursday a longer cease-fire with
the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its
armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), in an effort to
convince the rebels to return to the negotiating table.
Armed
Forces Chief of Staff Alexander Yano said the indefinite
cease-fire, modeled after the existing agreement between
the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF),
could be reached with the NPA so peace negotiations,
stalled since 2001, can resume.
“I am
echoing the initial offer by the former chief of staff
and now the secretary of the Opapp [Office of the
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process] and even a
longer cease-fire, indefinite cessation of hostilities
as what we have done with the MILF. The longer [the
cease-fire], the better,” Yano said at a sendoff in Camp
Aguinaldo for Filipino peacekeepers to Liberia and
Haiti.
He said
the indefinite suspension could be observed while both
sides are talking for a possible peace agreement.
Defense
Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, however, is not likely to
endorse any recommendation to declare a cease-fire with
communist rebels.
Teodoro
told Palace reporters in an interview after the
oathtaking of newly promoted military officials that he
has not received any official recommendation from Yano.
“Probably it was just a suggestion but there’s no
official policy about an indefinite cease-fire with the
NPA. I, for one, have not recommended it and, as a
matter of fact, I don’t have any intention of approving
any indefinite case-fire,” Teodoro said. |
