Davao mayor cancels localized talks with Reds; CPP hits Duterte for terror tag
Following President Rodrigo Duterte's decision, daughter Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio has canceled localized peace talks with the communist New People's Army.
In a statement, Carpio said it would be up to the Armed Forces of the Philippines to deal with the NPA in her area.
“Since the policy of the government is to never negotiate with terrorists, what we are going to do is to talk to the community about their issues through the DC-PEACE Dev,” she said.
DC-PEACE Dev or the Davao City Advisory Committee for Peace and Development is the new name of the Davao City Peace Committee (DC-PEACE), which used to handle the localized peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA before it was declared as a terrorist organization of the President.
Carpio said she will formalize the renaming of DC-PEACE into the DC Peace Dev with another executive order.
She said the new body will serve as the medium between the city government and far-flung communities to resolve their issues and concerns.
“The output of the talk will be used by the city government of Davao to address the issues the communities are experiencing. We acknowledge that they have issues with regard to the services of the government,” she said.
Duterte recently issued Proclamation No. 374 declaring the CPP-NPA as a terrorist group.
He has ordered the Department of Justice to file a petition before the Manila Regional Trial Court for the formal tagging of the Maoist-inspired group as a terror organization.
Meanwhile, in a statement posted on its website, the CPP slammed Duterte's issuance of Proclamation 374 on the basis of its inclusion on the list of "foreign terrorist organizations" of the US Department of State.
"By kowtowing to the US line of 'counter-terrorism,' Duterte is opening wide the door for increased US military intervention across the country, as he did in Marawi and Mindanao when he declared the now defunct Maute group as 'terrorists'," CPP said.
The CPP said it also expects that the terror tag would not only target the CPP-NPA, "moreso persons and organizations that Duterte and his miltiary cabal can designate at will as terrorists for 'financing and aiding' the CPP and the NPA."
"This clearly targets the national democratic legal mass movement which he has repeatedly threatened with a crackdown for supposedly 'conspiring' with the NPA," it added. Celerina Monte/DMS
