Presidential peace adviser Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr. said at least 8,000 rebel returnees of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA) are expected to avail the amnesty being pushed by the government.

"For the CPP-NPA , we are looking at the possibility of 8,000 to 10,000," he said.

Galvez said the proposed measure granting amnesty to the rebel returnees was previously turned down by then Senator Ping Lacson.

"We are still waiting for the guidance of the Senate considering that during our Senate hearing before, it was turned down by then Senator Ping Lacson because of the ongoing hearing... So we will just defer the comment on this considering that the process is ongoing," he said.

Galvez said there are about 26,414 CPP-NPA members who surrender to the government "but we are looking that only more or less 1,000 to 2,000 of them have cases."

He said all members and leaders of the CPP-NPA should be encouraged to avail of the amnesty as the government also continued its efforts for local peace engagement.

"We also encouraged all CPP-NPA members to also talk with us. That is why NTF-ELCAC (National Task Force to End Local Communist Conflict) has an ongoing process for local peace engagement. But for the process of the negotiation with the CPP-NPA-NDF ( Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army-National Democratic Front) in Norway, we will await the guidance of the President," said Galvez. Robina Asido/DMS