Image from JFAV USA - President Duterte threatened to shelve the peace negotiations with communist rebels over the NPA’s use of landmines
- Duterte said if he heard another explosion after August 7, he will call off the peace talks and order the government peace panel to come home
- The president said he would instruct government troops to respond in kind if the rebels continue to use landmines
President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to shelve the peace negotiations with Communist Party of the Philippines if its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), would continue using landmines against government troops.
The President issued the warning during his visit to the headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Eastern Mindanao Command in Camp Panacan in Davao City early Sunday, August 7, to attend the wake of four soldiers killed in clashes with the NPA.
He said if there will be reports after Sunday that the NPA used landmines, he will call off the peace talks scheduled to take place on August 20-27 in Oslo, Norway and order the government peace panel to come home.
“Either you stop it or we stop talking. Either you stop it now or I am ordering the government panel to come home,” Duterte warned.
“I am not pleading this time. That’s an ultimatum. I hear another explosion killing people, not only soldiers, killing people, no talks, pasensiya na [I’m sorry],” he added.
Duterte also said that if the communist rebels continued to use landmines, he would instruct Philippine security forces to respond in kind, and the weapon would be employed against the insurgents. He said he is willing to buy a “shipload” of anti-personnel explosives to be used against the NPA.
“You stop and we talk or you continue and we fight,” Inquirer’s Allan Nawal quoted the president as saying.
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