Why The Reds Need Peace

Maybe the Aquino administration got something right, after all. Perhaps there is just no talking peace with the homegrown Communists or their armed rebel force, the New People’s Army.

The NPA, through its national command spokesman Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos, declared yesterday that it was terminating the unilateral ceasefire it declared with the government of President Rodrigo Duterte effective next week. The rebels said the government had failed to release all the political prisoners whose freedom had been promised and had allowed the military to encroach on rebel-held territories under the guise of conducting law enforcement operations.

Those who’ve been keeping tabs of the on-again, off-again peace negotiations conducted by various administrations with the longest-running Communist insurgency in Asia consider the NPA’s lifting of its ceasefire a sign of bad faith. Not since Cory Aquino, who had to repeatedly fight off rightist attempts to oust her from the presidency in part because she was perceived to be too soft on the Reds, have the Communists been given as much wiggle room as they have under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, after all.

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