‘EO 70 to give military fangs vs NPA’–Madrigal
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2018 11:30:36 +0000
NEW Armed Forces Chief Benjamin Madrigal Jr. welcomed the formation of a national task force by President Rodrigo Duterte against communist rebels, saying it will strengthen the military in its fight against the New People’s Army (NPA).
“It is better now, with the creation of the national task force to end local communist conflict, it will give us more fangs since there is an organization, which will quickly address this,” Madrigal told reporters in an interview on Tuesday night after assuming his post.
President Rodrigo Duterte signed on December 4 Executive Order 70, which institutionalizes a “whole-of-nation” approach in achieving “inclusive and sustainable” peace. It also cited the need to formulate a National Peace Framework.
Duterte issued two proclamations in 2017 that formally cancelled the peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and declared the NPA and the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) as terrorist organizations.
Madrigal reiterated that the government negotiating panel should look at the sincerity of the communist team and determine whether it was talking “with the right persons.”
CPP founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison said the recent executive order of Duterte was only intended to “terminate and prevent” the resumption of peace talks in the national level between the Philippine government and the NDFP.
“It limits the GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) to the framework of military suppression and psywar use of fake surrenders and fake encounters, misrepresented as localized peace talks,” Sison said in a statement on Wednesday. DEMPSEY REYES
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