Lorenzana belies Joma’s claim: There was no agreed truce last year
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Tuesday belied the claim of Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Maria Sison, saying there was no draft agreement on unilateral ceasefire between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines in October last year.
"May I clarify that there [was] no agreed truce between the Philippine government and the CPP-NPA-NDFP," Lorenzana said in a statement.
The Defense chief also dismissed as "far cry from reality" the claim of Sison that he "obscures and denies the fact that against tremendous odds, the NPA has grown and gained strength nationwide from its modest beginnings."
"It proves that Mr. Sison is living in the past. If he doesn’t believe me, why doesn’t he come back and see for himself what happened to his class struggle? His Utopian ideology has been reduced to plain and simple banditry and extortion," Lorenzana said.
"Thus, the GRP and NDFP back channel teams have already drafted an agreement on coordinated unilateral ceasefire to be monitored by a joint ceasefire committee of the GRP and NDFP at the national level," Sison said.
Duterte, on November 23 last year, signed Proclamation No. 360 terminating the peace negotiations between the government and the NDFP, just two days before the Fifth Round of formal talks scheduled on November 25-27 in Oslo, Norway.
The President has also signed a proclamation formally tagging the CPP-NPA as a terrorist group. — RSJ, GMA News