Palace: Joma may return to PHL if peace talks resume subject to gov’t conditions

President Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to give safe passage for Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairman Jose Maria Sison if the peace negotiations resume subject to conditions set by the government, Malacañang said on Thursday.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said the President had indicated his willingness to give Sison, his former college professor, "an assurance that he can come home without being arrested for the purpose of participating in the peace talks."

Sison fled to Europe soon after peace talks with the government of then-President Corazon Aquino failed in 1987 and has stayed in the Netherlands since, while the country's longest running insurgency continued to claim thousands of lives amid fighting with government troops.

The President on Wednesday opened the door to resuming the talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) on the condition that the communist rebels stop their violent attacks and extortion activities, agree to a bilateral ceasefire, and would not insist on a coalition government.

He has also committed to provide livelihood assistance to rebels provided that they stop collecting so-called "revolutionary taxes."

Sison, however, insisted that there should be no preconditions for the resumption of the talks which had been scuttled in November. The government has also petitioned the court to declare the CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army, as terrorist groups. 

The Palace, in response, said it will wait for the official response of the NDFP to the President's pronouncement.

"We are awaiting their response to the government position that we're willing to resume peace talks but subject to those conditions. So if that's the official response of the CPP-NPA then so be it," Roque said.

The peace negotiations are being mediated by Norway. — MDM, GMA News