The
Rodrigo Duterte government should concentrate on surviving the next three years
rather than be preoccupied in trying to wiping out the New People’s Army (NPA) by
2022, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) chief political
consultant Jose Maria Sison said.
Even
with a reset deadline, government military and police forces will surely fail in
destroying the revolutionary army, Sison in a statement said, adding it
is Duterte who may already be out of office by 2022.
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairperson
explained the military and the police cannot accomplish in three years what
they failed to accomplish in 50 years.
“The scheme will surely fail from day to day, week to week, month
to month and from year to year as the NPA will intensify tactical offensives
and mass work,” Sison said,
Instead, Duterte himself
will have difficulty surviving politically, he added.
“These are lameduck years for him, during which infighting among
his followers will be debilitating and challenges will rise from within the
ruling system as well as from the revolutionary forces,” Sison said.
Department of National Defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana told
reporters Tuesday the government hopes to wipe out the communist guerrillas in
three years.
‘Pipe dream’
In the press briefing, Lorenzana admitted that defeating the
communists could not be accomplished within the year, as earlier predicted by
Duterte.
In September, President Duterte’s said the government would win the
war against the NPA by the second quarter of 2019.
Former Armed
Forces of the Philippines chief of staff and now Presidential peace adviser Antonio
Galvez in November echoed Duterte’s statement that the military will eliminate the NPA by next year.
Lorenzana,
however, said the prediction is a tall order even with increased military operations
nationwide.
“We cannot do it this year because it is a huge problem. If
you will recall, this insurgency has been going on for the past 50 years already
and we cannot end it in one year,” Lorenzana said.
“Maybe, our target now should be in the remaining three years
of President Duterte’s term. We can probably accomplish that,” he added.
‘Wasted years’
Sison said Duterte should be blamed for wasting opportunities to
sign peace agreements with the NDFP aimed at addressing the root causes of the
armed conflict.
Duterte cancelled the peace talks with the NDFP in November 2017
and moved to have CPP and the NPA declared as “terrorist organizations.”
“Were the Duterte regime willing to engage sincerely and seriously
in peace negotiations with the NDFP to address the roots of the armed conflict
and make agreements on social, economic and political reforms, a just peace
could be attained in less time than three years and at far less cost in
contrast to the enemy’s futile military campaigns that are costly in terms of
blood and public money,” Sison said.
“The problem
with the Duterte regime is that it thinks peace negotiations are merely for the
surrender and pacification of the revolutionary forces and that the sincerity
of the NDFP is merely the willingness to surrender to the unjust ruling system
of big compradors, landlords and corrupt bureaucrats like Duterte,” he added. #
(Raymund B. Villanueva)
