MANILA: The Philippines on Wednesday asked a court to declare the communist party and its armed wing, the New People´s Army (NPA), a terrorist organisation, dashing already faint hopes of a recovery in a tattered peace process.
The petition before a Manila regional trial court seeks to formally terminate peace talks with Maoist rebels, a week after a Norwegian diplomat met President Rodrigo Duterte to try to convince him to restart negotiations that Duterte had scrapped in anger at what he considers duplicity by the communists.
The Philippines has a state policy to not negotiate with any group defined as terrorists, like the Abu Sayyaf militants behind extremism, kidnapping, banditry and piracy. The United States has since early 2000s listed Abu Sayyaf and the NPA as terrorist organisations.
State Prosecutor Peter Ong said the rebels are "merely buying time by deceiving the Philippine government in entering into peace talks" because their main agenda was to overthrow the duly constituted authorities.
Duterte is particularly aggrieved by the failure of a peace process that he made a priority and restarted in August 2016 within a few weeks of taking office. He freed some communist leaders from jail and gave cabinet posts to several known leftists as a show of good faith. The petition comes on the same day Duterte is set to host a dinner for a group of dozens of former NPA guerrillas who surrendered.
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