Incoming Philippine administration, leftist rebels set "preliminary peace talks" by mid-June

The incoming administration of Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte and the leftist rebel group will hold "preliminary talks" by middle of June to set the tone for the resumption of the 5-year stalled formal peace process, rebel officials said Thursday.

Fidel Agcaoili, National Democratic Front chair on human rights committee, said their group will meet with the incoming peace officials of the Duterte government led by Jesus Dureza in Norway, the third party facilitator in the peace talks.

"One of the things to be discussed (in the preliminary talks) is the release of political prisoners," he said.

There are 543 consultants and members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army-National Democratic Front who have been languishing in jails, he said.

Jose Maria Sison, founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines, told Manila-based journalists via Skype, that they would negotiate for an indefinite ceasefire with the government after the release of the political prisoners.

"We hope to arrive at a sort of truce in the coming days. There's still a war going on and we cannot expect prim and proper behavior on either side. I cannot tell the army to stop because I'm not yet in Malacanang," Duterte told reporters in an interview Tuesday.

Even before he won in the May 9 elections, Duterte promised to resume the peace process with the leftist rebels. He also invited Sison to come to the Philippines to discuss the revival of the peace talks.

Earlier this week, incoming Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello confirmed that he and incoming peace process adviser Jesus Dureza will be flying to Oslo on June 13 to start preliminary talks with communist rebels in order to end the insurgency.

Sison said he would return to Manila after Duterte's assumption to office, either July or August, his first since his exile to the Netherlands in 1987.

In February 2011, the Aquino administration held a formal peace negotiation with the National Democratic Front, the political front of the rebel group, in Norway, which later bogged down.

In 2013, the government and the National Democratic Front tried to revive the talks under a special track, but this did not succeed after the rebel group demanded for the release of all the political prisoners before continuing the negotiation.

The Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army-National Democratic Front has been waging war against the Philippine government for over four decades. Endit