Philippine gov't, leftist rebels agree to work for joint truce

The Philippine government and a leftist rebel group have agreed to work for a bilateral ceasefire as they ended their five-day formal peace talks in Norway Friday.

While there is no joint truce yet, National Democratic Front (NDF) peace panel chair Luis Jalandoni said the Communist Party of the Philippines will declare and issue "an indefinite ceasefire order" to its armed wing New People's Army (NPA) and people's militia, upon the end of their current truce order on August 27 in response to President Rodrigo Duterte's unilateral ceasefire effective immediately from August 21.

Both the government and the NDF will work for the declaration of bilateral truce within 60 days and to establish a ceasefire monitoring committee, he said.

The panels agreed to meet again on October 8-12 in Oslo for the next round of formal talks, said government peace panel head Silvestre Bello III.

In a statement, the NDF said both parties also agreed that the government panel would immediately recommend to Duterte the issuance of an Amnesty Proclamation, subject to concurrence of the Philippine Congress.

Both sides also agreed to accelerate the peace negotiations and set timelines for the completion of the remaining agenda, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) said.

Still to be discussed in detail are: socio-economic reforms; political and constitutional reforms; and end of hostilities and disposition of forces.

The formal peace talks between the government and the leftist rebels have been stalled since 2011. And the CPP-NPA-NDF has been waging war against the government for over four decades. Endit