10 September 2017•Update: 11 September 2017
By Roy Ramos
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday threatened to impose a nationwide martial law if communist rebels resorted to violence in the streets.
“I am not trying to scare you. Do not commit the mistake of staging a rebellion, where there is fighting in the streets. I will not hesitate to impose martial law all throughout the country and order the arrest of everybody,”
Duterte was quoted by local media on Sunday as saying during his visit to wounded soldiers in a military hospital in the southern Philippines.
The president had earlier stressed that peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which were suspended in July following the rebels’ string of attacks -- including the ambush of a convoy of the Presidential Security Group -- would only resume provided it would declare a cease-fire. In response, the exiled CPP founder Jose Maria Sison, declared on Saturday a halt to negotiations with the Duterte administration. “The line has been drawn to separate, fight and overthrow the U.S.-Duterte regime. Duterte would have a hard time to act convincing again,” Sison said in an online interview with Phiippines daily Inquirer from Utrecht in the Netherlands.
Sison called Duterte a “liar, untrustworthy” and said the president had “truly gone insane”.
The government and the National Democratic Front (NDF), the political umbrella of the CPP peace panels, have yet to resume talks in a bid to end decades-long conflict.
There had been over 40 rounds of peace negotiations under the past five presidents of the country, which have failed for various reasons.
When Duterte won the presidency in 2016, he launched new peace initiatives with the communists, but the peace negotiations have faced challenges due to truce violations.
