PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte said formal peace talks with communist rebels may resume this July.
“I’m talking to (Communist Party of the Philippines Founding Chairman Joma) Sison. We will start the talks maybe mid July, in July,” Duterte said in a speech before newly elected Central Visayas barangay captains in Lapu-Lapu City on Thursday night.
However, sought for comment in an online interview, Sison said the peace talks may happen this June and not July, as Duterte has said.
“The formal talks are expected to resume on June 28 in Oslo and lead to the signing of the interim peace agreement,” Sison said.
He said the formal talks would resume if the National Democratic Front of the Philippines negotiating panel “agrees to a stand down agreement” with the government negotiating panel.
CPP and the New People’s Army, he said, should also agree to the stand down order for the formal talks to resume.
“The stand down agreement creates a favorable atmosphere for the resumption of the formal peace negotiations and the interim peace agreement to be signed in Oslo hopefully on June 28,” he said.