Morning Star.png Philippines President Declares Ceasefire, Calls for Talks The Morning Star, London, 26 July 2016 Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared an immediate unilateral ceasefire yesterday with New People's Army guerillas and asked the rebels to do the same to foster a resumption of peace talks. Mr Duterte said that he wanted a "permanent and lasting peace" before the end of his six-year term, which began on June 30. Addressing the Maoist-influenced guerillas in his first state-of-the-nation address to congress, the president said: "Let us end these decades of ambushes and skirmishes. We are going nowhere and it is getting bloodier by the day. "Let me make this appeal to you. If we cannot as yet love one another, then in God's name, let us not hate each other too much," he said. The military welcomed Mr Duterte's announcement, insisting that the army would remain "alert, vigilant and ready to defend itself and pursue attackers if confronted by armed elements of the New People's Army. "The commander-in-chief has initiated a very bold move and we fully support him in his effort to bring sustainable and lasting peace," said military spokesman Brigadier General Restituto Padilla. The decades-long insurgency has left about 150,000 combatants and civilians dead since it began in the late 1960s. It has held back economic development, especially in the countryside, where the insurgents have been active. Mr Duterte, who describes himself as a socialist, has offered concessions and appointed left-wing activists to at least two cabinet posts. As he spoke, activists were allowed to camp outside the congressional complex, where police officers handed out juice drinks. From: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-531e-Philippines-President-calls-for-pe ace-talks-by-declaring-ceasefire#.V5bmvPl9600 __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 13859 (20160726) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/yclsa-eom-forum/001e01d1e700%24efa99660%24cefcc320%24%40com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
