DAVAO CITY – Police have ordered a tightened security across the country after communist leader Jose Maria Sison threatened to launch attacks following President Rodrigo Duterte’s refusal to free over 500 imprisoned rebels as a condition for the formal resumption of the peace talks.
Sison said there will be no more peace talks and it is now better for the New People’s Army to oust Duterte.
Senior Superintendent Benigno Durana, the national police spokesman, said they have intensified security measures in all police facilities and installations in the country. He said police forces were told to “observe extra precautionary measures in their movements from their residences to their places of work.”
“This alert notice is treated with most preferential attention to pre-empt any attack or abduction of our personnel,” he said.
He said Police Director General Oscar Albayalde ordered regional commanders to stay alert and vigilant in anticipation of possible increased armed activity, violent action, and show of force by the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
Durana said all police regional offices were directed to implement so-called Enhanced Managing Police Operations by conducting regular law enforcement activities, security measures, among others.
“Based on historical data, the local communist movement is known to launch high-profile raids, ambuscades, and attacks on isolated government posts and soft targets to project an image of strength and influence to prop-up its bargaining stand in negotiations,” he said.
Duterte delayed the resumption of the peace talks to allow more public consultations. But the military has opposed the release of rebels, one of several demands by the communist peace negotiators, to re-start the talks.
The rebels have been fighting for a separate state for many decades now, and Duterte said he is ready to engage the insurgents in war. (Mindanao Examiner)
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