LUCENA CITY – A detained “peace consultant” of the communist-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) has expressed optimism that the stalled peace talks will resume in 2019. The Duterte administration was now pushing for localized peace talks with the communist guerrillas on the ground after the negotiations stalled. Casambre said the much-ballyhooed local peace talks with local NPA commands “never materialized.”“Not a single local command heeded the GRP call for talks to address the roots of the armed conflict on the ground,” he said. Earlier, the NDFP has ruled out localized peace talks as the method of negotiation to deal with the decades-old rebellion and said the NPA units are not authorized to engage in peace negotiations. ADVERTISEMENTThe NPA leadership also rejected the local peace talks.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer December 30, 2018 12:11 UTC