Incoming Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay revealed during an interview with ANC that the communist rebels or the Reds must drop their arms first before they could join the Cabinet of presumptive president Rodrigo Duterte. According to the former SEC chairman he does not know if the entry of members of the CPP will affect the country’s ties with the United States.
Watch the ANC Interview of Perfecto Yasay:
According to Yasay, Mayor Duterte made to offer to join his administration with the caveat that the group must stop the decade-long armed struggle which is now considered as the longest Maoist rebellion in the world.
The incoming Foreign Affairs secretary noted that Mayor Duterte said it in the context of “You must make sure that you should drop your arms.” Yasay noted that this is the priority of the president-to-be. He wants to make sure that when he hits the ground running, he would would have made initial approaches in addressing the peace and order situation, the rebellion, Yasay revealed.
The Cabinet member of Pres. Rody Duterte also noted that the rebels inclusion in the cabinet of Duterte is different from the government’s approach with the Bangsamoro Basic Law wherein the proposal was “for us to talk peace, for them to have their own government, for them to have a substate but then they will not drop their arms. They will drop their arms on the basis of certain programs.” “But if the program fails, they can go back,” he said.
Mayor Rody Duterte, the incoming president already announced to the media and even informed the CPP that he will concede four departments to the rebel group–Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
In order to join the Duterte Cabinet, Mayor Rody Duterte noted that the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) would have to drop its military arm, the New People’s Army (NPA). National Democratic Front (NDF) peace negotiating panel chairperson Luis Jalandoni earlier described Duterte’s offer of government positions to the CPP as “electrifying”, saying the proposal will empower the m(–foul word(s) removed–), the peasants and farmers.
