27 August 2016

News Story: Philippine gov't, leftist rebels agree to work for joint truce

MANILA, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine government and a leftist rebel group have agreed to work for a bilateral ceasefire as they ended their five-day formal peace talks in Norway Friday.

While there is no joint truce yet, National Democratic Front (NDF) peace panel chair Luis Jalandoni said the Communist Party of the Philippines will declare and issue "an indefinite ceasefire order" to its armed wing New People's Army (NPA) and people's militia, upon the end of their current truce order on August 27 in response to President Rodrigo Duterte's unilateral ceasefire effective immediately from August 21.

Both the government and the NDF will work for the declaration of bilateral truce within 60 days and to establish a ceasefire monitoring committee, he said.

The panels agreed to meet again on October 8-12 in Oslo for the next round of formal talks, said government peace panel head Silvestre Bello III.

Read the full story at Xinhua