AFP declares ceasefire for peace talks with NDF

(Updated 10:54 p.m.) The military on Monday declared a one-week ceasefire for the resumption of formal peace negotiations between the government and communist rebels. “We hope that this gesture shall pave the way for winning the peace, and permanently put an end to armed conflict," said Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta, spokesman for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) declared a truce a day before, also in connection with the peace talks scheduled on Feb. 15 to 21 in Oslo, Norway. Mabanta, however, said the ceasefire will not prevent the AFP from acting in self-defense to protect communities from armed threats. “Your soldiers will give primacy to the peace process by employing military capability only when necessitated by security considerations," he said. The National Democratic Front, the CPP’s political wing, backed out of peace negotiations in 2004 to protest the refusal of the Philippine government under then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to lobby the US and the European Union to remove the New People’s Army (NPA), the CPP’s armed wing, from their international terrorist list. President Benigno Aquino III has vowed to pursue peace talks with communist rebels. In a related development, police and military personnel on Monday night arrested a CPP leader in Bulacan province. In a text message, Mabanta identified the arrested rebel leader as Alan Jazmines. He was arrested at a safe house in Villa Aurea in Barangay Subic, Baliuag, Bulacan. Jazmines was arrested by virtue of warrants of arrest issued in Lucena City and Calauag, both in Quezon provinces, for rebellion and murder. Jazmines is an executive committee and politburo member of the Central Committee of the CPP-NPA, according to Army chief Lt. Gen. Arturo Ortiz. He is now in the custody of the Philippine National Police in Region III. - with Paterno Esmaquel II/KBK/VS, GMA News