Palace urged to declare truce with NPA until Easter Sunday

A lawmaker on Wednesday urged the Philippine government to still declare a ceasefire with the New People’s Army (NPA) starting Maundy Thursday up to Easter Sunday. Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara said Malacañang has "enough" time to follow the government's 25-year tradition of declaring a ceasefire with insurgents during the Holy Week. "A four-day cessation of hostilities is better than none at all. It is never too early or too late to call for a halt in fighting," Angara said in a statement issued Wednesday. The congressman added that declaring a truce during the "most solemn" season in the country "is not a complicated matter" at all for the Palace. "All the Palace or the Department of National Defense has to do is simply issue a statement... and wait for the other side to issue a similar declaration," he said. After inspecting a seaport, an airport and a bus terminal Wednesday, the President meanwhile said he has yet to receive any proposal from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police on the possible declaration of truce with the NPA this Holy Week. “We will check with them," he said. Early last month, Malacañang announced that the Philippine government will not declare a unilateral ceasefire with insurgents during the Lenten break. The NPA, armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), has been waging an armed struggle for 42 years now to establish a Marxist state in the Philippines. Peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), an alliance of underground organizations supporting the CPP-NPA's armed struggle, resumed in Norway last February. The government last declared a unilateral ceasefire with the NPA on February 15 to 21 this year, in preparation for the peace talks at the time. — Andreo Calonzo/RSJ/PE/VS, GMA News