New peace hope for the Philippines after Norwegian efforts
The Philippine government and communist guerrillas will implement the Norwegian backed peace talks in April.
The agreement to resume peace talks was reached after informal meetings were organized by Norway on Friday and Saturday.The meetings were held in Utrecht in the Netherlands.
In early February, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, canceled peace talks with the guerrillas and asked his soldiers to prepare for a long war.
On Sunday , the president’s adviser, Jesus Dureza, came with another message that peace talks will go ahead as originally planned.
‘Both parties have also agreed to restore their separate truce declarations as soon as possible, and a bilateral ceasefire will be negotiated ahead of formal talks in April’, says Dureza.
Among others at the meeting in Utrecht, was chief negotiator Silvestre Bello from the Philippines, and the guerrillas negotiator, Fidel Agcaoili.
The Philippine government and communist rebels began peace talks in Oslo last August. The new, cancelled round of negotiations, are now reintroduced and scheduled to take place in Oslo in April.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
