Left-wing rebels in the Philippines (Photo: Yahoo News) Hanoi (VNA) - The Philippine government and the left-wing rebels have agreed to resume the peace talks to end the 48-year-old insurgency in the Philippines, announced Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza on March 12.
In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Dureza said that the fourth round of talks between the Philippine government and the New People's Army/National Democratic Front is scheduled for early April.
A unilateral ceasefire will be restored before the round and will be made effective only as soon as the respective forces of both sides are duly informed.
Both sides have also agreed to hold the fifth round of formal peace negotiations in June.
According to Dureza, the agreement was a result of informal talks held on March 10 and 11 in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
The unilateral ceasefire is a prelude to an interim bilateral ceasefire that needs further meetings between the two sides to determine and agree on rules, necessary guidelines and mechanisms," he said.
The announcement for the resumption of talks came more than a month after Duterte ordered the termination of the peace talks that he initiated with the rebels. The President has ordered an all-out war against the rebels after he halted the talks.
According to the Philippine army, the number of rebels dwindled from 26,000 in the mid-1980s to less than 4,000 this year.-VNA
VNA
