It would be particularly problematic for Sison since he is considered a terrorist by several nations raising the possibility that he would be arrested if not neutralized.

The final offer of the Palace to Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Maria “Joma” Sison is to hold a face-to-face negotiation with President Rodrigo Duterte in the country and not in Vietnam or any other foreign nation.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman Salvador Panelo indicated there is no way for Sison to have his way in the proposed resumption of the peace process.

“The President said if he does not want it, then he’s fine with it,” Panelo said. “If not, no deal,” he added.

In a message for the CPP’s 51st founding anniversary, Sison said the communists’ holiday truce with government troops until 7 January 2020 is aimed at creating an environment “favorable to the resumption of peace negotiations.”

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello said a meeting between the panels of the government and the communist movement is scheduled on 6 January, a day before the reciprocal unilateral ceasefires expire in which the top agenda would be the possibility of the meeting between Sison and Mr. Duterte and its venue.

Bello noted, however, assembling both personalities into a meeting would be “very difficult.”

It would be particularly problematic for Sison since he is considered a terrorist by several nations raising the possibility that he would be arrested if not neutralized.

Sison also would have to be allowed by the government of The Netherlands to travel due to his status as a political refugee.

“That would be specially hard,” Bello noted.

The CPP-New People’s Army (NPA) is branded as a terror group by the Philippines, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Sison earlier indicated the revival of talks can only be realized “by reaffirming the mutual agreements since The Hague Joint Declaration of 1992, by superseding the presidential issuances that previously terminated and prevented peace negotiations, and by laying the ground for the Interim Peace Agreement.”

The CPP founder said the interim peace deal should be a package of agreements that would include the demands of the revolutionary movement for the “general amnesty and release of all political prisoners; the approval of articles of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms, particularly those on agrarian reform and rural development and national industrialization and economic development and coordinated unilateral ceasefires.”

Panelo said Sison has no right to make demands for the possible resumption of peace talks between the national government and the CPP’s political wing, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

Sison appeared to have no interest to revive the peace negotiations, as the communist leader tends to use the temporary ceasefire to “reorganize and strengthen” the CPP’s armed component, the NPA, Panelo alleged.

“In the first place, he doesn’t have the right to demand. It’s the President who’s giving them the chance. They are the ones who asked for it, not the President,” Panelo said.

“They sent their emissaries to the President for the resumption of peace talks. They lobbied for talks through senators, Congress, that’s why the President gave them a chance,” he noted.

Earlier this month, the President expressed willingness to give the peace talks another chance, despite his 23 November signing of Proclamation 360 that cut all government communications with the revolutionary movement.

The President admitted that he could not be totally harsh on the communists because he considers them as his “friends.”

President Duterte’s desire for lasting peace cannot be doubted, Presidential Communications Operation Office Undersecretary for New Media Lorraine Marie Badoy who is also one of the executives of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

“This is where you see the deepest longing of our President for peace: that he bends himself over backward to try, yet again, to reason with a coward and a dyed in the wool terrorist,” Badoy stressed.

“Instead of dragging Joma Sison by the hair and into a court of law — like he rightfully deserves — to make him answer for the innumerable crimes he has committed against the Filipino people and for the untold death and destruction, he and his band of terrorists have wrought on our country for over five decades, the President is saying, ‘Come. Let us be reasonable men. Let us end this war where there are no winners and let us usher in a new era in our country’s history where Filipinos will stop killing fellow Filipinos,’ “ she said.

Badoy said she is incensed when Bayan General Secretary Renato Reyes condemned the NTF-ELCAC for allegedly conducting anti-CPP-NPA-NDFP rallies last 26 December, which incidentally was the CPP’s 51st founding anniversary.

Reyes called these protest actions as “attempts of peace spoilers” to impede the peace talks between the Philippine government and the communist rebels.