Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. on Friday said there are no formal peace talks yet with the Communist Party of the Philippines' political wing, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
In a television interview, Teodoro said there was a "mis-appreciation" when the Oslo joint communique between the government and the NDFP was released to the public.
"I think there was a mis-appreciation of what happened. What happened was the agreement to have exploratory talks. Not yet peace talks."
Citing information he received, Teodoro confirmed that the NDFP has initiated the exploratory talks.
"But regardless of whoever initiated… it's getting spun out of proportion that these are exploratory talks without any preconditions, whatsoever," he said.
"There are no formalized peace talks and we have to see first what the conditions are for talks to continue," he added.
Thus, Teodoro emphasized that the activities of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police as well as the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict to curb insurgency in the country "will continue and will not be suspended."
"There are no formal peace talks yet and even a supposed demand to delist the CPP-New People's Army-NDFP as a terror organization is not in the works because that's a process, you can't unilaterally do that," he noted.
Teodoro said there's no harm in entering into exploratory talks, especially if the government's security forces are allowed to pursue their mandates and continue clearing the country's insurgency problem.
"We have entered into several so-called peace agreements before. I think the government is well aware of the lessons learned there and is not going to repeat the same things that have happened in the past," he said.
