MANILA Maoist rebels in the Philippines declared a 5-day ceasefire over the Christmas period on Friday, after the government said it would not launch any offensive operations in the period.
A rebel statement posted on the website of the Communist Party of the Philippines said New People’s Army (NPA) fighters were restrained from initiating offensives to allow the country to celebrate a violence- free Christmas holidays.
“In unity with the Filipino people’s holiday traditions, the NPA was instructed to observe truce from December 24 to 26 and December 31 and January 1,” the rebel statement said. The rebel leadership said the 5,000-member NPA, active in 69 of 81 provinces in the country, would remain in a defensive mode because it did not trust the military to abide by its own ceasefire.
The government has said its forces will observe the truce on December 24-25 and December 31-January 1. The rebels will also observe a truce on December 26, the anniversary of the 1968 founding of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
The communist insurgency has killed about 40,000 people and stunted economic growth in the country.
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