Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte Tuesday declared communist rebels “terrorists”, his spokesman said, weeks after cancelling peace talks with groups waging one of Asia´s longest-running insurgencies. Duterte signed an order Tuesday declaring two communist groups “terrorist organisations”, but it would require court approval to go into effect, his spokesman Harry Roque told reporters. Communist rebels have been waging an insurgency in the Philippines since 1968 to overthrow what they call a capitalist system that has created one of Asia´s biggest rich-poor divides. “We can now address without any hesitation and with all the means and resources available to us the increasing criminal and economic sabotage activities of these terrorists,” military spokesman Major-General Restituto Padilla said. Chief rebel negotiator Fidel Agcaoili of the National Democratic Front — a group linked with the communist rebels but not targeted by Duterte Tuesday — denied that the NPA was a terrorist group.

Source: Pakistan Today December 05, 2017 13:18 UTC