Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said it is the New People’s Army who is sabotaging the peace talks between the Philippine government and the communist group.

“In fact, I would throw back the question to them: What are they doing there with their firearms in the populated areas? So in a way they are the ones sabotaging the peace talks,” Lorenzana told reporters in a forum in Camp Aguinaldo Thursday.

Lorenzana made his statement after the NDF ( National Democratic Front) accused the military for sabotaging the peace talks after the military and police forces encounter the NPA in North Cotabato over the week which killed one of the rebels.

“It’s the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines )-NPA-NDF (which) accused us of sabotaging the peace talks… what happened is it was a police operation. They were acting on report from civilians. They went there and engaged the enemy… They were able to kill one. It turned out that they are not the usual criminals but members NPA,” he said.

“Now they accuse us of sabotaging because you know we will not also stop our operations against lawless elements in the area..It just happens they are NPA, so what are they doing there? They were doing some may be lawless acts that’s why they were reported by the people. So that does not constitute sabotaging the talks,” Lorenzana added.

Lorenzana said despite the declaration of unilateral ceasefire of the CPP-NPA-NDF, the rebel group continue their activities, especially in Mindanao .

“After they declared their unilateral ceasefire the NPA in South Cotabato my hometown kept burning buses there from November to December they burned at least five buses because the owner of the bus do not want to cough up 2.5 million a month,” Lorenzana said.

The defense secretary said the military is respecting the peace process but he also assures that despite the incident government forces will not stop supporting the police in its law enforcement operation.

“We are respecting the peace talks. We are not operating against them but we will not stop. We are going to areas where people are being harassed, are being molested by lawless elements, and if they turn out that they are NPA’s, then so be it, we will pursue them,” Lorenzana said. Robina Asido/DMS