Teodoro rejects resuming peace talks with Maoist rebels
Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr has rejected calls for the resumption of peace negotiations with the communist guerrillas after soldiers killed 19 rebels in Negros island.
Defense Secretary Gilberto C. Teodoro, Jr. at an event in Laoag, Ilocos Norte last Saturday, May 2. The Department of Defense, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and provincial government of Ilocos Norte distributed family food packs and financial assistance to 734 fisher folk during the no-sail period coinciding with the Balikatan Exercises.
Manuel Mogato | May 4, 2026
LAOAG CITY — Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr has rejected calls for the resumption of peace negotiations with the communist guerrillas after soldiers killed 19 rebels in Negros island.
“I object to an peace talks with the New People’s Army,” Teodoro told journalists during a trip to Ilocos Norte province where American and Filipino troops are holding drills. (Also read: Dangerous recruitment)
“The Filipinos are at peace. They are the ones disturbing the peace. So, why should we talk to them? They’re committing crimes, plain and simple. And its terrorism plain and simple.”
Teodoro responded to questions fielded by reporters on calls by former government negotiators to resume peace talks with the CPP-NPA-NDF.
The last peace negotiations ended during the Duterte administration.
“To call for peace talks is to elevate the morality of their cause to something legitimate, which I cannot accept. I cannot accept that,” said Teodoro.
The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) estimated the rebels’ strength to around 780, from a high of around 25,000 in the middle of the 1980s. (JMR)