Manila: Philippine communists said they are willing to sign a bilateral ceasefire agreement with the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte as the 48-year-old movement softened its stand in peace negotiations.

“If GRP[’s] [Government of the Republic of the Philippines’] President Durterte decides to send his negotiating panel and emissaries to the upcoming scheduled talks between the ceasefire committees, negotiations for a bilateral ceasefire agreement can proceed as scheduled on February 22-27 in The Netherlands,” the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF) said in a statement on Sunday.

Efforts to restart peace negotiations mothballed during the administration of previous President Benigno Aquino III and collapsed anew following successive tactical offensives carried out by the communist armed wing, the New Peoples’ Army (NPA) in various parts of the country. The attacks, which were carried out at a time when respective unilateral truce were declared by the communists and the Duterte administration, cost the lives of at least five government soldiers and militiamen.

The NPA also recently abducted and held four government soldiers and two armed forces-trained militiamen as prisoners, using the captured personnel as virtual bargaining chips.

“The Party [Communist Party of the Philippines] and the New People’s Army (NPA) reiterate their support for efforts to forge a bilateral ceasefire agreement. The revolutionary forces are encouraged by the previous statements of GRP President Duterte that all political prisoners will be released within 48 hours once the bilateral ceasefire agreement is signed,” said the NDF — the movement’s negotiating arm.

For his part, the government’s chief lawyer, Solicitor General Jose Calida, said that instead of talking with the rebels, the government would be better off with arresting the so-called consultants of the NDF which the Duterte administration released late last year.

The government peace negotiating panel, led by Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza and Labour Secretary Bebot Bello, had all but quit due to the changing attitude of the CPP-NPA with regards to the negotiations.

It can be recalled that last year, the Duterte administrations had given a number of concessions to the leftist, giving them a chance to participate in the government by appointing them to Cabinet post.

Among those freed as a peace gesture by the Duterte administration last December were captured CPP-NPA central committee chairman Benito Tiamzon and his wife, Wilma De Lima, who were arrested in Cebu in March 2014.

The CPP-NPA-NDF had been waging a nearly five-decade conflict to establish an independent state in the Philippines using the political ideology of the late Chinese communist leader Mao Tse Tung as a model.

The conflict has cost the lives of more than a hundred thousand combatants and civilians and have left large areas in the countryside still mired in poverty and lack of development.