Manila: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday announced that there will be no more negotiations with communist insurgents as he said that earlier planned meetings on the peace process are now cancelled.

“We are hereby announcing today the cancellation of all planned meetings with the CPP/NPA/NDF in line with President Duterte’s directive that there will be no more peace talks with them,” Jesus Dureza, Presidential Peace Adviser said in a statement.

Just like previous administrations, the Duterte government had been trying to arrive at a negotiated settlement into the nearly five decades-old insurgency led by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and participated in by the New Peoples’ Army (NPA) as armed component and the National Democratic Front (NDF) as negotiating arm.

Just last week, an ambush by the NPA killed a policeman as well as an infant. The three month-old child was with her mother aboard a vehicle at the same time insurgents attacked a police vehicle which was passing by.

Dureza said Duterte was forced to make a choice to scuttle the peace talks because peoples lives are at stake.

“Recent tragic and violent incidents all over the country committed by the communist rebels left the President with no other choice but to arrive at this decision. We take guidance from the President’s recent announcements and declarations,” he said.

He added that the continuing attacks “was an unfortunate development in our work for peace.”

“Never before have we all reached this far in our negotiations with them. President Duterte has taken unprecedented steps and has walked the so-called extra mile to bring peace. However, the Communist Party and its armed elements have not shown reciprocity,” he said.

Reacting to Duterte’s decision, Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said government forces will press on with its work and follow the President’s order.

“The President has had enough of the Communist movement’s penchant for double-talk and – continued acts of atrocities against the Filipino people,” he said.

Lorenzana reiterated his earlier call for the rebels to lay down their arms and surrender and be part of the society.

The statements on the peace process also comes at the heels of a warning from Duterte to mining companies not to provide financial support to the insurgents.

In a speech last Nov. 21 in Taguig City, Duterte issued a stern warning to mining firms that they face closure if they were found paying “revolutionary taxes” to the NPA.

“Revolutionary taxes” are simply extortion by another name.

“If I go against the NPAs, the communists, well, everybody has to reconfigure your relationship with the NPAs,” the President said.