The Office of the Vice President (OVP) is not engaged, and has no intention of having “direct peace negotiations”, with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
Spokesperson Barry Gutierrez said this in a statement on Tuesday to clarify false reports on the supposed involvement of OVP in peace talks that circulated on social media.
“While peace talks are crucial in resolving this decades long conflict, they must be conducted through official, formal channels that the OVP is not part of,” he said.
“This has been the consistent position of the OVP following the suspension of the GRP-NDF peace negotiations, and it has not changed,” Gutierrez stressed.
The NDFP, which represents communist rebels in peace talks with the government, had said it wanted to meet Robredo and other groups regarding the peace negotiations.
The group made the call back in September, but this was the only time Vice President Leni Robredo’s office released a statement about the matter.
The Robredo camp told Senator Bong Go he should check first the “news” so he could avoid issuing statements based on false information.
“Sen. Bong Go would do well to ensure that next time, he first checks that any news he is reacting to is true and accurate, and not based on some troll's rantings on YouTube,”
Gutierrez said.
Prior to this, the vice president asked the public’s help to report that fake news posts that red-tagged her on social media.
Robredo denied allegations that she is a supporter of communist rebels.
“It gets crazier and crazier. Now I am being red-tagged,” she said. “None of the allegations here are true.”