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BACOLOD CITY, NEGROS OCCIDENTAL, Philippines — Officials in Negros Occidental had endorsed the proposal by Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. for localized peace talks with communist rebels following a series of clashes in the province.
“We are willing to sit down and be part of the peace process on the local level,” Cadiz City Mayor Salvador Escalante, president of Negros Association of Chief Executives (Negros ACE), told the Inquirer.
During his visit here on Saturday, Teodoro rejected calls for a national level peace negotiations with communist rebels following bloody encounters between government forces and New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in Toboso and Cauayan towns.
The Toboso encounter on April 19 had caught national attention as it involved 19 fatalities.
