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Duterte ultimatum lapses with no ceasefire from leftist rebels

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<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src=" http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/news-special1/nation/07/30/duterte-073016.jpg"/><figcaption><div class="embed-desc">President Rodrigo Duterte salutes next to a military officer at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City on July 1, 2016. Erik de Castro, Reuters</div></figcaption></figure></div>MANILA – (UPDATE) Communist rebels refused to declare a ceasefire before President Rodrigo Duterte&#x27;s 24-hour ultimatum lapsed on Saturday, and instead placed their forces on &quot;active defense,&quot; their spokesman said.The New People&#x27;s Army was &quot;ready, willing and able&quot; to match Duterte&#x27;s truce declaration, but military operations on the ground have not stopped, said Rigoberto Sanchez of the NPA Southern Mindanao.Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza urged the rebels to &quot;respond accordingly&quot; to the government ceasefire, adding, &quot;It is urgent to immediately stop fighting on the ground.&quot;Dureza could not immediately say whether the suspension of police and military operations had been lifted. Duterte threatened to revoke the truce by 5 p.m. unless the NPA reciprocated.The President had sought to bring the rebels back to the negotiating table in an effort to end one of the world’s longest-running Maoist insurgencies that has claimed 30,000 lives since the 1960s.Formal talks were scheduled to begin in Oslo, Norway on August 20. It was not immediately known whether this would push through.&#x27;&#x27;Deal with us. Deal with me in government in good faith. Wala tayong bolahan,” Duterte said late Friday as he set the deadline for the NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.Duterte issued the <a href="http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/07/29/16/duterte-issues-ultimatum-to-cpp-npa">ultimatum</a> after a government militia man was killed and four others were wounded in what the military said was an ambush by the NPA in the southern province of Compostela Valley last Wednesday. The rebels owned up to the attack, but said they were thwarting an <a href="http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/07/29/16/npa-command-blames-military-for-davao-del-norte-ambush">Army offensive</a>.The NPA accused the military of holding &quot;combat operations, surveillance, reconnaissance, intelligence, and psychological warfare&quot; under the guise of outreach or civil-military operations.The military said Saturday it pulled out an battalion of elite Army troops from Surigao del Sur in support of the President&#x27;s ceasefire.The NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), is believed to have fewer than 4,000 gunmen at present, down from a peak of 26,000 in the 1980s, according to the military.But it retains support among the poor in rural areas, and its forces regularly kill police or troops while extorting money from local businesses and politicians. -- with reports from Agence France-Presse

MANILA – (UPDATE) Communist rebels refused to declare a ceasefire before President Rodrigo Duterte's 24-hour ultimatum lapsed on Saturday, and instead placed their forces on "active defense," their spokesman said.