"I'm open to talk to the rebels, just not the killers. I'm ready to talk and I'm ready to stop this war," Duterte said in an interview with the media Friday night. He spoke in Bisaya, a translation of which was provided by the Presidential Communications Office.
President Rodrigo Duterte was in Cagayan De Oro City to visit the wake of two soldiers slain in fighting New People's Army (NPA) rebels in Misamis Oriental earlier this week.
Duterte said it pains him to see Filipinos fighting fellow Filipinos and getting hurt and killed in battle.
The President has an appeal to the rebels: "We need to talk from the heart."
"I'm ready as long as we communicate well. I'm ready to resume the ceasefire again, but this time I want it to be sincere," Duterte said.
He said soldiers were killed by NPA rebels even when both side's unilateral ceasefire declarations were in place.
The Armed Forces and the rebels accused each other of violating the truce.
Duterte also called on the rebels to release the soldiers and policemen they have held captive. The rebels are holding six government troops, the Armed Forces said.
The outlawed NPA is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, which has waged a 48-year-old insurgency. It is the National Democratic Front (NDF) that represents the rebels in peace negotiations.
NDF legal counsel Edre Olalia said Duterte's most recent pronouncement is a "welcome development" to the stalled peace talks.
"It's a positive sign. It's something that everybody not only the negotiating panels from both sides must take advantage of, but also the people at large, the public," Olalia told CNN Philippines on Saturday.
He said the NDF has always been open to negotiations to resolve the roots of armed conflict and address problems in the society.
"If it's a question of talking from the heart, then the sincerity has always been there on the part of our clients, the NDF panel," Olalia said.
Olalia also said the NDF has expressed willingness to release the "prisoners of war," or soldiers held captive by the NPA.
Duterte, a self-described left-leaning leader, withdrew from the peace talks on February 4, lamenting the killing of soldiers even when a ceasefire was in place.
Duterte earlier said he now considers the CPP-NPA-NDF a terrorist organization, while the Armed Forces promised to "hit them hard" following the President's lifting of the government's unilateral ceasefire. Duterte also said peace may not be possible in this generation.
