TIGIL-PUTUKAN | P-Noy declares 26-day unilateral ceasefire from 21 December 2013 to 15 January 2014

By: Philippines News Agency
December 21, 2013 3:18 PM

NPA partisans. FILE PHOTO BY JULIUS MARIVELES

InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5

MANILA -- President Benigno Aquino III on Saturday declared a unilateral nationwide Christmas ceasefire that started after midnight today, 21 December 2013, to end at 11:59 p.m. of 15 January 2014.

“By this declaration, the Armed Forces of the Philippines is directed to suspend all offensive military operations for the entire duration of the Christmas ceasefire,” said Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos Deles.

However, “Our security forces will maintain their defensive readiness in the protection of our people,” she added.

Deles said the ceasefire, a government tradition, will allow those in conflict areas - soldiers, rebels, and civilians – “safe passage to celebrate Advent with their families, far from all harm.”

Citing the major tragedies that visited the country this year, Deles said this ceasefire “gains added urgency with the call for healing and rebuilding that resonate in this Season and its promise of a new life to all.”

Apart from super typhoon Yolanda that levelled entire communities and left thousands dead or missing, and millions displaced and homeless, the country also experienced a devastating 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Bohol and a fiery battle between government forces and the Nur Misuari faction of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in Zamboanga City.

“Our nation needs to bind our wounds and focus our energies and resources on the tasks at hand. It presents to our country and people the chance to start afresh, to build on new and just foundations,” Deles said.

“In this season of faith, hope and solidarity, we bind ourselves together as a people for the long-term effort to rebuild in our disaster areas and reconstruct the lives, livelihoods and property of the survivors. May the peace and goodwill that must dwell in our hearts become building blocks for a healing and enduring peace in our land,” she added.

The government has been in a decades' long war with communist rebels even as it has tried to forge peace with Moro rebels.

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