A party-list group has criticized Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s for favoring the New People’s Army when he made a call to national government to re-open peace negotiations with the New People’s Army and its political wings, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the National Democratic Front (NDF).

ANAD party-list congressman Pastor “Jun” M. Alcover, Jr. said Duterte is helping the CPP-NPA-NDF use the peace negotiations as a “propaganda front against the government.”

“This is what the CPP-NPA-NDF is exactly doing right now in Davao City, in Southern Mindanao and elsewhere in the country,” Alcover pointed out in a statement released by Arthur Tariman, ANAD spokesman for Southern Mindanao.

At the same time, Alcover criticized Duterte’s statement that government has failed to address the basic problems raised by the revolution. “What has Mayor Duterte done all these years to improve the lot of his constituents and to reduce the communist insurgency problem in Davao City and suburbs?” Alcover asked.

“Instead of pampering and politicking with communist terrorists found in his turf like Leoncio Pitao alias Commander Parago of the NPA’s Pulang Bagani Company 1, Mayor Duterte should have invested his time, efforts and city government’s resources on delivering basic services to the people,” Alcover said.

Alcover, a former NPA commander who became anti-communism-crusader, said that people in the hinterlands of Davao City continue to wallow in poverty primarily because of the continuing communist insurgency that greatly disturbed their livelihoods.

“The Duterte administration has perpetuated the killing field image of Davao City that started in the early ‘80s when the NPA made the place its laboratory for urban insurrectionism and Sparrow Unit liquidation,” Alcover stated.

Meanwhile, a former barangay leader of Davao City’s District 3 belittled Duterte’s supposed achievements in peace and order.

“What peace and order when people are scared and some of them are being killed on the streets in broad daylight?” asked Lolito “Boy” Sucayre.

Sucayre said that if ever there was relative peace in Davao City, it is to the credit of barangay leaders who have contributed in policing their respective communities. He said most of Duterte’s achievements in the peace and order efforts were good “only for publicity.”

The multi-awarded barangay leader from Daliao, Toril said City Hall has fallen short in uplifting the lot of barangay policemen under Duterte’s administration.

Sucayre said aside from the pervading fear amid street killings, Davao City has remained undisciplined despite the vaunted P1.2-million per day budget of City Hall. He noted the lack of discipline among pedestrians and motorists in city streets.

Sucayre earlier criticized Duterte’s claim that the Mayor valued debt of gratitude.

“Ang utang kabubut-on dili angay kalimtan? (Debt of gratitude should not be forgotten?),” Sucayre asked. “Then why did he abandon the Lopez family in 2007 when the Mayor got the help of the same Lopez family from the early 80s to 2004?”