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Manila / AFP
The leader of the Philippines’ communist insurgency said on Thursday he expects to end nearly 30 years in exile by returning from Europe to Manila as early as next month.
While running for office last month, Rodrigo Duterte, now the newly elected president, said Jose Maria Sison, the rebel leader and Communist Party of the Philippines founder, would be welcome to return home to participate in peace talks.
The comments raised hopes of ending the 47-year-old insurgency, one of Asia’s longest, which has claimed an estimated 30,000 lives since the 1960s.
“I want to visit (Manila) in July or August to hold serious talks with President Duterte,” said Sison, who now styles himself as a consultant for the rebels’ negotiating body, the National Democratic Front.