The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Saturday threw its support behind localized peace talks with communist rebels after President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to cancel negotiations with the National Democratic Front (NDF).

AFP Chief of Staff General Rey Leonardo Guerrero issued a statement a day after the military’s declaration of all-out offensives against the New Peoples’ Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), through “focused operations.”