The Armed Forces of the Philippines has recommended to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo the declaration of a "short-term" cease-fire with the rebel group of the New People's Army (NPA) this coming Christmas season, a military spokesman revealed Monday.

Col. Tristan Kison, chief of the military's public information office, told a press conference that the recommendation was only for two days - one for Christmas and the other for New Year.

"In the spirit of the holidays, the Armed Forces of the Philippines recommended a short-term cease-fire," said Kison.

However, Kison warned of NPA's continued atrocities, saying " they have so many violent activities. They committed violent activities for the past two weeks," and therefore "We have no choice. We have to confront them," he added.

Kison said that the president's office would have the final say on the "term and duration of the cease-fire."

Since 1986 when peace negotiations were first held, the shortest truce to be declared by the government during the Christmas season was four days in 2002. The longest Christmas truce was in 1986, covering 60 days.

Kison said that they recommended a short truce because the military anticipates NPA guerrillas to be doing "a lot of violent activities" in view of their celebration of their 37th founding anniversary of its political wing, the Communist Party of the Philippines, on Dec. 26.

If their recommendation is approved, the military will remain on guard during the duration of the truce, he said.

"We'll be ready to confront them to challenge their violent activities and to contain them, and we should not allow the cease- fire to be used as a time for them to recruit to retrain or in some cases to build or establish satellite camps," he added.

Source: Xinhua