Story highlights Rodrigo Duterte has announced a ceasefire with communist insurgents

He has reinforced his commitment to fighting drugs, crime and corruption

The Church held a mass for victims of extra-judicial killings during Duterte's speech

(CNN) Newly-elected Philippines president Rodrigo Roa Duterte, in his first state of the nation address (SONA), announced an immediate unilateral ceasefire with communist rebels who have been battling government forces since 1968.

Duterte's announcement comes as the Philippines government prepares to resume official peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines, National Democratic Party and the armed New People's Army in August, a move which may signal an end to Asia's longest running communist insurgency.

"To the CPP/NPA/NDF, let us end these decades of ambuscades and skirmishes. We are going nowhere. And it is getting bloodier by the day," Duterte said in his speech.

He also called on his "Muslim brothers" to end "centuries of mistrust and warfare", saying that "all of us want peace, not the peace of the dead but the peace of the living."

"Let me make this appeal to you: If we cannot, as yet, love one another, then in God's name, let us not hate each other too much," he said.

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