MANILA - Following the government’s termination of its ceasefire, the New People’s Army (NPA) on Friday urged President Rodrigo Duterte to pull out troops from over 500 barangays across the country before Feb. 10, saying this may preempt the communist rebels’ ceasefire withdrawal.

NPA spokesperson Ka Oris said the government’s withdrawal of troops and the release of 400 political prisoners may preempt the NPA from withdrawing its unilateral ceasefire which the rebel group earlier said would expire on Feb. 10.

“The NPA urges the AFP and the Duterte regime to pull out all its troops from more than 500 barrios before February 10. If it does so, together with the release of all political prisoners, it may preempt the complete termination of the unilateral ceasefire declaration of the CPP and NPA,” Ka Oris said.

Duterte on Thursday announced an end to the government’s ceasefire with the NPA after a series of armed clashes between the two sides.

The NPA added that unless the government agrees to its request, it will continue to launch offensives against the military and the police.

“Otherwise, the NPA has orders to take full initiative and carry out tactical offensives against the AFP, PNP and all armed entities of the reactionary state,” Ka Oris said.

The NPA also confirmed that it had custody of at least 5 soldiers, and that it has killed or wounded a number of AFP personnel in recent armed attacks.

“This active defense posture is but an inevitable consequence of the Duterte government's obduracy and duplicity in continuing offensive operations under then Oplan Bayanihan and presently Oplan Kapayapaan in violation of the spirit of the ceasefire declarations reciprocally declared by the GRP and the NDFP,” Ka Oris said.

The rebel group said they it has obtained reports of successful NPA “defense maneuvers” in the provinces of Agusan, Surigao, Davao, Bukidnon, Sultan Kudarat in Mindanao, Isabela and Batangas in Luzon and in Panay, Visayas.

The NPA also accused the military of spreading lies by saying that military presence was requested by barangay officials and by claiming that they were conducting relief operations.

“They make use of so-called 'delivery of social services' to forward-deploy their troops within the guerrilla zones of the NPA,” Ka Oris said.

“These soldiers are the subject of numerous complaints over grave violations of human rights, intimidation, threats and other abuses against the barriofolk,” the NPA added.

The AFP has vowed to go after NPA rebels and "hit them hard" after the collapse of the ceasefire.