MANILA - The Philippine government within the next 2 weeks will start consulting the public and other stakeholders to galvanize support for its peace negotiations and draft agreements with communist rebels, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said Wednesday.

Backchannel negotiations between state and communist rebels were suspended last week to pave the way for a 3-month review of all deals between the 2 parties, including a proposed interim peace agreement.

• Gov't suspends backchannel talks with Reds, seeks 3-month review of agreements

"Within the next 2 weeks uumpisahan na namin ang consultation. We will go to Mindanao. Focus namin ang Mindanao, d'yan ang puwersa nila e. Pero pupunta rin sa Visayas at Luzon," said Bello, the government’s chief negotiator.

(Within the next 2 weeks, we will start the consultation. We will go to Mindanao, where the communist force is concentrated. We will also go to Visayas and Mindanao.)

Peace negotiators will also consult lawmakers because some provisions of the draft peace agreement may require legislation from Congress or even constitutional amendment, he told radio DZMM.

"After that, iga-gather natin lahat iyung mga inputs ng lahat ng (we will gather all the the inputs of all) stakeholders, and then we will go back to the negotiating table," he said.

Government and communists have yet to iron out a contention over national industrialization, Bello mentioned.

The communists, he said, want all industries to be entirely Filipino-owned while the constitution allows foreigners to own up to 40 percent of Filipino firms.

Numerous peace talks between the government and the communists have been launched since 1986 but never made much headway.

The communist insurgency has stunted economic development in several resource-rich provinces, just as Moro separatist rebellions have plagued large parts of the south of the Catholic-majority country.