The arrest of communist consultant Vic Ladlad is meant to derail the possible resumption of peace negotiations with the government, his wife said Monday.

Ladlad, a consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, was arrested Thursday with 2 others for illegal possession of firearms at a house in Novaliches, Quezon City last.

"There really is a strong pull coming from the hawks, who really don't want peace on the table," Ladlad's wife Fides Lim told ANC.

"They are creating, manufacturing, fabricating incidents like the arrest on my husband on the basis of planted evidence to stop the doves or the mood of the moment from having peace talks."

She noted that the owner of the house saw the butt of a firearm sticking out of a box that officers allegedly planted in the house during the raid.

Lim said her husband's work "has always been political" as he is not a member of the NDF's armed wing, the New People's Army.

Ladlad, she added, has chronic asthma that deteriorated into emphysema, but "we are not even making that a condition for his release."

"He is ready to face the charges against him because they are all fabricated... Ang spirit niya very strong, fighting," she said.

President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the arrest of all NDF consultants after peace talks between the government and communist rebels deteriorated last year due to alleged continuing rebel attacks on state troops.

A supposed resumption of the negotiations this year did not push through.

• Ladlad's arrest sets 'bad precedent' in peace talks: Joma

Ladlad was the third NDF consultant arrested in recent months, after Adelberto Silva and Rafael Baylosis.

Duterte said Saturday that NDF negotiator Fidel Agcaoili and senior adviser Jalandoni sought a meeting with him.

He said he will announce whether or not their meeting would push through after his trip to Singapore next week to meet regional and world leaders.

• Communist leader Agcaoili confirms PH trip with Jalandoni

ANC, 12 November 2018