The Philippine military said it would observe a unilateral one-day ceasefire with communist insurgents on Wednesday to mark the United Nations' "International Day of Peace."
The September 21 truce would only apply to operations against the Maoist New People's Army (NPA) and not to other antagonists such as the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militants, said Lieutenant Colonel Arnulfo Burgos.
The communists have been waging a Maoist campaign demanding political, social and economic reforms since 1969.
"We have peace negotiations with the NPA but the Abu Sayyaf terrorists and the bandits... we do not negotiate with these terrorists," Burgos, the military's spokesman, told reporters.
The Abu Sayyaf is a group of Muslim militants blamed for the country's worst terror attacks. It was founded in the 1990s with help from the Al-Qaeda network, the authorities said.
The secretariat of the communist insurgent peace negotiators in Manila said they had no immediate reaction to the military move.
The UN General Assembly set September 21 as the permanent International Day of Peace in 2002 to give advocacy groups a day to work for peace.
After unsuccessful on-and-off negotiations since 1986, the Philippine government reopened peace talks with the NPA's political leadership, the National Democratic Front (NDF) this year.
The two sides are due to continue negotiations in Norway next month.
From a peak of more than 25,000 fighters in the 1980s, the military and other defence experts believe the guerrillas now number fewer than 5,000.
Rebel attacks last year killed 187 government forces and dozens of civilians were caught in the crossfire, according to Brussels-based security think-tank the International Crisis Group.
