Hundreds of peace advocates have renewed their call for the Philippine government (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) to resume peace negotiations after the unlamented Duterte regime scrapped the talks in 2018.
The call was made in an assembly at the Philippine Christian University (PCU) in Manila on Nov. 21, 2024, organized by the Council of Leaders for Peace Initiatives (CLPI) in cooperation with the Citizens Alliance for Just Peace (CAJP), composed of the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP), Pilgrims for Peace (P4P), and Waging Peace.
Among the speakers during the whole-day event were Norwegian Ambassador Christian Halaas Lyster, Tobias Wilbers, Senior Advisor for Peace and Reconciliation, Caritas Norway, and Atty. Antonio Gabriel La Viña, CLPI convenor and associate director for Climate Policy & International Relations, Manila Observatory, Ateneo de Manila University, among others.
CLPI said the assembly was organized to celebrate the signing of the first anniversary of the Oslo Joint Statement of Nov. 23, 2023. “We, peace advocates, gather in Manila to mark the one-year anniversary of the Oslo Joint Statement, signed last year on 23 November 2023 by the Government of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), with equal parts optimism and trepidation. We continue to draw hope from the main points of the Joint Statement that speak of the seriousness of the two Parties to address the underlying causes of the armed conflict and in so doing, arrive at a final peace settlement through negotiations.”
“We hold fast to the official pronouncements of both Parties of their commitment to stay the course and unite on a framework for restarting the peace negotiations and overcoming remaining obstacles. We hope that discussions on such a framework are ongoing and progressing. We wait for the Parties’ public pronouncements in this regard,” CLPI stressed. “At the same time, we are concerned that some quarters of the GRP continue to believe that heightened counterinsurgency operations together with barangay development projects and a surrender and reintegration program will suffice to end the long-running armed conflict. On the contrary, such operations, projects, and programs have the opposite outcome of resulting in more human rights violations, development aggression, corruption, and increasing the social conflict in rural and urban areas,” it added.
The peace advocates noted that the country continues to be battered by structural problems, with the most vulnerable and underprivileged sectors — the jobless, the underpaid and overworked, the hungry, sick, and distraught families, those whose human rights are routinely violated — looking for solutions to income inequality, social injustice, and impaired democracy. “Social unrest, dissension as well as armed rebellion are undeniable consequences. We thus call on the GRP and the NDFP to redouble their efforts and hasten the process of reopening the formal peace negotiations if our people are to be reenergized and convinced to support the peace process as the better way to bring about a just and lasting peace in our land,” CLPI said.
“We call for trust and confidence-building measures by the Parties to enable a fruitful dialogue on the roots of the conflict and the political measures needed to move the negotiations forward. We view with alarm the recent arrests of three NDFP peace consultants covered by safety and immunity guarantees that are necessary and indispensable if the two Parties are to be able to return to the negotiating table. We call for the release of the many other consultants that have been arrested and detained since Duterte called off the peace process in 2017,” CLPI argued. “We are also concerned about the recent incidents of enforced disappearances of activists and human rights and environmental defenders. This is anathema to peace. We call on both the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) to refrain from offensive operations during this time when the country is reeling from a series of climate disasters.
“We call for a temporary bilateral ceasefire agreement between the government and revolutionary forces during the Christmas season and beyond should the talks progress. The Oslo Joint Statement recognized that peace is imperative for our country which is faced with serious socioeconomic and environmental issues, and foreign security challenges. Those issues and challenges have doubled in the past 12 months. More than ever, we need to unite as a nation so we can urgently address these challenges and resolve the underlying reasons for the armed conflict,” CLPI concluded.
