(We yield this space to the statement of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers due to its timeliness. – Ed.)
FROM the perspective of the education sector, the peace talks shine a sliver of light on the efforts to create serious solutions to poverty and injustice in the Philippines. It can serve as a platform for confronting the immense hardship of our people, mired in the economic crisis worsened by the anti-people TRAIN Law, the plunge of the peso, the stagnation of wages, and the pro-foreign policy that is the K-12. In the K-12 program, we witness the worsening state of education, which currently mandates the production of cheap labor to be enslaved by foreign markets.
ACT for Peace actively contributed inputs during the consultation process of the peace talks in 2016, for the improved draft of the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms (CASER). The draft contains concrete recommendations of the education sector: the provision of a decent, living wage; fair and humane workplace conditions; tenure; protection of the right to unionize; and the establishment of a nationalist, scientific, and mass-oriented education.
From May to July, backchannel talks continued between the two parties, on the following topics that were to be raised in the formal negotiations on June 28:
- Stand Down Agreement, which means the cessation of military offensives at least two weeks before the start of formal negotiations
- Amnesty Proclamation signed by President Duterte for political prisoners
- Draft of the agreements concerning Agrarian Reform and Rural Development and National Industrialization and Economic Development, which form the primary parts of CASER
- Draft of the agreements concerning ceasefire
But all of these have come to a halt unilaterally, and have now been brushed aside by the Duterte administration with the sudden proclamation of the indefinite postponement of the formal negotiations. The militarists have prevailed — they who desire a relentless war under the illusion that, in this manner, they can crush the revolutionary movement. This will achieve nothing but suffering wrought on unarmed civilians and vulnerable communities.
The continuation of the peace talks is in the best interest of teachers, education workers, and the people so that true and lasting peace based on justice may be achieved. Let us advance the work of awakening the people, increasing our ranks, and amplifying our actions towards a more peaceful and just Philippines.
