ON SEPT. 21, the whole world observed the annual International Day of Peace. This year’s theme was “Recovering Better for an Equitable and Sustainable World.”
The theme underscores the need for the global community to heal from the COVID-19 pandemic, “to think creatively and collectively about how to help everyone recover better, how to build resilience, and how to transform our world into one that is more equal, more just, equitable, inclusive, sustainable, and healthier.” The United Nations also wants us to direct our attention to people caught in conflict-affected areas because they are especially vulnerable as they lack access to healthcare.
The Philippines is one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic. It is also in the midst of a heightened armed conflict. Unfortunately, Sept. 21 was also the anniversary of the imposition of Martial Law by the late dictator, Ferdinand Marcos. He grossly trampled on human rights and the armed conflict between the government and the New People’s Army (NPA) intensified.
Today, the quest for peace to end the decades-old armed conflict between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) has become elusive again. Since last year, the government has closed its door to the principled peace negotiations with the NDFP. It rejected the results of the backchannel talks that Secretary Silvestre Bello had commenced with his NDFP counterparts in December 2019 to restart the peace negotiations after Duterte unilaterally terminated the peace talks in 2017. Then, it promulgated the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, which became a law that enables the Anti-Terrorism Council to designate the NDFP as a terrorist group. This effectively buried years of laborious and painstaking agreements and gradual steps toward peace.
With the breakdown of the peace negotiations, record shows there had been significant increases in armed encounters between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the NPA. There were many recorded violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, even in the midst of a debilitating health crisis.
Various sectors, even lawmakers are calling on the government to focus its attention and resources on the fight against COVID-19, rather than further intensifying its counter-insurgency campaign. These calls came on the heels of the proposed 2022 budget where a big chunk goes to the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict while slashing the education and health budget, including the budget of the University of the Philippines and consequently that of the Philippine General Hospital. This act definitely goes against our people’s right to peace.
Let us call on the government to prioritize the country’s need for transformative healing. Let us also call on the GRP and the NDFP to return to the negotiating table, and together put an end to further rights violations and the loss of life that result from the conflict.
Let the “…tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, guide our feet into the path of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79 NIV)
(This is a statement of the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform to commemorate the International Day of Peace. – Ed.)
