(We yield this space to the statement of the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform due to its timeliness. – Ed.)
THE PHILIPPINE Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) welcomes the decision of the Senate committee on finance to cut the 2022 budget of the National Task Force on Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) from P28 billion to P4 billion and reallocating the excess funds for COVID-19 response. However, P 4 billion is still a very substantial amount for an agency that, since its existence, espoused a culture of hatred and violence instead of a culture of dialogue and peace.
The NTF-ELCAC receives billions of pesos in the wake of President Duterte’s unilateral termination of peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in 2017. The government could have used these billions of pesos to address the basic needs of our people, especially in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, it raises an issue of transparency as even the Commission of Audit has admitted having trouble auditing the expenses.
Contrary to its name to end local armed conflicts, the NTF-ELCAC becomes a hindrance to the promise of peace. The NTF-ELCAC is now the critical weapon in the total war against the so-called terrorists. This total war relies on the use of violent means. Consequently, it only increases the violations in human rights and international humanitarian law. We are witnesses to the results of this total war strategy of the government as seen in the numerous killings, threats, harassment, and bombing and restriction of movements of farming and indigenous communities in remote rural areas as in the recent case of aerial bombing in the Bukidnon hinterlands.
The NTF-ELCAC has also become notorious for its rampant red-tagging. It is responsible for vilifying even church organizations, church leaders, and members. It is also responsible for the withdrawal of the publications of the NDFP from several state universities, among them being the printed agreements related to the peace talks.
Based on our faith in our Lord, Jesus Christ, the PEPP believes that violence breeds injustice, which results in un-peace. This complicated conflict will not be solved by an all-out war, not even a counter-insurgency program with billions of budgets if the government does not address the roots that fan its flames.
Several personalities and groups have called for its abolition. For us, the church leaders, the most viable option for a just and lasting peace is to forge a negotiated peace settlement coupled with meaningful social and economic reforms. Principled peace negotiations also require much, much fewer funds and are less costly to life and limb, which, if followed to the letter would mean more funds for our people mired now in hunger and poverty amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
We thus affirm that a peace process that addresses social injustices is the will of God, and we will not stop working for it, starting with the call to resume the formal peace talks between the government and the NDFP. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” (Matthew 5:9)
