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[av_heading heading=’Slow but sure steps to peace’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”][/av_heading]
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Tuesday, January 31, 2017
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ALL peace-loving Filipinos should welcome the signing by the panels of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines of the supplemental guidelines of the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) that will operationalize the provisions of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), the first major agreement signed by the parties in 1998 since the peace talks started. This supplemental guidelines will not only further advance the peace process but is another major step in the advancement and protection of human rights and international humanitarian law.
The activation of the JMC and the Joint Secretariat is made more important now in this stage of the talks when, for example, various human rights violation complaints were raised in the implementation of the simultaneous unilateral ceasefires by both parties.
These guidelines, which will supplement the JMC operational guidelines signed in 2004, will make CARHRIHL fully operational for the benefit of our people, especially that the talks is now progressing with the discussion on the socio-economic reforms.
Yes, there are stumbling blocks threatening the peace talks such as the issue of non-release of political prisoners and issues related to a ceasefire. We hope these will not distract the peace negotiators of both sides. They should focus on substantial issues.
The talks are supposed to address the root causes of the armed conflict. These are not solely for the purpose of securing a ceasefire while the roots of the armed conflict remain unresolved such as landlessness, poverty, injustice and hunger. For those who are keenly following the details and developments of the peace talks, this is the biggest challenge but also has the largest potential towards achieving real peace we all desire.
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