(We yield this space to the statement of the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform due to its timeliness. – Ed.)
THE PHILIPPINE Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) fully supports Senate President Pro Tempore, Loren Legarda, for her call to resume the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). Her voice resonates with Filipinos who aspire for peace is worth giving serious consideration.
As church leaders, we are one with the conviction that peace must be pursued through principled dialogue on the national level to address the root causes of the conflict. As our PEPP Vision Statement articulates, “Our vision for the Philippines is a just and enduring peace, inspired by the promise of Jesus Christ for an abundant life for all” (John 10:10).
This is the spirit of PEPP’s letter to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Sept. 1 – to rethink the administration’s approach to the armed conflict, because his “predecessors’ all-out-war policy has failed to resolve the decades-old armed conflict despite the investment of huge resources and personnel better spent on poverty alleviation and sustainable development.” We appealed to the President “to reconstitute the GRP Peace Panel and resume the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations, respecting the work and upholding the agreements that have been entered into by past leaderships.”
Sen. Legarda also mentioned former President Fidel V. Ramos and his efforts towards peace-building. We join her in reminding those who are espousing total war against the NDFP, that President Ramos was a former general of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Yet, even though he was a soldier, he was steadfast in pursuing peace through dialogue and negotiation. It was during his term as president that The Hague Joint Declaration was formally signed by the GRP and the NDFP, which has guided the peace process between the two parties.
The call for the peace negotiations’ resumption was made after Sen. Francis Tolentino proposed requiring government officials to declare who among their family members are members of, or affiliated with “terrorist organizations.” PEPP expresses its alarm over the proposal. It goes against the Bill of Rights guaranteed in our Constitution and may result in witch-hunting as it requires public officials to accuse their relatives as “terrorist” without due process on the basis of mere guilt by association.
We call on the public to be instruments of peace instead and “let us then pursue what leads to peace and to building up one another” (Romans 14:19).
