DID YOU KNOW that Sept. 21 was not only the anniversary of the declaration of martial law?
It was also the International Day of Peace – a good time to, among others, urge both the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and National Democratic Front (GRP-NDF) panels to pause for a moment and contemplate on the urgency of delivering the people’s “right to peace.”
We urge the GRP-NDF to reaffirm the primacy of the peace process by discussing more about the substantive agenda of the talks and how they could address the fundamental roots of the conflict. A return to the negotiating table is still the best recourse to end the 49-year-old protracted insurgency in the country.
This year’s theme of the International Day of Peace was “The Right to Peace – The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) at 70.” UDHR is a milestone document in the history of human rights drafted in 1948 which sets out fundamental human rights to be universally protected.
While there is no specific mention of the “right to peace” within the UDHR itself, such right is paramount and guaranteed by existing international norms, laws and standards wherein states are expected to comply and fulfil this in the spirit of peace, human rights, justice and development. Thus we urge both peace panels to realize the higher cause and instead focus more on strengthening confidence-building measures and engage in principled compromises, which are essential to the revival of the on-and-off peace talks.
The GRP-NDF have already achieved significant gains of the talks before its cancellation last year by President Rodrigo Duterte. Both panels had agreed on three common drafts on general amnesty and release of all political prisoners in compliance with Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law; coordinated unilateral ceasefires; and Part I, Agrarian Reform and Rural Development and Part II, National Industrialization and Economic Development of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms. Also, both parties have already drafted an agreement on the coordinated ceasefires, a significant step towards the Comprehensive Agreement on the End of Hostilities and Disposition of Forces.
People on the ground have been the perennial innocent victims of the armed conflict and are on the verge of being exasperated. The conflict has literally locked up the people to the cyclical denial and deprivation of their right to development and to dignity with the government spending more on war than essential social services.
Enough of the violence.
