Cotabato City—President Rodrigo Duterte wants government peace officials to open a “window for the resumption of the peace talks” with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, and Catholic clergies are likely to support this Palace move to achieve peace in Northeastern Mindanao.
“Nobody wins in a cruel and bloody war. This has to stop.” Archbishop Antonio Ledesma emphasized this in the context of addressing peace issues and security challenges during a forum in Cagayan de Oro City on March 1.
The Cagayan de Oro Archbishop is concurrent co-chair of the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) which convened the peace forum with Balay Mindanaw Foundation Inc. (BMFI) for local representatives of the church, as well as of civil society organizations and non-governmental organizations from Northeastern Mindanao.
The Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU) lauded the efforts, as the meeting became a timely venue for these organizations to discuss key peace and security challenges confronting the region and to recommend solutions to address them.
OPAPRU Assistant Secretary Dickson Hermoso Duterte said President Duterte wanted the peace agency to open a “little window” for the resumption of peace talks once there is already an “enabling environment.”
As in charge of Mindanao Concerns, Hermoso represented Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. at the forum, bearing government assurance the “agency will continue to implement its mandate and carry out the best steps towards attaining peace.”
On December 4, 2018, President Duterte issued Executive Order No. 70, authorizing local government units to pursue localized peace engagements with communist guerrilla units in their areas of responsibility.
Malacanang earlier said the government was willing to issue a safe-conduct pass to NDFP Consultant Fidel Agcaoili, after he had said he wanted to meet the President for the continuance of the peace negotiations.
These have developed after the President ordered the termination of peace talks between the Government of the Philippines and the NDFP on November 27, 2017.
EO 70 is entitled “Institutionalizing the Whole-of–Nation Approach in Attaining Inclusive and Sustainable Peace, Creating a National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, and Directing the Adoption of a National Peace Framework.”
The Task Force is headed by the President and co-chaired by the National Security Adviser, with members coming from concerned government agencies and two private sector representatives.
In a statement, the OPAPRU acknowledged that “the PEPP and BMFI have been supporting the peace process between the GRP and NDFP, which aims to put an end to the decades-long armed conflict by addressing its social, economic and political root causes.”
The PEPP is a faith-based network working for the attainment of just and enduring peace across the country, while the BMFI is a Mindanao-based NGO engaged in peace-building and humanitarian work.
PEPP and BMFI have been working together to help transform the poorest and most conflict-torn of the country’s region into a “balay, a true home for where Christians, Muslims and Lumads can live in peace, solidarity and harmony,” the OPAPRU said in its statement.