Militant labor group Federation of Free Workers welcomed the decision of two Metro Manila Regional Trial Courts to allow six top Communist Party of the Philippines leaders to participate in the peace talks to end the world’s longest-running communist insurgency.
The court allowed Alan Jazmines, an alleged CPP Central Committee member, CPP chairman Benito Tiamzon, Adelberto Silva, Rafael Baylosis, Vicente Ladlad and Randall Echanis to take part in the talks.
“The peace initiatives to end the more than 50 years of armed conflict is good for the country particularly so if social justice is in the main agenda. Social justice is giving more to those less in life and it can be achieved with more jobs, less poverty, and less inequality,” FFW president lawyer Sonny Matula said.
The labor group said Filipinos are now starting to see the hope for lasting peace with the communist guerillas and the Moro secessionists to end bloodletting.
“On the quest for peace, we commend both the government and the CPP-led NDF for the reopening of formal talks in July 2018. FFW also appreciates Norway’s valuable role in the reopening of the peace process in the Philippines,” Matula said.
Both the rebels and the government cannot walk away from the negotiating table because Norway has consistently been there.
Other than acting as the third-party facilitator of peace talks between the government and the NDF, Norway is also a member of the International Monitoring Team overseeing the implementation of the peace process between the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front, as well as the Independent Decommissioning Body responsible for the decommissioning of MILF combatants.
In the last International Labor Conference last week, various labor groups lauded and manifested their support to the resumption of peace talks with social justice in all fronts.
The labor groups have also urged Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, who heads the government negotiating panel talking with the NDF, to involve trade unions and civil society groups in the peace process.
“Peace is too important to be left alone to the warring groups,” the FFW leader said.
However, the 200,000-member FFW condemned the extra-legal killings and expressed alarm over the ongoing killings of suspected drug pushers and users in the guise of a “drug war.”
It said that the government must act and act fast to prevent more killings of innocent lives.
“We urge the government to make corrective measures, reform the police force and use surgical measures instead of tolerating or enticing indiscriminate killings in addressing the drug menace in the country,” Matula added.