Various groups: Resume peace talks now

BACOLOD. Various groups hold a candlelighting activity in front of the Bishop’s House in Bacolod City Wednesday afternoon. (Carla N. Cañet)
BACOLOD. Various groups hold a candlelighting activity in front of the Bishop’s House in Bacolod City Wednesday afternoon. (Carla N. Cañet)

VARIOUS groups reiterated their call to the administration to resume the fifth round of peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front (NDF), the political arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which was cancelled on November 2017 upon the order of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Former chief peace negotiator of the NDF of the Philippines Luis Jalandoni and wife Maria Consuelo Kalaw Ledesma were in Bacolod City Wednesday, April 25, to join the multi-sectoral groups in the candle lighting for peace activity held in front of the Bishop's Palace in Bacolod City.

The groups led by the Philippine Ecunemical Peace Platform (Pepp) and Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) were also calling the government to pursue the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reform (Caser) which was initially approved by the bilateral teams before the peace talks were called off.

Jalandoni said that under Caser, the farmers and peasants will benefit from the free distribution of lands.

“Land should be given free to the farmers, the peasants, and tillers of the land. They should enjoy free irrigation, free credit to support them during production and post-harvest and insurance coverage. But we're still in the papers because the government stopped the peace talks,” he said.

Both parties have already a common draft on the agrarian reform, rural development, national industrialization and economic development.

“If the peace talks will be resumed, the aim is for both parties to finalize the agreements so that it can be implemented as soon as possible,” Jalandoni said.

But he was also dismayed with the way the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp) was implemented because of the glaring abuse on the farmers, among others.

Offel Cantor, Pepp program secretary for the two-day activities, said their action was meant to push for the resumption of the peace negotiations and also for them to take a deeper study on the Caser.

She said it was not a good decision for the government to cancel the peace talks for an unknown reason.

This is how the people show their support to the NDF peace panel for them to be inspired again to call for the resumption of the peace talks. The Caser is the meat of the negotiation wherein various social problems can be resolved.

She said a sugarcane farmer still receives P200 as a weekly pay which is very inhuman.

Caser is one of the four substantive agenda in the Hague Joint Declaration of both panels.

The other agenda include the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, Constitution and Political Reform, and End of Hostility, she added.

Social Action Center Director Rev. Fr. Chris Gonzales and militant leader Christian Tuayon also support the call for the resumption of the peace talks.

Also present during the candle lighting activity were the students, nuns, farmers, and priests.

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