ANAKPAWIS partylist Representative Ariel Casilao has urged the government to resume the stalled peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
This is to resolve the decades-long armed insurgency in the country.
He said that the festering crisis of Philippine society particularly landlessness among the peasants cannot be solved by military solution.
“The armed conflict dividing this land is rooted in fundamental socio-economic woes that cannot be resolved by purely using military means. It can only be resolved by addressing the roots, by instituting thorough and deep-going social reforms which are the talking points of the stalled peace talks,” Casilao added.
He said that the reforms in the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio Economic Reforms (Caser) aims to resolve massive and abject poverty in the countryside by distributing land for free to poor and landless farmers, an anti-poverty thrust which the government panel already agreed in principle.
Casilao also said the Duterte government must show good faith by releasing NDFP consultants Rafael Baylosis, Adel Silva and Vic Ladlad as they have participated in the peace process and helped draft documents including Caser, National Industrialization and Economic Development and the Comprehensive Agreement on Political and Electoral Reforms.
He also urged the government to respect the signed documents with regards to the protection of both panels’ consultants under the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantee as well as the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights and the International Humanitarian Law.