AN organization of church institutions yesterday asked government and the Communist Party of the Philippines to return to the negotiating table and address the roots of the armed conflict.
In a statement, the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) said the recent deaths of Kieth Absalon, a 21-year-old football player of the Far Eastern University, and his cousin Nolven Absalon, 40, board chairman of the Masbate Electric Cooperative Employees Union, should serve as a reminder “for us to pause and reflect” that the armed conflict in the country “has deep social, economic, and political roots” that has been ongoing for more than five decades.
The PEPP includes the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines, Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC) and the Ecumenical Bishops’ Forum.
The PEPP’s call was made after President Duterte, on several occasions, said that peace negotiation with the communists is dead, as he no longer wants to negotiate with the CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army, because its members are “arrogant” and have been asking too much from the government.
Duterte last week said no peace negotiations with the communists will succeed, regardless of who the president is, unless the insurgents stop their atrocities and illegal activities.
PEPP said with the peace talks already “dead,” they fear that armed conflict will result in the loss of more lives, citing reports that three farmers tagged as NPA rebels were killed by government forces recently in Masbate.
