THE Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) yesterday slammed Defense Secretary Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. for opposing a resumption of peace talks with the communist movement.
PEPP is an umbrella group composed of five church institutions or groups working for an enduring peace by supporting the peace process between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), and its armed wing, New People’s Army (NPA).
The religious organizations under PEPP are the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, National Council of Churches in the Philippines, Conference of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines, Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches, and Ecumenical Bishops’ Forum.
Teodoro was named defense chief on June 5. In interviews days after, he said he is against resuming peace talks with the communist movement.
He said he has always been “consistent in the position that rebels are welcome to go back to the fold of government, that’s why the OPAPRU (Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity) is there in order to help them, rehabilitate them and give them a new life.”
“But to enter into peace talks, I have always been against that. Why will we enter into peace talks when they can go back and run for public office,” added Teodoro.
Previous administrations have resumed, then canceled or suspended, peace talks with the communists, including the previous Duterte government which canceled its peace talks in 2019.
PEPP, in a statement, said Teodoro’s opposition will only result in violations of human rights once armed conflict escalates.
“(His) pronouncement is consistent with that of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), which is basically for the defeat or surrender of the other party without addressing the reasons or root causes of the armed conflict,” it said.
Instead of going for the defeat of the communists, PEPP said, the Marcos administration should consider going back to the negotiating table with the communists.
It asked President Marcos Jr to reconstitute the government peace panel.
“As Church leaders, we are consistent in our belief that an all-out-war policy will not resolve the decades-old armed conflict and it will be more costly in terms of the loss of lives and the budget for war materiel,” they said.
“Principled dialogue is needed to fully address roots of the armed conflict in the country, which include poverty, landlessness, inaccessibility to services, and inequitable distribution of resources,” PEPP said.
