Editorial: Editorial: Continuity versus transition

Editorial in the Sun Star-Davao (Jul 10): Editorial: Editorial: Continuity versus transition

INDEED, they may just be mere words, but in discussions as fragile as peace in a reality where thousands have already died and many lives have been led to despair, there is a vast difference in the slight nuances of one word against the other. Like continuity as against transition.

In a recent statement by Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza, he made it clear that previous commitments by government with regards the peace negotiations with the Moro people will be continued.

This was made very clear in the short inaugural speech of President Rodrigo Duterte where he said: “On the domestic front, my administration is committed to implement all signed peace agreements in step with constitutional and legal reforms.”

Dureza has heard this loud and clear and thus committed for continuity.

“There will be a change of command but let me assure everyone that there will be no transition as they use to call it. We would like to use the word ‘continuity’,” Dureza said during the formal turnover ceremony of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) to its new chief on Monday, July 4. There to turn over the helms was OPAPP Secretary Teresita “Ging” Quintos-Deles and other OPAPP officials of the Aquino Administration.

“We build on every brick on the ground. There is so much that has been done already.” Dureza added. “The message is continuity, and this is for the Filipino people. Enabling peace is a work for a lifetime. It is a continuous work.”

Presented to Dureza by Deles, OPAPP reported were a terminal report detailing what the OPAPP has accomplished in the last six years with regard to the five peace tables—the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the Communist Party of the Philippines/News People’s Army/National Democratic Front (CPP/NPA/NDF), the Cordillera Bodong Administration–Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CBA-CPLA), and the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa-Pilipinas/Revolutionary Proletarian Army/Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPM-P/RPA/ABB)—as well as the programs/projects handled by the agency, namely: Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (Pamana), National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security (NAPWPS), and Conflict-Sensitive and Peace Promoting (CSPP) paradigm.

Aside from drugs and corruption, Duterte is very clear on his stand for peace in Mindanao. Being a Mindanaoan himself who has lead the peace process under two former administrations, Dureza should also know the context of all the rebellions and the importance of continued dialogue and developments on the ground.

As past formalities have shown, the smiles of the negotiating panels for photographs and their signed documents do not make peace. Rather, it is how the people are able to enjoy the peace through better delivery of government services and development programs all brought in on condition of peace.

“Hindi lang pwedeng piece of paper o peace agreements, it will not be sustainable. Dapat may katuwang na development. (It is not enough that we have signed peace agreements, it will not be sustainable. We must couple it with development),” Dureza said.

Te most heartening yet in Dureza’s statement is about Duterte’s marching orders for inclusive development, which Dureza takes as a marching order to take into account all stakeholders, particularly the indigenous peoples.

In all these years of armed struggle and botched peace negotiations, the lumads or indigenous peoples were just seen as collateral damage or observers, even when the war being waged is right on their turf. This cannot go on because as the quotation by 16th President of the United States of America Abraham Lincoln shared by Duterte, the 16th President of the Philippines, in his inaugural speech: “You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong; You cannot help the poor by discouraging the rich; You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer; You cannot further the brotherhood by inciting class hatred among men.”

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/davao/opinion/2016/07/10/editorial-continuity-versus-transition-484488