Dureza cites Oplan Kapayapayan's role in achieving peace and development

From the Philippine News Agency (Feb 8): Dureza cites Oplan Kapayapayan's role in achieving peace and development
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza has enjoined the Philippine Army to remain committed to government's thrust of achieving permanent peace and sustainable development.

Citing recent developments in the peace process, Dureza, in his message at the Army Governance Forum, said despite recent "unfortunate" developments in the peace process, the government is still committed in achieving peace.

"We now stand at a time when we, thus far, face the toughest hurdle in our peace and development roadmap. Over the weekend, President Duterte declared the cancellation of our peace talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF), as well as with the two organizations within its broad network—the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA). Given that we ended the third round of talks in Rome, Italy only two weeks ago on a high note, the turn of events unfolded before us may be described as unfortunate to the budding good relations we have with the CPP/NPA/NDF," he said.

Despite this recent setback, Dureza assured that there is still a strong partnership among the branches in government to fulfill President Duterte’s advocacy on permanent peace and sustainable development.

He stressed anew the Six Paths to Peace that serves as the skeletal framework of policies and structures of the comprehensive peace efforts.

He said the Six Paths to Peace articulates that while peace negotiations is an important component, there are other equally significant concerns that need attention, such as building peace constituencies and addressing the immediate needs of conflict-affected and fragile areas.

He told the men and women of the army that there are still other vital paths that government could work on while the peace talks are stalled.

"In other words, a stalled or cancelled peace talks is not the end of our pursuit to peace," he said, as he stressed that it is through these ways that security forces realized that they have equal share of obligation to achieving peace."

He noted that it is through Oplan Kapayapaan, the new military campaign until 2022, that the highest commitment of the Armed Forces to the peace process was manifested.

He said the Oplan Kapayapaan emboldened the non-traditional approach where peacebuilding, through development and people’s participation, is still the most powerful weapon.

"It takes pride on the primacy of the peace process and development, and the robust participation of stakeholders, particularly the religious sector and local government, in dealing with internal security concerns," he said.

He added that the objectives of Oplan Kapayapaan resonates the goals of government's peace and development roadmap. "It speaks of development and people’s participation—two of the Six Path to Peace—and, more importantly, two salient points in restoring the social cohesion in conflict and fragile areas."

He thus asked the Philippine Army to "stay the course with us.Let us make peace work" despite of the usual challenges and hurdles confronting the path to achieving peace.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=962045