Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. on Monday welcomed President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s desire to create a new peace panel noting that the committee will be tasked to “oversee” localized peace talks.
“The panel will oversee the localized peace engagements. It will act as the adviser for local peace dialogues through the establishment of protocols and other legal and systematic procedures,” Galvez said in a statement.
“This includes the vital component of a security lens in this process, hence the need for former security officials to be part of the panel,” he added.
Duterte mentioned his intention to create a new peace panel with at least three representatives from the military in a speech during a PDP-Laban campaign rally in Malaybalay, Bukidnon on Saturday (April 14).
Galvez said the government will be “directly engaging the people on the ground to address the fundamentals of the problem” through the creation of the new peace panel.
He emphasized that it is through localized peace engagements where the government can create an environment for the peace process to move forward.
“The new framework will provide practical, rational, and objective principles of local peace engagements that will end the manipulation and deception against the government and the people,” Galvez said.
He also stressed the importance of peace talks in enabling agreements based on mutual trust and understanding.
“The ultimate objective is to create a just, harmonious, and peaceful society and conflict-resilient communities,” he added.
Educate Sison
Galvez lamented on Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chair Jose Maria Sison’s statement describing new peace panel as a “war panel” that he would not recognize.
“It is unfortunate that instead of reciprocating the government’s initiative to move the peace process forward, Joma Sison immediately rejected the idea. And this raises the question: Is Mr. Sison for genuine peace?” Galvez said.
He said Sison should be “educated” for being out of touch with realities since he has been in self-exile in The Netherlands for so long.
“It is but fitting to educate Mr. Sison, who has been living in a foreign land for decades and is no longer in touch with actual realities in the Philippine situation,” Galvez said.
He pointed out that the new peace panel is in line with the whole-of-nation approach as embodied in Executive Order 70 which provides for the creation of a national task force to end local communist armed conflict, as well as the adoption of a national peace framework that will contain policies addressing the root causes of insurgencies.
“The government has learned its lessons, albeit the hard way, from the previous formal negotiations that produced lopsided agreements that are not totally beneficial to the people,” Galvez said.
Galvez also criticized Sison for using The Hague Joint Declaration and Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) as tools to delay the resolution to conflict instead of pushing the peace negotiations.
“All the while, they continued with their manipulation of and attacks on the civilian communities and state security forces,” Galvez said.
“Worse, the leadership of the CPP-NPA-NDF is using the previous peace agreements not to pursue real peace but to meet their objective of overthrowing the legitimate government,” he added.
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1067418
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