Whether it is triggered by territorial claim, political belief, or historical conflict, wars will only annihilate countries

“IN a war nobody wins. But if you want war, I will give it to you even if it will last for the next 50 years.” This was a harsh challenge that President Duterte has hurled against the NDF-CPP-NPA group everytime he finds time during public appearances. Their peace talks in the Netherlands have again bogged down to naught.

Apparently, irritated by the many what he called conditions imposed by the group upon the government panel, the Commander-in-Chief halted the discussion. And never showed any interest in resuming the talks.

To show to one and all his frustration and, indeed, his preparedness to go to war against the NDF-CPP-NPA group, the President is always clad in camouflage Army uniform during his visits to Army camps and police regional commands.

And the most prominent part of his speech are the unabated ambuscades by the NPAs in the provinces against soldiers and police personnel, inflicting damage and casualty on both forces.

And the speeches are heightened by his revelation, complete with the usual expletives, that what the group had been insisting, he said, was a coalition government. His answer – “I cannot give you what I do not own.”

Sometime last week, Jose Maria Sison was quoted by media as saying that one reason the peace talks bogged down again is that President Duterte was incapable of understanding the intricacies of negotiations. Or, something to that effect.

From the looks of it, the trajectory of where the harsh words from both panel will go is in the direction of enmity and distrust. It will go on, unless workable provisions are acceptable to both parties – federalism or no federalism.

But then it becomes unavoidable not to mention internal atrocities of countries near or far from our shores.

Right now we are being besieged by the specter of a nuclear war between North Korea and South Korea, divided by a thin demarcation line known before as the 38th Parallel. Let us implore the help of the Divine Providence that the encounter does not materialize. The Korean Peninsula is just four hours away from us.

In the early 1960s, a heated war of words between Malaysia and Indonesia kept the Philippines in wobbly knees. The two countries have had cordial and warm relations with us.

The skillful mediation by the Philippines averted what would have sparked a war among neighbors. And an even stronger peace reigned in the region with the formation of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization in early 1960s.

Still on our neighbors: The division of French Indo-China into North and South Vietnam was fragile from the beginning, experts conceded. Vietnam today is one single nation. But its emerging success these days has been realized by the sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of lives lost -- Vietnamese, other Asians, Europeans, Australians, Americans.

The views expressed in the foregoing are purely the result of random observation of this columnist over the cessation of the peace talks between GRP and NDF-CPP-NPA. For as far as I can see, it is the overwhelming opinion of the Filipino people to have real and lasting peace.

And become part of the progressive thrust of the country towards genuine development.