Resuming the peace talks

It took a few skirmishes and casualties on both sides for the government and rebels to realize that talking peace, not resorting to violence, is the better option in resolving the decades-old communist insurgency in the country. After President Rodrigo Duterte terminated talks with the rebels in February, the panels of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) announced Sunday their resumption.

First on the agenda is putting into effect again the unilateral ceasefires that were implemented by both sides weeks ago. Since, as Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza claimed, the President is all in on this development, expect the government’s ceasefire announcement to come soon. Or perhaps the NDFP and the main organization under its umbrella, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), whose military arm is the New People’s Army (NPA), may make the announcement first.

This should be frustrating for the hawks in the government, especially in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), who may be finding ways to scuttle the talks. That goes, too, for a big chunk of the Philippine population who prefer total war over peace talks in dealing with the rebels.

What needs to be reiterated is that armed struggle is but a means to an end and not the end in itself. A revolution is rooted in the inequities prevailing in society. If those inequities are addressed, the revolution’s reason for being disappears. In the current talks, the negotiators still have to go to the substantive phase wherein the roots of the rebellion would be tackled.

That the talks got stuck in the preliminaries only proves how difficult it would be to consummate the process. The negotiations would be long and tedious considering that the problems that are being tackled are systemic. But we need to have faith that the talks would lead to a negotiated settlement of the conflict. And for a people that believes in miracles, why not hope for a miracle to happen in the talks, too?