High hopes for peace

HERE’S a shoutout. Peace talks have resumed.

We just had to shout that one out to stress the importance of what is going on today in Oslo, Norway.

To some it may be a gathering of men and women who have been sitting across each other in peace negotiations that are as old as they are. But for the Mindanaoans who have long craved for peace in the hinterlands for the indigenous peoples to finally enjoy the benefits of their ancestral lands, for the young to be able to explore and appreciate the forest lands without fear, for the people to be able to trek up for their environment advocacies or interaction with the upland dwellers without being caught in a crossfire. For the military to finally move out of those mountains because there will be no more mining interests to protect.

With a Mindanaoan leader at the helm, and tried and tested Mindanaoan negotiators leading the government panel, there is indeed hope, not because of any regionalistic biases for the Mindanaoan, but because they speak from experience of how un-peace can shackle a land in abject poverty and destroy the future of generations. There’s a greater chance that those negotiating for peace and the President ordering that peace talks should be had at all cost, are really talking about peace and not some peripheral gains to be got that will benefit only a few in the ruling class.

With the initial ceasefire offered by the President (that he had to lift when the NPA continued to ambush soldiers), but which he again declared following a seven-day unilateral truce announced by the other side, shows that while there are conditions for a cessation of hostilities, the conditions are based on what is happening on the ground.

For these alone, there is indeed reason to shout in relief that finally, people are talking peace because they want peace.

In the meantime, over at the Senate, the hearing on extra-judicial killings continues. But whether they are hearing this out because they want to be able to legislate solutions and not for any peripheral gains to be got, that we still have to thresh out. At the moment, all that we are hearing are soundbytes, all that we are seeing is grandstanding.