07/05/2026
๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐๐: ๐๐๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ ๐จ๐ญ๐ข๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง!
"Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps but let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing streamโ Amos 5:23-24.
The Center for Peopleโs Advocacy and Governance (CPAG), a non-government organization (NGO) helping various peopleโs organizations in promoting the issues of different sectors of Philippine society, supports the peopleโs call for the resumption of peace negotiation between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
The longest insurgency in Asia is a matter of political problem which requires political solutions beyond the use of force. The military solution that the Department of National Defense (DND), National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have been promoting is a bridge that leads nowhere and will later on exacerbate the existing condition. The issues that the NDFP has been submitting on the table are just and reflect the objective condition of Philippine society โ landlessness, destitution of labor, fractured national sovereignty and elite rule. These are the issues that a civilian government normally resolves not by violence but by democratic and peaceful methods.
The current military solution that the DND, NTF-ELCAC and AFP have been pursuing is also shallow, cutting the branches of a growing tree but never hitting on its roots. โYou may kill a revolutionary but never the revolutionโ as the saying goes. Thus, the unholy trinity of DND, NTF-ELCAC and AFP are merely killing Filipinos and not the reasons why this armed conflict continues. Further worse is their continuous employment of red-tagging on legitimate peopleโs organizations, and even premier educational institutions, to justify their current methods of an all-out war against a group which has a legitimate cause. This further endangers the lives of civilians, thereby adding fuel to the already widespread prairie fire of peopleโs war.
The GPH must not let the domination of the said unholy trinity and assert its civilian nature to respond to the issue of peace in our countryside. It must look up to the experiences of Latin American countries which have successfully fulfilled a peace accord with armed insurgent groups and has further promoted social solutions and political participation. The GPH as it asserts its legitimacy must realize that the path towards violence seems easy but the road towards peace is wider.
Long live the peace-makers! Let justice rule for peace to rule!
