Pursuing Peace

The Aquino administration crowed about its pursuit of peace with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). But is ending the war with our Moro brothers enough to achieve peace? How about the war being waged by the National Democratic Front (NDF) along with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA)?

With a much economically and militarily stronger China going bolder in bullying us, the time has come for President Noynoy Aquino to push harder for internal peace on all fronts so we will be stronger in facing this growing Chinese threat.

The signing of the peace agreement with the MILF leadership last March was a big step for President Aquino. However, the arrest of the Tiamzons and how top officials justified this move led us to question the administration’s sincerity in the peace advocacy.

Top government officials echoed the position that Benito and Wilma Tiamzon are not peace consultants contrary to what the defense lawyers are saying.

Here’s what Alex Padilla, head of the government peace panel, said:

Padilla went further.

Let us add the statement of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima:

In my search for the other side, I came across tonyocruz.com and his post titled: “Give peace a chance.” In this post, he published the following:

Yup, the other side of the story goes back to the time of President Fidel V. Ramos. Here’s a copy of …

Executive Order 276, by President Ramos, implementing JASIG

With these attachments, Tonyo Cruz pushes giving peace a chance, something that should resonate in President Noynoy Aquino and his advisers who are known as peace advocates for decades.

At this point, I just want to point out that the different sides have opposing views on how to achieve peace with the insurgency.

For the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), peace means military victory in crushing the insurgents.

However, here’s what communist leaders Jose Maria Sison and Luis Jalandoni are saying:

The way I see it, the Aquino administration cannot go on pursuing peace with the Moro rebels but showing the world that it won’t honor agreements made by previous administrations. President Aquino is practically telling future presidents that they could ignore the peace documents he has signed now with the MILF.

The JASIG documents presented above show the rebels are actually telling the truth while de Lima and Padilla are, at the very least, misinformed. Statements from the AFP brass also convey the message that their version of peace is way off the kind of peace supposedly being pushed by peace advocates and negotiators.

What do you think?

Image Credit: www.popularresistance.org

About the author: Anol regularly writes columns for Sun.Star Cebu and Superbalita. He also submits occasional articles to the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN). Join him in “Maghisgot Kitag Politika, Bay” on Facebook and be part of lively discussions while being updated on the latest of what’s happening in Cebu. Also check out his blogs: In Between Columns and Politika PH . He also manages PR Works.