President Rodrigo Duterte declared an all-out war against the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing New People’s Army (NPA) anew on Tuesday, amid the government’s observance of National Peace Month Consciousness every September.
“I have ordered the Armed Forces and the police to go attack full-scale,” Duterte said in a speech in Malacañang during the awarding ceremony of 2019 outstanding government workers.
Asked by reporters if ‘full-scale’ meant ‘all-out war’, the president answered ‘yes.’
The Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) expressed concern and alarm “over the escalating atmosphere of fear and uncertainty in our national life brought about by speeches and public discourses that sow hate and war.”
The group said “the concern springs from the pronouncement of the President of an ‘all-out war against communist insurgents’ and the statements of Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) officials to employ lethal and non-lethal means ‘to hit the enemy hard.’”
They saw that part of this strategy is to target and vilify schools, revive the anti-subversion law, red tag church people, journalists, human rights defenders and other critics of the government among others.
They also said that bishops and priests being among the respondents in a case of sedition and a pastor of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) in Negros jail along with some of his members based on trumped-up charges are also part of the strategy.
“We urge the Government and the NDFP to return to the negotiating table and resume the formal peace talks. We invite all Filipinos to continue praying for and supporting the resumption,” said the group in a statement today.
The group believes that the armed conflict must be addressed at its roots, and why it continues “notwithstanding occasional pronouncements that there were only a few hundreds of insurgents” supports this view.
The PEPP also called for the resumption of peace talks a month ago over the “rash of extrajudicial killings that has terrorized the island of Negros” where 17 were killed in the month of July and the “attacks on church people, human rights defenders and other civilians.”
“An all-out war will only bring about a divided country,” said Archbishop Antonio Ledesma of Cagayan de Oro at the “Ring Out Peace, Our Urgent Call” forum in Quezon City on Thursday.
The archbishop urged Duterte not to completely abandon the peace negotiations.
“What should be done is really to call for all-out peace. Let the whole nation be all about peace,” said Ledesma, who also co-chairs the PEPP.
Nothing new
CPP Founding Chairman Jose Maria Sison said that there is “nothing new” in the declaration and that Duterte sounds like a “broken record.”
Duterte signed Proclamation 360 on November 23, 2017, declaring the termination of peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)-CPP-NPA.
The NDFP, asserting its belligerent status, represents the CPP and NPA in the three-decades old peace negotiations with the Government of the Philippines (GRP) that is brokered by a third party facilitator, the Royal Norwegian Government.
Earlier on August 28, two days after the arrest of NDFP peace consultant Esterlita Suaybaguio, Duterte warned of a “very radical change” that would lead to “a little trouble” for communist rebels in the coming months and his government becoming a magnet of criticism because of this.
“I’m serving notice to everybody that in the coming months, it will be not really bloody, but there will be at least, a little trouble for our country,” the President said.
Apart from repeated peace talks termination and all-out war announcements, repeated also are violations of signed peace agreements in the view of the NDFP and its legal counsel to the peace talks.
Suaybaguio is the 8th NDFP peace consultant to be arrested following the Duterte administration’s termination of the peace talks. It came after the arrests of Vic Ladlad, Adelberto Silva, Rey Casambre, Renante Gamara, Ferdinand Castillo, Frank Fernandez and Rafael Baylosis.
The NDFP consultants were similarly charged with non-bailable cases such as murder and arson and upon their arrests, illegal possession of firearms and/or explosives. NDFP staff Alex and Winona Birondo have also been arrested and detained.
Baylosis was released after the judge who handled his case against illegal possession of firearms and grenade was dismissed because the police who arrested him could not establish beyond doubt that Baylosis was walking along a busy avenue with a gun and a grenade that hung on his pants conspicuously.
The NDFP saw these arrests as a violation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), one of the agreements signed in the GRP and NDFP peace negotiations.
The JASIG provides safety and immunity guarantees for the participants and their activities related to the peace negotiations.
Safety guarantees stated as “free and unhindered passage in all areas in the Philippines, and in traveling to and from the Philippines in connection with the performance of their duties in the peace negotiations” are co-terminus with the peace talks.
But immunity guarantees remain even if peace talks are terminated, according to NDFP counsel to the peace talks Atty. Edre Olalia.
Peace month
Duterte’s all-out war proclamation appear to overlook, if not run counter, to the spirit of the proclamation of peace month in September.
September was chosen as the National Peace Consciousness Month because of several local and international peace-building achievements.
These included the creation of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (the office that oversees peace negotiations with various groups) in September 15, 1993; the final peace agreement between the government and Moro National Liberation Front on September 2, 1996; and, the UN declaration of September 21 as International Day of Peace.
The peace month observance was made official through Proclamation No. 675, Series of 2004 signed by then president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The proclamation cited Executive Order No. 3, s. 2001, an order that mandates the continuing pursuit of a comprehensive peace process along six major peace-making and peace-building components, also known as the Six Paths to Peace:
- Pursuit of social, economic and political reforms to address the root causes of armed conflicts and social unrest;
- Consensus-building and empowerment for peace through consultations and people participation;
- Peaceful, negotiated settlement with different rebel groups and the effective implementation of peace agreements;
- Programs for reconciliation, reintegration into mainstream society and rehabilitation of former rebels and their communities;
- Addressing concerns arising from continuing armed conflicts, such as the protection of non-combatants and the reduction of the impact of armed conflicts on communities; and
- Building and nurturing a climate conducive to peace through peace education and advocacy programs and confidence-building measures.
The impetus for declaring the peace month is the “need to instill greater consciousness and understanding among the Filipino people on the comprehensive peace process to strengthen and sustain institutional and popular support for and participation in this effort.”
Earlier, the celebration was only a week long, through Proclamation No. 161 dated February 28, 2002 or the annual observance of National Peace Consciousness Week from February 28 to March 6. It was expanded to a month through the current proclamation “to allow more active participation from the citizenry and institutions, including educational institutions.”
 expressed concern and alarm “over the escalating atmosphere of fear and uncertainty in our national life brought about by speeches and public discourses that sow hate and war.”){kind=link}