Elusive peace

After the deadlock in the peace talks between the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front (NDF), the latter expressed willingness to return to the negotiating table for the first time since last year. We are all aware that another long way will take for both parties to reach for an agreement which could be substantive.

As a concerned civilian, if the peace talk will be realized, we can expect the resolution for the deaths, threats, injuries, extortion and displacement in the lives of civilians particularly in insurgency affected regions caused by atrocities committed by the Communist Party of the Philippines. This may happen if the agreement becomes a real business for both parties and not just an agreement on principles.

We observed failure in some previous peace agreements. The government use up millions of pesos for the peace talks to succeed. But the CPP all the while continue to sow violence and destruction against the public.

What we need here is the sincerity of NDF leadership for them to show some teeth to their members and prove they really want peace. By so doing, they can also prove that they are really pro-people, pro-Filipino.