AN INVITATION TO JOIN
THE POPULAR MOVE TO SUPPORT THE ON-GOING PEACE NEGOTIATION BETWEEN GRP AND THE
NDFP
We are addressing this invitation to all our compatriots
OFWs and all Filipinos living and working in foreign countries and to the
people of our host countries, that they may understand how important to our
common benefits the success of the peace negotiations.
First and foremost, we would want to let it be known why
there are armed strifes in the Philippines, its root causes, how it affects
every one of us and its impact to the world’s community of nations.
Thirty-three years ago the late Jose W. Diokno*, eminent
senator, human rights defender and quintessential nationalist, identified four
“basic problems” of Philippine society, thus:
1. Widespread deep poverty among our people and inequality
in wealth, privilege, and power;
2. Although supposedly independent, we are not really
sovereign. With their military bases, the US government and military were
allowed to participate in “internal security activities” and to intervene in
our internal affairs. The World Bank-IMF tandem — not the people’s
elected representatives — made economic policy, to the detriment of the
Filipino people.
3. “We (were) a state, but not yet a nation,” because
divisions persisted among language or ethnic groups; and
4. Lack of real freedom, especially for the poor. The formal
freedoms “written on the books,” which had been set aside under martial law,
weren’t yet restored.
And what caused these basic problems? Not martial law,
Diokno emphasized.* “The cause… has always been imperialism – first Spanish
imperialism (colonialism), and then, US imperialism.”
“Martial law was simply the product of imperialism,”
he explained. On his own Marcos could not have declared martial law, he said,
“unless he had had — and he did have — the support of the US government.”
Thus, Diokno concluded: “The ultimate fight is to regain our
sovereignty.” To solve these basic problems, he urged the Filipino people
to organize and mobilize themselves on the basis of common interests and common
aspirations. “That is the only practical remedy,” he stressed, assuring that
once that is done “we can break US domination.”
That proposal was contained in the NDFP comprehensive peace
agenda given to the government panel in December 1986. (By that time Diokno was
too ill to carry on with his tasks; Ramon V. Mitra thus took over as government
chief negotiator, succeeded by Teofisto Guingona Jr.) After negotiations
were cut short by the Mendiola massacre of peasants rallying for agrarian
reform in January 1987, the NDFP raised the proposal three more times in a bid
to restart the negotiations with the Cory government.
That proposal was contained in the NDFP comprehensive peace
agenda given to the government panel in December 1986. (By that time Diokno was
too ill to carry on with his tasks; Ramon V. Mitra thus took over as government
chief negotiator, succeeded by Teofisto Guingona Jr.) After negotiations
were cut short by the Mendiola massacre of peasants rallying for agrarian
reform in January 1987, the NDFP raised the proposal three more times in a bid
to restart the negotiations with the Cory government.
We
commend the Negotiating Panels of the Government of the Republic of the
Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)
for holding a successful round of formal peace talks in Oslo, Norway last 22 to
26 August 2016, after an impasse since 2011. We also express our appreciation
to the Royal Norwegian Government for so ably and graciously serving as
Third-party Facilitator. If the resulting six agreements are an
indication of more successful rounds of principled negotiations in the coming
months to address the roots of the armed conflict in our country, the promise
of a just and lasting peace may be achievable in our lifetime **
Peace is more than just the absence of armed strife. It also
mean the freedom to pursue progressive steps to improve the well being of the
nation. Peace in our country will bring progress as it removes the stumbling
blocks that hinders the implementation of measures that will be concentrated on
the well-being of the people that heretofore was being funneled to destruction
of livelihood detrimental to the welfare and security of the citizens.
** http://nccphilippines.org/2016/09/celebrating-peace-constituency-deepening-advocacy-grp-ndpf-peace-talks/
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