Negotiated peace, not ‘all-out-war’

Throughout his first two years in Malacañang, President Marcos Jr. has stayed silent on the issue of continuing the GRP-NDFP peace talks, which his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, had resumed in 2016 and then backed away from in 2019.

Last Nov. 23, 2023, the government and the NDFP announced that they had agreed to return to peace negotiations. Since then, however, with the ball in his court, Marcos Jr. has made no move, nor said a word.

The statement was signed by Luis Jalandoni for the NDFP. Antonio Ernesto Lagdameo, Special Assistant to the President, signed for the GRP. It marked the culmination of almost two years of discreet informal discussions in Oslo, facilitated by the Norwegian government, between NDFP officials and retired AFP chief Gen. Emmanuel Bautista, who initiated the talks. In early 2023 Lagdameo joined the discussions and led the GRP team, presumably with Malacañang clearance.

Concerned that Marcos Jr.’s silence indicated a “return to the policy of all-out war… aimed at crushing the revolutionary movement,” a newly formed group, the Council of Leaders for Peace Initiatives (CLPI), is urging him, in his third State of the Nation address on Monday, to make a “clear and unqualified commitment to pursue a peaceful, negotiated solution” towards attaining just and lasting peace.

“Indeed, in the wake of this [all-out-war] policy,” the CLPI said, “grievous violations of human rights and international humanitarian law are the undeniable and unacceptable consequences.”

Thus, they urged Marcos Jr. to resume the formal negotiations “without preconditions, on the basis of previously inked bilateral agreements and bolstered by confidence and trust building measures from both parties.” They asked him to appoint the new members of the GRP negotiating panel and to release the NDFP peace consultants, who have been arrested and held in prisons, to enable them to do their designated roles in the negotiations.

With 17 initial convenors, the CLPI introduces itself as a “collegial, multi-stakeholder and diverse body of Filipino advocates of a just and lasting peace in the Philippines that seeks to build bridges and spaces for dialogue.” It also seeks to foster a