By RONALYN V. OLEA Bulatlat.com MANILA – Amid the impasse in the peace talks between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), another consultant of the NDFP was arrested April 3. Renante Gamara and a companion Santiago Balleta were arrested by armed men in plainclothes in Las [...]

“Stand Firm! Persevere! Proclaim the Gospel of Peace!” Betania Retreat House, Lahug, Cebu City February 6-8, 2012 “This is what Yahweh asks of you, only this: that you act justly, that you love tenderly, that you walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8) We are Church leaders from five major religious federations*. We came together [...]

By Alan Jazmines February 14, 2012 It has been exactly a year now since I was treacherously arrested – on February 14, 2011, just a few hours before the resumption of the long-delayed formal talks between the peace panels of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of [...]

By RAYMUND B. VILLANUEVA
The Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) was a landmark agreement unique in the history of civil wars worldwide. But 13 years hence, its implementation has barely passed through the first stage and the peace talks continue to flounder.

By MARYA SALAMAT
The GPH talks whether with the MILF or with the NDFP remain bogged down until today, mired as these are in the GPH’s efforts to “box it in its counter-insurgency program called Oplan Bayanihan.” – Satur Ocampo of Makabayan

Sidebar: A saga of all-out euphemisms vs peace, the Moro and the ordinary people

LETTER TO THE EDITOR October 20, 2011 Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform “They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,” they say, when there is no peace.” (Jeremiah 6:14) It is not an overstatement to say that faith communities expressed jubilation at the resumption of the formal peace talks. [...]

By BENJIE OLIVEROS Bulatlat.com The peace talks between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) have again hit a snag. The GPH is blaming the NDFP for putting the release of its consultants as a “precondition” for the talks. Even as the government panel committed to release [...]

By RONALYN V. OLEA
Jurgette Honculada, a member of the GPH panel, said, “For peace talks to go back on track, the CPP-NPA-NDFP should disavow armed struggle.”

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO Bulatlat.com MANILA — Resume the peace talks and discuss the damage mining companies wreak on the environment. This was the call of environmental activist group Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE) in the aftermath of the recent successful operations of the New People’s Army (NPA) against three mining corporations [...]

by ACE ALEGRE Bulatlat.com BAGUIO CITY — Long-standing opposition to mining is turning out into another snag in the peace negotiations between the government of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front. Conceding that the Communist Party of the Philippine (CPP) has a standing policy against “destructive mining”, prompting its armed group, the New Peoples [...]

By KARLOS MANLUPIG
“We require that the SOMO and SOPO allow the necessary, reasonable and flexible scale of time and area for the safe and orderly release of the captives at the initiative of their NPA custodians.” – Luis Jalandoni, NDFP