Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform

The Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP), a group composed of the country’s major religious bodies released a statement today welcoming the recent announcements made by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP)  and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)  that the formal peace talks will resume next month, August 2009.

“We commend the two panels and the third party facilitator, the Royal Norwegian Government, for successfully resolving the problems and removing the obstacles that stood in the way of the formal talks which has been stalled for the last five years”, said one of the group’s Co-chairpersons, Archbishop Antonio J. Ledesma of the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro.

Archbishop Ledesma further stated that their group is “looking forward to the two parties resuming in earnest the negotiations on Social and Economic Reforms”. He said that the “urgency and importance of crafting an agreement on this substantive agenda cannot be overemphasized, especially in the light of the current global and local financial and economic crisis resulting in increasing poverty and hardships for our people”. He further urged the two parties to “negotiate these reforms that would address the roots of the armed conflict with the national interest and the people’s welfare foremost in mind”.

On her part, Ms. Sharon Rose Joy Ruiz-Duremdes, PEPP’s other Co-chairperson, stated that the church leaders are also looking forward to the reconvening of the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) along with the resumption of formal talks.  The JMC is mandated to monitor the implementation of the GRP-NDFP Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL). Ms. Duremdes called on the JMC “to promptly and speedily act on the numerous complaints of human rights violations in connection with the armed conflict already filed with and received by the Joint Secretariat of the JMC”. 

In support of the negotiations, the church leaders reiterated that they shall engage their churches and constituencies and mobilize their organizations “in the discourse on the roots of the armed conflict and on the necessary measures to resolve these”.  Bishop Deogracias S. Iñiguez, Jr., PEPP’s Head of Secretariat said that the group “will contribute to the dissemination and implementation of the CARHRIHL”. He stated that they will generate discussions that would “heighten the awareness and lead to an eventual concensus on social, economic and political reforms, especially among the youth and other basic sectors who are the main stakeholders in the peace process”.

The PEPP is mainly a church based network composed of representatives of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines (AMRSP), National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC), and the Ecumenical Bishops’ Forum (EBF). The PEPP is working for a just and enduring peace to resolve the roots of the armed conflict including the support to the peace negotiations based on previous mutual agreements.