Peace from the concrete standpoint, viewpoint of the people

By Victoria Patria

1. Peace is indeed beyond simply the absence of war. Attaining true peace by way of implementing social justice is the most sustainable means of gaining peace for our people and our motherland. Social justice is both a legal mandate and moral obligation of our government to the people, and as such, the fulfillment of Social Justice should be the primary sovereign mission of our government, and not to be mistaken as exclusive advocacy and program of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF).

Even without the resumption of the peace process and peace talks with the CPP-NPA-NDF, the government can and must implement social justice because it is the correct foundation for establishing national peace and prosperity.

Substantive issues on land reform, rural development, agricultural modernization, labor welfare and protection, industrial development, community progress, basic rights and welfare of the farmers, workers and all of the marginal citizens are the principal definition of real Social Justice. The same is being insisted by the CPP-NPA-NDF as fundamental parameters for resuming formal peace talks.

But those substantive issues on social justice are mandatory sovereign obligation of the government to the people, and as such, there is no practical necessity that the attainment of social justice for real peace, should be tied down to the capricious ransom of the CPP-NPA-NDF in their maneuver and scheme of making their peace talks scam become palatable to the public, both domestic and international domain, using issues on Social Justice as their supposed platform.

2. The government should be reminded that the peace process and the peace talks are important public interest and policy issues.

Therefore, the people should be involved in the process, rather than for the government making decisions solely on giving consideration to the whims and caprices of Joma Sison, his tribal gang from the CPP-NPA-NDF, and the clique of long-time NDF ally in the person of Sec. Bebot Bello.

3. The most important substantive direction of any peace talks is to mutually agree for the implementation of DISARMAMENT, DEMOBILIZATION, AND REINTEGRATION as the central point of framing the peace process. In the case of the CPP-NPA-NDF, they ABSOLUTELY REJECT such substantive point in the peace negotiations. The CPP-NPA-NDF continues to insist, promote, perpetuate their acts of terrorism just like their recent terroristic atrocities in Borongan, Eastern Samar, which resulted in the death of civilians, and police personnel. Without the sincerity and categorical commitment on the part of the CPP-NPA-NDF to work towards their openness to accept the DISARMAMENT, DEMOBILIZATION, AND REINTEGRATION as the central issue in the peace talks, then any attempt at resuming the peace negotiations will just become a farcical and comical exercise.

4. Good governance as the real driving force for attaining Social Justice where the government takes the lead in holistic participation of both the public and private sector, all the propaganda-agitation of the CPP-NPA-NDF will be decisively nullified and so, therefore, their ground of recruitment will likewise be reversed in favor of the government.

When the government becomes seriously dedicated to the implementation of Social Justice in its real sense, the mass base building efforts of the CPP-NPA-NDF will be negated, thereby rendering their socialist and communist propaganda become rattling dogmas and redundant slogans. By that, when the mass base building of the CPP-NPA-NDF is disrupted and ultimately countered through the government's holistic approach founded on good governance and social justice, the NPA will be reduced to becoming a roving 'rebel band'; and their total defeat shall become inevitable.

5. The CPP-NPA-NDF and all their tribalist fanatic allies will always attempt to make their peace talks scam as a legitimate option in their array of tactics, but nothing can hide the glaring truth that their main strategy remains the same for the last five decades, and that is: "to seize political power by way of armed struggle, that is consistently being supported by the legal mass movement and underground urban revolutionary movement, in order to topple down the government, and establish a transition ‘Democratic Coalition Government”; and on the eve of their national victory, there shall commence the socialist revolution in order to build the dictatorship of the proletariat, where the CPP and the NPA shall consolidate and dominate the government under their violent control."

Never did the CPP-NPA-NDF declare that they shall seize political power by way of the peace talks. It is very clear in their strategic political line which is the so-called "National Democratic Revolution".

So, where shall we take off from our standpoint and viewpoint on the issue of peace?

(Victoria Patria is national coordinator of Sentrong Alyansa ng mga Mamamayan Para Sa Bayan [SAMBAYANAN])