Church workers urge peace talks with Reds, Moro rebels

BAGUIO CITY—Methodist church workers have urged the presidential candidates to pursue peace talks with the communists and other insurgent groups in a manifesto issued during the 33rd National Biennial Assembly of the Women’s  Society in Christian Service (WSCS) held here on Saturday.

The WSCS, composed of mothers and lay  church workers from various regions of the country, said it was alarmed that peace negotiations with the Communist Party of the  Philippines and the New People’s Army, as well as with Moro  rebels like the  Moro Islamic Liberation Front, continued to suffer intermittent  breakdowns and suspensions.

“We pray the incoming administration [would] strongly work for the  reopening of peace negotiations [at the] earliest time possible,  the group said, “because hostilities claim lives, breed human rights violations,  disrupt livelihood and worsen the economic difficulties of communities  affected by armed conflict.”

The call was raised after the local representative of International Alert (IA), a nongovernment group focused on peace-building, warned of “a surge of discontent” in the Philippines given the   failure to pass the  Bangsamoro Basic Law, among other factors.

Dr. Francisco Lara Jr., country  director of the London-based IA, who spoke at the assembly, said conflict in the Philippines would continue to be an undulating wave that  ebbs and flows  because of the severe nature of ongoing  civil wars. Vincent  Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon