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
