Fr. Pete Montallana
LUCENA CITY — After President Rodrigo Duterte said he was still open to peace talks with communist rebels, an activist priest in rebel-infested Quezon province urged both sides to “give peace a chance.”
“Both sides should continue their peaceful dialogue on how to resolve the injustices around us. It is the people who are suffering,” said Fr. Pete Montallana, coordinator of the Indigenous People’s Apostolate of the Prelature of Infanta.
Montallana hoped that Mr. Duterte was sincere in his latest declaration on the possible resumption of peace talks.
“I do hope he is backtracking,” Montallana said in a phone interview, adding that almost five decades of rebellion had already taken its toll on ordinary people.
“I’m praying that both sides would face each other at the negotiating table with a sincere desire to end the war. Let us all give peace a chance for the benefit of the suffering people,” Montallana said.
Montallana also hoped that Mr. Duterte would retract his declaration tagging the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) as terrorist organizations.
“These are aggrieved people who have been unjustly treated by the system led by oligarchs. They could not get justice that’s why they resort to arming themselves,” the priest said.
On Friday, President Duterte said he remained open to peace talks so long as the guns of both were silenced.
Mr. Duterte made the hint after he signed on Tuesday a proclamation declaring the CPP and NPA as “terrorist organizations,” restricting their international movements and financial transactions.
Bigger threat
Montallana, head of the Save Sierra Madre Network Alliance, said the government and the communist movement should instead focus their attention on threats to the environment, particularly global warming.
“If the President and the CPP-NPA have hearts for our country, they should fast track the peace process. We cannot wait. We’re already in grave danger,” he said.
“They should realize that the bigger problem the whole country is facing is global warming,” Montallana said.
He said the Sierra Madre mountain range that spans the provinces of Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Nueva Ecija, Quirino, Aurora, Quezon, Rizal, Laguna and Bulacan had been a theater of war for far too long.
The frequent clashes between government forces and communist rebels has continuously sowed fear and caused hunger among tribesmen who call the mountain range their home.