House panel adopts reso urging Duterte to resume peace talks

The House Special Committee on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity has adopted the resolution urging President Rodrigo Duterte to resume the peace negotiations with communist rebels.

During its meeting on Wednesday, the special panel adopted House Resolution 1803, which also seeks to complete the comprehensive agreements on social, economic and political reforms that set the grounds for a just and lasting peace.

Duterte, on November 23 last year, signed Proclamation No. 360 terminating the peace negotiations between the government and National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), just two days before the fifth round of formal talks in Oslo, Norway.

The panels were supposed to discuss the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms, as well as agreements on general amnesty and release of all political prisoners and the coordinated unilateral ceasefires.

Panel chair Ruby Sahali, during the hearing, recalled that when they filed the measure, she only wanted to make sure that the government and the NDFP will return to the negotiating table

"Compared to the previous administration, mas dumami yung steps for peace and reconciliation in the present administration,” she said.

Bayan Muna party-list Representative Carlos Zarate, one of the authors of the measure, called on both parties to disclose the agreements made during the informal talks held from March to June this year.

Meanwhile, Akbayan party-list Representative Ariel Casilao urged the government to suggest the resumption of the peace talks to Duterte.

Presidential adviser on the peace process Secretary Jesus Dureza, for his part, thanked the committee for keeping with its intentions similar to that of the executive department, which is to address historical injustice against the Bangsamoro people and the social issues involving the negotiations with the Communist Party of the Philippines.

“We know very well that the President had already cancelled the peace negotiations, but he had said the table for… the door for resumption is still wide open. We did not totally shut this,” he said.

Dureza said he and Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, as members of the government panel, are working closely with the President, pointing out that they do not make the decisions and recommendations on their own.

"These are common efforts being done with the President whenever the GRP comes to a certain decision point," he said.

Dureza said the government panel will be able to make the necessary step to resume or totally close the peace negotiations at the proper time.

For now, he said they will adhere to the President's statement that the possibility of the resumption of the peace talks is still open. —KBK, GMA News