PARTY-LIST Reps. Antonio L. Tinio and France L. Castro of ACT Teachers and Social Welfare Secretary Judy M. Taguiwalo joined hundreds of government employees, teachers and students in calling for the resumption of peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front (NDF).
Tinio, Castro and Taguiwalo, along with hundreds of employees of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and 300 teachers and students, formed a human chain at the main gate of the DSWD office precisely to call for the revival of the peace talks.
“We urge the President to hear the cry of the Filipino people to resume the peace talks between the government and the NDF,” Tinio said. “Teachers, students and government officials unite in calling for the resumption of the peace talks, especially now that both panels have already started talking about the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms [Caser].”
“We form this human chain for peace to symbolize the call for both panels to immediately resume the talks and tackle the roots of the armed struggle in the country. It also symbolizes the unity of the Filipino people from different sectors in the call for just peace,” Castro said. “The human chain for peace is in line with the efforts in Congress with House Resolution 769. We urge the House to approve the resolution, and push further the growing call for the immediate resumption of the peace talks to finally address the roots of the armed conflict.”
“The agreements on social and economic reforms, which will be tackled at the resumption of the peace talks, include our people’s demands that will bind government to uplift their lives by working toward a genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization by ensuring job creation and decent salaries, and by providing social services that the people need for a decent life. It will bind government to abandon its decades-long implementation of neoliberal economic policies, which have been proven to only cater to the interests of the elites and not the majority of the Filipino people,” Castro added.
“We strongly urge the President to respect and honor previous government-NDF peace agreements, such as the Joint Agreement on Security and Immunity Guarantees and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Human Rights,” Tinio said.