“Stilling the guns of war is essential to harnessing all our resources for nation building, especially at a time when the global economic crisis has hit hard countries like the Philippines,” Secretary Teresita Quintos Deles said yesterday at the start of the government peace talks with the National Democratic Front in Oslo, Norway.

Deles, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, also issued a call for both panels, of which three Negrenses are members, to work at reaching a peace treaty that would end decades of war.

The Negrenses at the talks are peace advocate Lulu Tison of Bacolod City on the government side and former priest Luis Jalandoni and Coni Ledesma of  Silay City on the NDF’s side.

“There is a growing, surging current that says no more to war and war games... the clamor for peace cannot be denied,” Deles said, citing communities that on their own have  created zones of peace to provide safe havens from abuse and bloodshed by militias of any stripe or color. 

In southern Negros Occidental six zones of peace have been created by communities in Cantomanyog, Candoni; Talimagao, Marumot and Danlugon in  Cauayan;  and Calagmacan and Dung-i in Sipalay City.

“It is this call to make of the entire country a zone of peace that gives us our mandate to come to the negotiating table once more.  This and the attendant realization that the war cannot be won by force of arms on either side,” Deles said.

Deles said what has been called the longest-running insurgency in our part of the world has torn families, communities, and the country apart.

“The cost in lives and a stunted economy is incalculable,” she said.

Deles also said late breaking news from the Philippines, about arrests and ambuscades, are a portent of alarms on the landmines that must be faced at the Oslo talks.

“We must find a way to negotiate these landmines together,” she called.

“If we are not ready for peace right here, right now, then peace will find another way.  A way that will not have to wait another twenty-five years, that will not have to wait for another five panels — to come into its own and bring peace,” she said.*CPG

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