Sincerely initiate peace, local rights group tells Palace
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BANGUED, Abra (Apr. 10) — The resumption of peace talks and the implementation of a human rights accord will start peace, a human rights group in the Cordillera told government Friday if the Arroyo administration is to address the armed conflict squarely.
The call came from the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA) in the wake of the conclusion of the government-initiated two-day peace and security meeting that started Thursday here.
The peace assembly that gathered over 200 government officials and representatives of local and national government agencies, people’s organizations, indigenous peoples’ groups, the academe, business and the religious sectors handed to Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo its four-page action agenda.
CHRA notes, however, that the peace assembly was held at a time when full military operations are ongoing in the boundaries of Abra, Mountain Province and Benguet.
“We find the Local Peace and Security Assembly also ironic because of the continuing implementation of Oplan Bantay Laya II – practically a state terror and war policy that has wreaked numerous human rights violations in the region like in the rest of the country,” said the rights advocates group led by Atty. Reynaldo Cortes.
The assembly resolution and action agenda was premised on the administration’s bid to “end insurgency in 2010” or before her term ends, fight poverty and build prosperity for Filipinos. Five workshop groups reportedly brainstormed on the said agenda.
Among others, the peace and security agenda specified granting of amnesty for the communist rebel and the mainstreaming through the social integration program; the pursuit of electoral reforms; the liberation from hunger and poverty; and the strengthening of indigenous peoples’ judicial systems in dispute resolution.
It also aimed to promote the Cordillera as the cultural tourism hub and the premier supplier of agricultural products, crafts and mineral products.
“The local peace assembly is part of the continuing program of the national government to address the insurgency and terrorism problems in the country,” a Malacañang press statement said earlier this week. # Lyn V. Ramo for NORDIS
