WE HEARD of war talks after the peace talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF) reached a shaky point. But we know there is still hope despite the temporary setback and we continue to just lurk at the corner to see any progress from both sides.
A joint interim ceasefire was signed by peace negotiators between the Government of the Philippines and the NDF Wednesday evening, April 5, during the fourth round of talks in the Netherlands.
In a report, Bello was quoted as saying, "We welcome the openness of NDF to undertake a forging of this round of talks of an agreement on joint interim ceasefire that will accompany our peace negotiations throughout."
While the NDF peace panel Fidel Agcaoili said any type of ceasefire agreement is just a means to an end, it still sparked our hope that the talks on peace will proceed.
Presidential adviser on the peace process Jesus Dureza, for his part, said: "It (the interim ceasefire) will move us forward."
It is presumed that this agreement is more stable than the previous one but we believe that in the end, what matters the most is the willingness of both parties and us, Filipinos, to work towards peace.
All of these actions are just means to achieve the end that we have desired but the greater "means" that we could actually use to achieve our goal of peace is "us."
Does peace really have to be so complex? In this case, we're afraid, it is. We had been so used to disagreements and factions that it had already become almost ingrained in our status quo.
If we had forgotten how it is to really live in peace together then maybe it is time that we should begin to remember how.