A GROUP of bishops and priests of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) Thursday said the statement of President Rodrigo Duterte reiterating his desire for peace is a welcome development, saying the President's statement created a 'positive spark to achieve just and lasting peace.'
In its 5th Annual Diocesan Convention, IFI also welcomed the reaffirmation of commitment to peace talks made by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) by declaring to free six captives, composed of soldiers, a policeman, and paramilitary before the negotiations continue in The Netherlands.
"There are a hundred and one compelling reasons we can enumerate for the peace negotiations to move forward. As articulated long before by the late nationalist senator Jose Diokno we believe that “Peace is jobs, justice, food and freedom," the IFI said.
"It is our firm stance that agenda of peace we seek is the problem and interest of more than a hundred million Filipinos who up to now are still wallowing in social malady of deep poverty, hunger, landlessness, joblessness, deprivation and had continued to dream for genuine change and social equality," it added.
The peace talks have been stalled after the New People's Army declared the termination of its unilateral ceasefire and Duterte, in response, also terminated the government ceasefire and declared an all-out war against the rebels.
For the poor, the church said that pursuing peace would mean that peasants can now till a land of their own, workers don’t have to suffer the effects of 'endo' (end of contractualization), decent housing, livelihood and free social services for all, free education, and ecological protection against destructive mining and plantations, among others.
About 140 bishops, priests, and lay sector delegates participated in the IFI's Diocesan Convention, yesterday at IFI Decent building, barangay Bulua, this city.
