WHY THE PEACE TALKS WITH THE COMMUNISTS WILL SUCCEED

Atty. Alex Padilla, Chair of the government peace panel during President Benigno Aquino’s time, predicted that the peace talks that the Duterte government is having with the communists will fail. He claims this is because the National Democratic Front peace panel members  talking with the government do not represent the New Peoples Army. The NPA has been waging an armed revolution for almost half a century.

But we predict differently. We predict that the talks will succeed. Here are the reasons why:

Upon his assumption to office on June 30, 2017, Pres. Rodrigo Roa Duterte  never departed from his hopes expressed during the campaign that he wanted the armed rebellion to end. In every occasion he addresses the public, he says, “I want to be known as the President of peace. I want the rebels to come down from the hills and enjoy lives of comfort with their loved ones.”

Unlike Presidents before him, Duterte, who self-identifies as a socialist/leftist  had broken bread many times with communists and fathoms their issues. He knows what the root cause of the armed conflict is: the social injustice stemming from  inequitable distribution of wealth perpetuated by the oligarchic control of the system.    He recognizes that the armed struggle will end if the root cause is addressed through socio-economic reforms. In this respect, he and the NDF are on the same page.

Pres. Duterte's  grasp of the real issues is coupled with a like-minded GRP panel made up of people who truly hanker for peace as the presence of justice. This is a great recipe for successful talks with the NDF. Thus, when Pres Duterte cancelled the peace talks last February, GRP peace panel members  themselves knocked on heaven's door for resumption. In meetings of the GRP Reciprocal Working Group on Political and Constitutional Reforms (RWG-PCR) of which I am a member,  no one ever questioned the sincerity and motives of the other side. I have information this is true of the other Groups.

The GRP   peace panel,  on the one hand, and the NDF panel, on the other,  mutually respect and trust each other. They may argue a lot, disagree on matters,  and even threaten to, or actually stop talking to each other like family members do. But they all believe that  the peace talks must keep going and reach their logical conclusion: the end of hostilities and the guarantee there will be social justice. Talks must go on even while there is fighting (although the two sides just signed an interim ceasefire agreement).

On Padilla’s claim that the NDF does not represent the NPA,  I cannot speak for the NDF and its relations with the NPA. But the NDF team seems totally committed to the peace process. The NDF gave assurance  that the rebels would lay down their arms once guarantees are in place to confront and address the economic issues which form the radix of the armed conflict. If the GRP is forthright in its dealings with the NDF, it has to believe the claim. The NDF has yet to give reason for it to be dismissed as the boy who cried wolf.

The GRP panel headed by Padilla is different from the current one which genuinely hopes for an end to the armed struggle. GRP Panel Chair DOLE Sec. Silvestre “Bebot”  Bello is no Padilla. Sec. Bello  negotiates from a position of sincerity believing that peace is possible. If you start your negotiation with the mindset that the other party is only pulling your leg,  you are in bad faith in agreeing to a talk. You are insincere. If you do not believe the other party, why even think of talking? It is a waste of time and money. It raises false hopes to the people who want the armed rebellion to end. It raises false hopes for the countryside where development has been stunted because it is the host of the armed conflict.

It should be  no wonder that Padilla's panel achieved nothing. Maybe, he is now trying to justify why the peace talks between the GRP panel he led and the NDF was  a total failure. But the truth is the failure in the past was the government’s insincerity by which it was itself a peace saboteur.

So far, in just less than a year, the peace talks leaped much, much farther than they ever have in the past two decades. Substantial gains have been achieved. Padilla should not douse ice-cold water. This might be the Filipino people's last chance for a just and lasting peace. Let us all hope together.

Saboteurs and peace spoilers must lay off. This is not about you. This is about the Filipino people and their dream of just and lasting peace..

IF THERE'S A WILL, THERE'S A WAY: DID PNOY AQUINO PLAN THE 10,000 BED CAPACITY DRUG REHAB CENTER IN NUEVA ECIJA?

In November 2016, which is less than a month away, the government's drug rehab center in Nueva Ecija which can accommodate 10,000 patients will be operational.

The Duterte administration is less than four (4) months old. So, some find it incredible that this project is its brainchild alone. Its paternity or maternity must be shared with another administration because the project--from planning to construction - could not be completed in less than four months. The obvious picture they want painted is that the project was planned by the previous administration and implemented by the fledgling Duterte dispensation. This was pointed out by one netizen who said he is very familiar with construction and who currently audits much bigger construction projects in another country.

If it is important to attribute credit, then we give it where it is due. And it belongs to the Duterte government. All along, while we were getting a regular dose of the President's verbal diarrhea against drugs, his government was quietly constructing the facility.

How did it happen in less than four months, the incredulous ask? It cannot be. The project must have been planned by the previous administration, they say.

I watched Duterte's interview with Al Jazeera where he said some things that made me squirm regarding the drug issue but also revealed how determined he is to create a generation of Filipinos unafflicted by drug addiction. In the same interview, he stressed that the 2016 budget prepared by the Aquino dispensation does not include funds for a drug rehabilitation facility. This is easy to explain. The Aquino government did not see a drug menace lurking in Philippine society. It knew that the country had, as of 2014, some 3M drug addicts as reported to it by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. But it did not consider the problem serious, otherwise why the apathy? In fact, more than apathy to the evils from the menace, it even created a favorable political climate to make the National Penitentiary the principal office of the drug trade in the country. This was through Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, Aquino's alter ego, who gave hardened criminals privileges just so they could become big-time drug lords to raise money for her.

Without government money for a drug rehabilitation center, Pres. Duterte harnessed the generosity of one Chinese philanthropist who was very willing to provide the much-needed money: Huang Rulun. Mr Huang, before he made it big, did business in the Philippines and made some fortune here. He was just so happy for the opportunity to pay back. (And this got me thinking: Why can't the likes of Henry Sy do something as altruistic as this? Or are they more interested in putting mom-and-pop entrepreneurs out of business?)

So things are clear: The Duterte government made that facility happen.

How? I do not know. I only realize now more than ever that political will is the mother of inguenity. Things can happen and happen fast, if the will is there. It is a cause for celebration, not questions. Addicts should be rehabilitated, not killed for no reason other than they are addicts. Now, we know the government has a solution to the drug menace other than the crackdown on pushers claiming innocent lives as vigilantes take advantage of it. Although not often reported, Duterte called on his Cabinet to come up with a plan to help "drug users and pushers who have surrendered to rehabilitate themselves and return to the fold of society as productive members.” As announced by Sec. Judy Taguiwalo, head of DSWD which is one of the lead agencies in the rehabilitation, transformation, and reintegration into society of drug addicts, such plan was already crafted in the form of the National Drug Rehabilitation Program (NDRP).

But maybe, indeed, the completion of the drug rehab center should invite question: How was it done that quickly? I want to know because it can give us lessons on responsive government. We have been so used to a slow or apathetic bureaucracy that a speedy action from it renders us skeptical.