MANILA — House Committee on Appropriations Vice-chairman Rep. Ben P. Evardone of Eastern Samar and Rep. Silvestre Bello III of 1-BAP Partylist on Monday have expressed support to the passage of the budget of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), specifically in funding the peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army/National Democratic Front (CPP/NPA/NDF).
Evardone, during the pre-plenary budget hearing, said that the government panel negotiating with the CPP/NPA/NDF should “get a fair share of the budget” as Bello underscored that “the cost of war is definitely more than the cost of peace.”
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos Deles and chief negotiator Alexander Padilla explained that in spite of the current impasse in the peace negotiations, the government is working on a “new approach that should be time-bound and agenda-bound” given the need to deliver peace dividends to the people as soon as possible.
Deles said that OPAPP will definitely “appeal for additional funds if the table moves, and (if) it would require expenses.”
Ending violence
In response to questions on the seeming impatience of the government panel in trying to push the peace process, Padilla said that he is indeed impatient to see the “dividends in as far as the peace process is concerned,” citing the need for the “stopping or lessening violence” as a concrete peace dividend that the government is pushing for.
Deles and Padilla both assured that government did not abandon the peace table with the CPP/NPA/NDF.
“The table is still there, our third-party is still there,” Deles said, adding that the government is “in fact in discussion with our third-party facilitator who has told us that he is undergoing consultation soon.”
Bello called on the parties, “Huwag tayong mawalan ng pag-asa, huwag tayong maging masyadong impatient sa process (Let us not lose hope; we should not be too impatient in the process). We have to believe in our capability to address the problem.”
ACT-CIS Partylist Rep. Samuel Pagdilao agreed with Bello, saying that “patience is indeed a virtue and it is an essential element of every successful negotiation,” but he also said that the Panel should look into the “peoples’ impatience” and the need to “establish peace immediately so that our people, including of course our combatants, will live in peace and harmony.”
Earlier, Deles said that “impatience and frustration of our people is very high on this table because even in those times that the panels have gone abroad and travelled far, it made no difference on the violence on the ground.”
“We also need to win back the constituency, the confidence of our people. This is not just a game we play on the table but it’s real hard work to find a negotiated political settlement,” the peace adviser stressed.
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