Just peace

Its always easy and popular to sound the battle cry for an all out war.

After all, its always easy to give in to our violent tendencies to destroy those that do not fit to the current system that benefits us at the cost of the life and dignity of others.

For the government war comes at the cost of re-allocating money that should have gone for social services like health, livelihoods and education, to that of financing people, technology and corporations to become more efficient at killing off its opponents, which in this case are the very people whose noble aspirations they claim to represent.

On the prospect of pursuing nonviolent resolutions to armed conflicts it is always wise that the government would pursue peace negotiations that are aimed at addressing the roots of rebellion. It is always best that it reigns over the military and chooses to go the extra mile to meet the demands of the oppressed who've taken up arms.

Since there wouldn't be any armed conflict if there wasn't any oppresive power relations that are further reinforced by the military's intervention to maintain a peace and order that preserves the status quo that does not benefit the interest of the many, who have been marginalized by the current system.
Perhaps the civillian government should exercise its power over the military by opening avenues for dialogue and negotiations with political factions that advance a narrative run contrary to theirs, and being able to humbly secede to progressive ideas that advances the common good.

ND

Regardless of how one feels for the National Democratic (ND) movement, or how one feels about their apparent ‘silence’ in taking a more outright  and exploit anti-Duterte pronouncement in the past months before the collapse of the peace process between the National Democratic Front and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines.

One must stand in solidarity with their plight as the repercussions of the peace accord’s collapse means life and death for people and communities in the places that are at the forefront of the struggles. To the progressive non-ND’s it especially means that the ball is on their turf as to whether they’d take the higher road of choosing not to hold suspect, not ridicule and not impute blame on the ND’s organised forces once violence breaks out.

 The war on drugs, the war on liberation movements, the war on the poor and the war against those who chooses to believe and say otherwise to the narrative of the leaders who disguise their reactionary defense of the status quo as change is one and the same.

Hence the need for solidarity based on our shared humanity.