Scientists lobby for core reforms
NATIONAL industrialization and other comprehensive socioeconomic reforms should be at the core of peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the local Maoist movement, Filipino scientists said.
“We hope the resumption of peace talks will pick up and develop further the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio Economic Reforms (CASER) as one of the frameworks of the peace negotiation,” AGHAM said in a statement.
CASER, which sought to establish a framework for laws and policies on agrarian reform, rural modernization, and national industrialization, was the main component of the previous peace negotiations between the National Democratic Front (NDF) and the government in 2016.
The Philippine civil society had said the CASER was the “meat” of past peace negotiations as it contained concrete steps needed to solve the problems of poverty and economic backwardness, which are considered the root causes of the longest-running insurgency in the world.
The parties were in the middle of discussing CASER when the talks were unilaterally halted by former President Rodrigo R. Duterte in 2017 through a presidential proclamation.
“If pursued, the gains from national industrialization will be used to enhance the country’s agriculture sector, creating a synergistic relationship between agriculture and industry, which is necessary for self-reliance,” AGHAM said.
The Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the NDFP on Nov. 23 cited “serious socioeconomic and environment issues” as well as “foreign security threats” for agreeing to “a principled and peaceful resolution” of their armed conflict. The joint statement was made in Norway, which has been facilitating the talks since 2011.
The NDF is a coalition of Maoist revolutionary groups that represents the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing New People’s Army in the negotiations with the government.
AGHAM urged the two camps to enjoin scientists and industrialists in the talks.
“National industrialization, in particular, is a field in which scientists, engineers, and technologists can contribute their knowledge and expertise,” it said.
National industrialization will not only develop the country’s science and technology sector “but will also lead to a self-sufficient economy that will end the country’s dependence on foreign products and technologies,” it added.
Aside from socioeconomic reforms, the four substantive agendas in the previous talks also included respect for human rights and the international humanitarian law, political and constitutional reforms, and cessation of hostilities and disposition of forces.
The decades-long armed conflict has been the “single biggest justification of the government in perpetrating countless human rights violations against Filipino civilians and human rights defenders,” In Defense for Human Rights and Dignity Movement (iDEFEND) said in a Facebook Messenger chat.
“The government’s counter-insurgency campaign had terrorized communities into silence, restricted necessary resources, and undermined organizing efforts of democratic forces especially among indigenous peoples, farmers, workers, urban poor and students,” it said. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza