ADVERTISEMENT
With nearly all the negotiators, consultants, advisers and resource persons of both parties wearing traditional barong Tagalog and ternos, the ceremony regained some of the light-heartedness of the previous three rounds seemingly lost in the frantic informal discussions marking the first day of negotiations.
NDFP peace negotiator Benito Tiamzon said both panels have decided to hold the opening ceremony tomorrow at 10 o’clock in the morning (five o’clock in the afternoon, Philippine time)
“Ignorance of the law, feigned or otherwise, is not an excuse.”
The Supreme Court ruled in 2014 and reaffirmed in 2015 that DAP is unconstitutional. However, government executives who authored and implemented it have not yet been made to account for it until today.
“Abandoning the peace talks at this point will put to waste the gains and goodwill that have been made between the GRP and NDFP since the resumption of the talks in August of 2016.”
“Only the courts which granted NDFP consultants temporary liberty by virtue of cash bail can act or order whether or not they can be validly rearrested, if at all, and not by the unilateral action of the PNP nor the AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines, much less even by the mere instructions of the GRP President.”
“There had to be a scandal about the killing of a Korean to show that there is something wrong with Oplan Tokhang…If this had not happened, the PNP will carry on killing poor Filipinos already hard put in finding justice.”
The parties said they achieved advances on six major issues listed on their agenda.
Related story: Talks on joint ceasefire shelved sans release of political prisoners
“…if previously signed agreements are not honored, what guarantees does the NDFP have that future agreements would not be similarly violated by the GRP?”
“Usaping sikmura na po ang pag-uusapan ng GRP at NDFP,” (The GRP and NDFP will be talking about gut issues.)
“We have been waiting for so long. Why do our loved ones remain in detention?”
Rodrigo Roa Duterte is, perhaps, the most unorthodox president the country ever had. He talks tough and he curses. He intersperses his prepared speeches with extemporaneous declarations in the Visayan language and of course, laced with curses. He is not the typical politician. He acts more like your neighborhood toughie.
TIME magazine dubbed him “the Punisher” for allegedly organizing the death-squads that eliminated drug dealers and petty criminals via “extra-judicial killings” (EJK).
“Healing cannot be imposed by one man,” the petitioners, who were Martial Law victims, said. “It cannot be imposed by the Marcos family. Sadly, it cannot be imposed even by this Honorable Court.”
“In taking Duterte to task for having allowed a hero’s burial for Marcos, we are challenging him to stand for our people’s deepest feelings. We challenge him to break free of the Marcoses.”
“We cannot accept the rehabilitation of the Marcoses, and their kind of leadership based on swindling, lies, deception.”
A community of readers and supporters that help us sustain our operations through microdonations for as low as $1.
Save as PDF