At least 21 congressmen identified with the Left have filed a resolution asking the administration to resume peace talks with the communist rebels.
The legislators filed the resolution on the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement of the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law on Friday, Aug. 10.
House Resolution 2065 calls for the immediate resumption of the peace negotiations between the government and the National Democratic Front based on the signed agreements on June 8.
The Makabayan Bloc in the House of Representatives led the filing of HR 2065, which said that the signed Stand-Down Agreement binds the military, the police, and the New People’s Army from hostilities as “goodwill and confidence-building measures” for the previously agreed resumption of the fifth round of talks which were supposed to be held on June 28 to 30 this year.
Party-list Reps. Carlos Zarate of Bayan Muna, Ariel Casilao of Anakpawis, Arlene Brosas and Emmi de Jesus of Gabriela and Antonio Tinio of ACT Teachers make up the Makabayan Bloc.
HR 2065 also provides that the stand-down agreement “shall be declared and announced simultaneously by both parties one week before the agreed date of resumption of the formal talks.”
The stand-down “shall be understood to mean a temporary cessation of hostilities, in which the contending armed units and personnel of the Parties stay where they are [as is where is], take an active defense mode, and shall not commit any offensive action or operation against combatants and civilians.”
The stalled fifth round of peace talks seeks to forge an interim peace agreement that contains key provisions of the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms, general amnesty of political prisoners, and coordinated unilateral ceasefire and would have given the negotiations a boost.
They also said that as representatives of the people, members of the House of Representatives are duty bound to express the sentiments and interests of their constituents for the immediate resumption of the stalled peace talks and for the determined effort to find peaceful and just resolution to the armed conflict between the government and the NDF.