Solon supports call to resume peace talks
PANGASINAN remains insurgency-free notwithstanding the reported increasing activities of the NPA in other provinces.
This is the assessment of Second District Rep. Leopoldo Bataoil, member of the government peace panel, and himself a signatory to the resolution urging the government and the other side to continue the peace process.
Bataoil lamented the stalled peace talks between the government and the CPP-NPA-NDF but said he remained optimistic that it will resume in the months ahead.
“We have to pursue the peace process because nobody wins in a war especially when innocent people are caught in the middle,” he said. “We believe that efforts to continue it should prevail, and the fourth round of talks to be held in Norway on April will take place,” he added.
He said there was a compelling reason for the President to lift the suspension of peace talks. “The NPA escalated its attacks,” he said.
Bataoil said the demand of the communists to release all political prisoners was unreasonable since the government already released 23 of their leaders to be able to join the peace talks.
He said it was not possible for the government to release all 400 political prisoners while negotiations are going on otherwise the government would have lost all its bargaining chips on the table. (Nora Dominguez)
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