Government and communist rebel peace negotiators say they want to use the Catholic Church’s Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs) to propagate the peace process.

“This is welcome as long as it is coordinated with the pastoral office,” said Archbishop Fernando Capalla of Davao City.

The former head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said he recommended the government coordinate its request with Auxiliary Bishop George Rimando and Father Pedro Lamata.

Bishop Rimando is head of the CBCP Committee on Basic Ecclesial Communities and Father Lamata is in charge of the Aimah-Priests-Pastors Forum in Mindanao.

“It’s about time both panels consulted the people, especially the majority of the population,” Archbishop Capalla said.

Ednar Carlos Dayanghirang, a member of the government peace panel, said the government wants the BECs “to popularize ownership of the peace process.”

The BECs are the biggest parish-based lay organizations in the Philippines.

“We all need the support of the people, because we do not want to experience what happened to the [Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain],” Dayanghirang said.

The agreement which mapped out an area of autonomy for Moro rebels was inked by the government and the rebels in 2008 only to be later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

The communist rebels said they too want to tap a wider section of the population “especially the poor for whom these talks should benefit.”