Rebels from the New People's Army, the armed wing of the National Democratic Front, pose for journalists in a rebel camp in the mountains of Mindanao. (File photo by Karlos Manlupig)
The Philippines' largest ecumenical organization of church leaders called for the resumption of peace negotiations with communist rebels during their annual meeting this week.
"As peace advocates, compelled by the Gospel mandate, we see it within the ambit of our mission to accompany the peace process," said Catholic Bishop Deogracias Iniguez Jr in a statement to ucanews.com.
Iniguez heads the secretariat of the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform, an organization of leaders of major religious superiors in the country, the Catholic bishops’ conference, the Protestant National Council of Churches and the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches.
Peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the communist-led National Democratic Front (NDF) have stalled since February 2011.
"Recent developments have strengthened our resolve," said Iniguez.
"We are enthused by the recent pronouncements of the [government] and [the rebels] that they are open to the possibility of going back to the negotiating table," read a statement released by the organization on Friday.
The church leaders said they were "moved" by testimonies from a health worker, a farmer and a tribal leader about their experiences of injustice and the violation of their fundamental rights in their communities.
"We also engaged in profound conversations on how we as church leaders and our flock can contribute to the peace negotiations in order to attain the peace our people cry for," the church leaders said in their statement.
The group called on the warring parties "to make themselves more visible and accessible to the public, especially to the organizations accompanying the [peace] process".
Iniguez said the organization vows to do "innovative approaches to peace" in churches "like popularizing peace, sports, songs, dances and other art forms in support of the peace process".
"We will likewise make our church leaders more visible in the public media expressing their full support for the talks," he said.
The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines earlier said that while it supports the resumption of talks it cannot take in the role of "initiating, convening, mediating or presiding over a dialogue" between the rebels and the government.
"[The bishops] are of the firm persuasion that under the present circumstances, this cannot be part of our ecclesial mandate as an episcopal conference," said Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the bishops' conference.
The NDF, an alliance of communist-led underground organizations, said last April that it is ready to talk peace with the government to end more than four decades of war.
Luis Jalandoni, NDF chairman, told ucanews.com that the rebel group has "undertaken initiatives to try and foster the resumption of peace talks".
Peace negotiations between the government and the NDF hit an impasse in 2011, with both parties pushing for preconditions before the start of another round of formal talks.
In 2013, attempts to resume the talks failed after the rebels demanded the release of NDF consultants in jail and more than 400 political prisoners around the country.
In 1999, the government and the NDF signed a deal on "respect for human rights and international humanitarian law", but failed to sign an agreement on socio-economic reforms.
The Philippines military estimates the country's communist movement has only about 4,000 armed men under its command, compared with more than 26,000 at its peak 30 years ago.