The Filipino people are longing for peace?a just and lasting peace. Given the unresolved questions of his alleged involvement in the electoral fraud of 2004, massive human rights violations and all-out war offensives in Mindanao that displaced thousands of civilians, retired military chief Hermogenes Esperon?s appointment as peace adviser is a million steps backward in the quest for justice and peace.

Under Esperon, the former chief implementor of the government?s anti-insurgency drive that did not address the root causes of the armed conflict, how could the peace process move forward? The militarist policy of the Arroyo administration has resulted in extrajudicial killings, warrantless arrests, torture and enforced disappearances. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Esperon et al. are deaf to the recommendations of the United Nations, international church bodies and various human rights watchdog groups to seriously investigate and prosecute state agents involved in extrajudicial killings and all forms of human rights abuses; and to completely revoke the policies and operational plans that abet these abuses.

What more can we expect from this morally bankrupt government? Next time around, Ms Arroyo might just appoint Esperon as chair of the Commission on Elections.

AMIE DURAL, secretary general, Promotion of Church People?s Response (PCPR), 3/F NCCP Compound 879 EDSA Quezon City 1101