For the sake of overseas Filipinos, give peace a chance

Migrante Aotearoa New Zealand joins all Filipinos at home and abroad in welcoming the resumption of formal peace talks between the Duterte administration and the National Democratic Front (NDF). As part of KABABAYAN4CHANGE, the global campaign network of Filipino migrant workers and families aspiring for meaningful change, we respectfully urge both parties to save millions of Filipinos from the cycle of debt and forced migration by seriously pursuing the agenda for meaningful socioeconomic reforms.

Peace has remained elusive as the greed and corruption of the country’s economic and political elite drive Filipinos into the cycle of debt and forced migration. Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and migrants—over 10 million of them—have a big stake in the peace process. The resolution of the chronic economic crisis that has plagued the country for decades would turn migration

into a possible option instead of a desperate move for thousands of Filipinos searching for jobs.

We believe that for as long as tillers of the land remain poor, hungry and landless, workers remain overworked and underpaid, and the urban and rural poor continue to be violently suppressed when they stand up for their rights, there can be no peace.

We hope that the longstanding social injustices and economic inequalities in our homeland will be addressed in the peace process.

We wish the Philippine government and the NDF all the best. We look forward to the day when the benefits of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms will be felt by the masses who have long been waiting for change and peace based on justice.

—ERICO PANGAN,chair, Migrante Aotearoa New Zealand, [email protected]