In the aftermath of the Mamasapano tragedy

Coalition for All-out Peace and Social Justice launched

By PEACE Camp
February 12, 2015

MANILA – A coalition composed of religious, human rights advocates, lawyers, progressive organizations and Moslem professionals have bonded together to form PEACE Camp or Campaign for Peace with Social Justice amidst the on-going probes on the Mamasapano tragedy in Congress.

At their press conference which also served as their public launching, PEACE Camp lead convenors announced their “unwavering commitment to push for All-out peace with social justice in Mindanao, to stop the US-led “war on terror” in the Philippines, and campaign for the Right to Self-Determination of the Bangsamoro Nation”.

They called the US involvement in the operations to get Marwan a “white elephant” in both the Senate and House hearings. They also claimed that, “consciously being omitted in the raging fervour for justice is the culpability of the US Government who engineered Oplan Exodus and not a few failed operations before it”.

PEACE Camp claimed that the Mamasapano tragedy is “a testament to the reality that far from acting as a sovereign State, the Philippines under the auspices of President Benigno Aquino III continues to willfully and willingly enforce the wishes of the United States Government”.

The group blamed Aquino for allowing “our sovereignty to play second fiddle to that of the US, when it acquiesced to Oplan Exodus at the expense of scuttling the unfolding peace process and risking the lives not only of the Fallen 44 but scores of civilians”.

“We demand for the immediate rejection of the continued US military presence in Mindanao and elsewhere in the country in utter disregard of our sovereignty as a nation, their statement said.

“We underscore the need for a lasting peace in Mindanao based on justice. We call for justice for the centuries-old oppression and exclusion of the Bangsamoro from meaningful participation and self-determination of their destiny. Peace cannot reign in situations of injustice. Justice restores the dignity of the Bangsamoro as a free, equal and peace-loving people of Philippine society”.

“We demand for the immediate rejection of the continued US military presence in Mindanao and elsewhere in the country in utter disregard of our sovereignty as a nation. We demand that the Philippine government side with the Filipino people by rejecting the US-led War on Terror”.