Peace talks hold key to Duterte's new Philippines

AN existential challenge facing the incoming Rodrigo Duterte administration in the Philippines is to conclude peace talks with National Democratic Front (NDF) communists and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) separatists. If Mr Duterte succeeds, he would move closer to achieving his goal of a new Philippines in which the Malacanang presidential palace symbolises an inclusive and healing institution free of the suffocating grip of elite politics that represents the narrow economic interests of an entrenched oligarchy.

The two insurgencies are viscerally important because they have impeded the achievement of extensive stability in the Philippines. They have eluded past administrations since the overthrow of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the People Power revolution of 1986. Even today, the rebellions detract seriously from the political and social gains of democratisation inaugurated by a revolution which remade the Philippines. The centrifugal forces of communist and separatist activism must now be brought within the ambit of national reconciliation.

COUP FOR PEACE