"Just talk” is a new slogan adopted by newly installed Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Annabelle T. Abaya as she invites rebel groups to return to the conference table and talk things over to erase any distrust that may have punctured the off-and-on peace negotiations more than two decades ago.

Abaya is unfazed that only eight months remain in the Arroyo administration to wrap up a genuine and lasting peace with two mainstream rebels—the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army/National Democratic Front (CPP/NPA/NDF).

“We are hoping for the best,” Abaya said.

“If a final peace agreement would not be possible during that time frame, putting back on track the peace talk would already be a legacy President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would leave behind to the incoming government for the conclusion of a peace accord,” she added.

“Just talk,” Abaya explained, “is a commitment to the idea that there is only one way to peace and the resolution of conflict—and that is through talking or negotiating. It may be painful and difficult, but in the end, it is the only way forward.”

Abaya said: “Never has history proven that durable peace can be won through violence—of words or war. Talking is not simply for the sake of chatter. It must be seen by both to be just—or fair, honest, and sincere. But when people are hurt and angry, they are detached from these values.”

She stressed that “genuine talk then is a profound process of intent mutual listening and understanding, where people in conflict become reunited to their values and the good in them, and then take responsibility for their actions and decisions.”

Only a few months on the job, Abaya couldn’t disguise the burst of adrenaline that rushed through her veins especially when she is faced with the challenge of putting into action her peace advocacy by talking to rebels for a peaceful settlement to the long-drawn insurgency war.

“This is why talking with them is important and giving them the space to express their anguish and be understood for their needs behind their hurts. This eventually leads to a lasting and just peace,” she said.

As the secretary of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), Abaya will work hard for the revival of the stalled peace talks with communist and Muslim guerillas for a collaborative solution to the armed conflict that has prevented the country from achieving full economic development despite an abundance of natural resources.

During the past 22 years, the peace talks have been off-and-on, although the government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) signed a historic peace accord on Sept. 2, 1996.

But a breakaway group, the MILF, rejected the agreement and opted to continue fighting the government. The fighting escalated in 2000 when then President Joseph Estrada launched an all-out offensive against the MILF.

During that bloody war, government forces captured all 46 MILF camps after about three months of sustained warfare, but MILF fighters continued to wage the war in Central Mindanao.

Again the government called for the revival of the peace talks to which the MILF hierarchy responded, but renewed fighting erupted in August 2008 following the aborted signing of the controversial Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MoA-AD) which was declared as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

Government forces made a calibrated response against three wayward MILF commanders who perpetrated the attacks on civilian population in some parts of Central Mindanao.

But despite the fighting, government and MILF peace panels continued their back-channel efforts which resulted in a ceasefire agreement that is holding to date, an indication that problems can be settled through peaceful dialogues.

One must bear in mind that peace is a process that needs patience even if fighting breaks out in the midst of negotiations to prevent the total collapse of the talks.