MANILA, Philippines — Three groups in New Zealand have urged President Aquino not to heed the pressure of hawks in his government and resume peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front (NDF) immediately.

In their letter, Murray Horton, secretary of the Philippines Solidarity Network of Aotearoa (PSNA), Daphna Whitmore, convenor of the Auckland Philippines Solidarity (APS) and Rod Prosser, convenor of the Wellington Kiwi Pinoy (WKP), stressed that President Aquino should waste no time in talking with the NDF for the peace in the country.

“With the gross record of globally condemned human rights violations under your predecessor Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, hopes for justice and change were raised when you assumed the presidency in June 2010,” they said.

Horton, Whitmore and Prosser added the prospects of peace were enhanced when Aquino promised to deal with the NDF and bring justice to those whose rights were violated by the nine-year reign of terror under the Arroyo regime.

“The recent news of indefinite postponement of formal peace talks between your government and the NDF is quite disappointing. We join peace advocates in the Philippines in calling for urgent resumption of peace talks without preconditions. The resolution of the issue of political prisoners and other outstanding human rights, political and socio-economic issues is long overdue,” they told Aquino.

“We find it alarming that in addition to the thousands of unresolved cases under Arroyo, there are now 48 cases of extra-judicial killings, five enforced disappearances and 336 political prisoners remain in detention under your administration. Equally alarming is the fact that many peasant and trade union activists, social justice and human rights advocates including church workers and at least one labor rights lawyer are again threatened with arrest on trumped-up charges filed at the time of Arroyo and now revived under your watch. We are also aware that NDF personnel who played significant roles in the peace process are among the hundreds who have become victims of enforced disappearances and illegal detentions,” they added.

“Almost four decades since the late dictator Marcos declared martial law, and over 25 years since the first People Power uprising supposedly restored democracy in the Philippines, we are dismayed that human rights abuses persist in your supposedly democratic country. On this International Day of the Disappeared, we urge you as Commander-in-Chief to end impunity, stop the extra-judicial killings and illegal detentions and order the perpetrators of enforced disappearances to allow the safe reunion of victims with their families,” Horton, Whitmore and Prosser argued.