The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has joined the clamor for the expeditious resumption of peace negoatiations between the Arroyo government and the National Democratic Front (NDF).

Chairwoman Leila M. de Lima said the commission "is saddened by the deferment of the peace talks, especially since the CHR has started working on the mechanics of its independent probe into the cases of the 13 desaparecidos involving NDF consultants, as requested by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), supposedly as a confidence-building measure for the resumption of such talks."

OPAPP Secretary Avelino Razon earlier announced the deferment of the peace negotiations in Oslo after NDF negotiating panel chairman Luis Jalandoni asked for a meeting last September 5 in the Norwegian capital to allow both parties to discuss the most expeditious way of implementing the Joint Agreement on Immunity and Security Guarantees (JASIG).

Razon stressed the Arroyo government had bent over backwards to secure freedom for Randall Echanis, who was arrested last year for alleged involvement in the slaying of some militants in Leyte in the 1980s, and Elizabeth Principe, who was nabbed on November 27, 2007. Both are NDF consultants covered by the JASIG.

Nonetheless, De Lima stressed that while the commission is committed to help bring about peace all over the country, "we defer to the sound and expert judgment of the offices concerned, principally OPAPP."

In the interest of peace and genuine respect for human rights, De Lima said, she "implores both sides to take have good faith and wotrk earnestly for the resumption of talks."

However, she warned: "Let’s remember that many human rights violations, such as extrajudicial killings (EJKs), enforced disappearances and torture, are rooted on, or linked to, the insurgency and counter–insurgency drives."

In conclusion, she told Razon: "Military solution is not a solution, and cannot be substitute for a genuine and credible peace process.”

Meanwhile, the CHR scored the murder of Fr. Cecilio Lucero, parish priest of Catubig, Northern Samar, as yet another grisly addition to the killings that have happened in the Samar provinces since last year.

De Lima said these murders, many of which could be politically-motivated, have not been solved.