Once more the Bohol Local Peace Forum (BLPF) has proven that there is no substitute for dialog in settling differences when the parties come to the conference table with sincere intentions to find a solution. At least that is how the dialog that the BLPF facilitated yesterday between the worried militant groups on the one hand and the police and the military on the other. It's been quite a long time since the BLPF has met but that is because its chairman, Bishop Leopoldo S. Tumulak, was transferred to Metro Manila for a new assignment although he remained as the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Tagbilaran.

The militant groups composed of the Bayan, Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Karapatan, HUMABOL, were worried that their leaders – William Boybanting, Victor Olayvar, Filipineri Bihasa, Liza Serenio and Nanay Tomasa - are target for summary killings by the military. Victor Olayvar of Bayan and John Ruiz of Bayan Muna, their designated spokesperson, said they noticed suspicious characters armed with handguns and riding on motorcycles without plate numbers who have been asking question about them and their whereabouts. Earlier they showed propaganda materials circulated by a certain Mata na Bol-anon Movement (MBM) identifying them as working in alliance, if not one, with the New People's Army (NPA) of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). They also cited the killings of some of their members the investigation of which they said only served to demonize their group. They also presented documents purportedly coming from the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) outlining the plot.

Col. Arthur Tbaquero, Cmmanding Officer of the 302nd Brigade, AFP, assured the BLPF and the complaining groups that there is no such policy or plot of the military to kill any of their identified leaders or anyone for that matter. He assured them that they could come to his headquarters anytime to talk about their problems for he believes in dialog to bridge any gap that may exist between them.

The BLPF also discussed the revolutionary taxes being exacted by the NPA on hapless and helpless masses and the business sector in the province. There is a growing complaint against this extortion activity of the NPA that has debilitating effect on the economy. Engr. Vicente Loquellano, executive director of the People's Fair Trade Assistance Center, Inc., told BLPF how the burning of a hauling truck of AlterTrade in Toboso, Neros Occdental last August 13, 2006 has affected their more than 500 banana farmers. The burning of the truck by the NPAs, which was denounced in the halls of Congress by Akbaya Repesentatvie Etta Rosales, could affect Bohol 's banana farmers once AlterTrade decides to stop operation because they could no longer protect their company from harm. AlterTrade has been buying bananas from Bohol to export to Japan for the last eleven years, according to Loquellano. AlterTrade is owned by former NPAs who refused to pay P30 million in revolutionary taxes.

Earlier, a businessman based in Cebu who buys as much as 8,000 handicraft items every week from Bohol said he might closedown his P100 million business because he is not willing to pay revolutionary tax. The farmers from whom he buys the handicraft are also extorted P1 per item sold. To a poor handicraft weaver this is big slash of money from his income if the businessman stops operation.

The fear of the militant groups is not without bases. After all several of their leaders in other provinces suffered the same fate of either being summarily killed or having disappeared. And having been identified as leaders in anti-government activities and mass actions, it is convenient for them to cast the blame or the accusing finger to government forces like the police and the military. Recent events however point out to the fact that it is not only the police and the military who have the capability and the organization to implement summary killings.

The discovery of more than 100 human skeletons in a mass grave reported as summarily killed and buried in shallow grave in what was called as The Garden in Leyte should make militant groups look at another direction for their source of fear. Task Force “Usig,” for example, has recovered documents showing another cleansing operation of the NPA against perceived penetration agents of the state in the ranks of their legal organizations. At the rate evidences are discovered, there could be another purging similar to the 1980's magnitude. One has only to read Garcia's “To Suffer Thy Comrades” to tremble at what could be its repeat, this time among legal organizations in their alliance.

What happened at the BLPF meeting however should calm the nerves of everyone. BLPF passed three resolutions, 1) urging the Republic of the Philippines and the CPP-NPA-NDF to resume peace talks and for both parties to allow their local branches to hold talks at their level to solve local issues, 2) appealing to the CPP-NPA to stop collecting revolutionary taxes as this is not only illegal but also is depriving the victims of the means to live decent lives, and 3) appealing to the police and the military to protect, within the means of their organizations, the threatened leaders of the militant groups in the province. Let's have more dialogs. They bring us closer to genuine peace.