madam president the situation in mindanao is grave with hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons living in desperate conditions
the long-standing insurgency is a factor in this sorry state of affairs but so is the not-so-democratic status of successive filipino governments with the latter being widely held responsible by international agencies such as the un human rights council for showing remarkable impunity from extrajudicial killings and the forced disappearances of hundreds of filipino citizens whose activities were thought to have been in disagreement with official government policy
such impunity must be terminated
in addition the government of the philippines must urgently resume peace negotiations with the milf and both sides must renounce violence and solve their differences at the negotiating table
