The Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform, the largest formation of Christian church leaders in the Philippines, issued a call on 16 December to vote for peace in the May 2022 national elections. In a Pastoral Statement, PEPP Co-chairpersons Archbishop Antonio Ledesma of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro City and Bishop Rt. Revd. Rex Resurreccion B. Reyes, Jr. of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines called on the Filipino electorate “to deeply discern from among the candidates” and choose those who have a clear track record of truly working for the peace negotiations “as a viable way to address the situation of unpeace in the country.”

The PEPP is composed of church leaders representing the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, National Council of Churches in the Philippines, Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines, Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches and the Ecumenical Bishops’ Forum. Established in 2007, the group has been deeply involved in promoting the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

The Pastoral Statement asserted that during the last fifty years, the militarist approach has caused the deaths of thousands of Filipinos, socio-economic injustices, economic dislocation and has led to “a period of national pain”. The PEPP proposed that the GRP-NDFP peace process should focus on the viable alternative from the 1992 Hague Joint Declaration with its four-point agenda on human rights, socio-economic reforms, political reforms and the disposition of forces.

They affirmed that resolving this four-point agenda “is a principled and non-militaristic way to peace”, calling it “the way to righteousness.”

The church leaders called on the Philippine electorate to vote for candidates who show their sincerity in addressing the roots of the armed conflict: poverty, landlessness and social injustices.