Loren backs RP councilors' call for peace, unity

Senator Loren Legarda yesterday expressed full support for the call of the Philippine Councilors' League for the government to negotiate for peace and reconciliation with all anti-government political groups.

At the PCL's third quarterly national executive officers' meeting in Puerto Princesa City, the PCL urged the government to negotiate with the insurgent and dissident groups, but apply the full force of the law against criminals, including white collar offenders.

"In our quest for peace, I support your call for a comprehensive solution to peace and order in our country," Loren told participants in the PCL's meeting that had for its theme, Unity, Peace and Law Enforcement for a Stronger Philippines.

The chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Loren also cited the need for the institution of grand social justice programs that would redress the age-old problems of poverty, illiteracy and lack of access to economic opportunities.

Loren stressed that the "full force of the law should be applied against hard criminals selling drugs, raping and violating the rights of women and killing and hurting our fellowmen and taking away properties, but also on white collar criminals like rogue bankers and pre - need providers who deceive unsuspecting depositors of their life-time earnings.

"It is sad to admit this truth: the law has been quite easy on white collar criminals, the sweet-talking, neatly-dressed, highly educated individuals with impressive portfolios," she noted.

Loren, meanwhile, urged the nation to forge the needed unity to bridge what she said are "divisions and rift dating back through early civilization to today."

"From the different fiefdoms during the pre-Spanish times, to the courting of Magellan of chieftains that he enlisted against Lapu Lapu, to the present-day division along social, economic and religious lines, we are a nation of tribes and fiefdoms pretending to be one, united nation," she lamented.

Loren added that it's time the country curb its tribal urges and be one, and that unity should trump multi-ethnicity, religious differences, linguistic barriers and that long history of fractiousness.

"The PCL meeting today, which gathered representatives from across the archipelago, and is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-religious congregations, shows that when we put out our heart to it, we are more than united," she said. "In our diversity, we should find unity."