PEACETALK | Alyssa Alano and the need for a Peace President in 2028

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews / 26 April) — On April 19, 2026, Alyssa Alano, a 22-year-old University of the Philippines student leader, was killed in Toboso, Negros Occidental, alongside 18 others in what the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) described as an encounter with the New People’s Army. The AFP claimed Alyssa was a combatant. Student groups and human rights advocates, however, insist she was an innocent civilian engaged in research and immersion with farming communities. Her death and those of the Negros 19, has become a symbol of the tragic consequences of a system where violence, repression, and insurgency collide; and where the absence of meaningful reform continues to cost young lives.

Alyssa’s story forces us to confront a painful truth: armed struggle persists because democratic institutions fail to deliver justice. If ballots are manipulated, corruption entrenched, and economic opportunities denied, insurgency will always find recruits. The challenge for 2028 is to elect a leader who makes armed revolution unnecessary: a Peace President.

Beyond Condemnation

A Peace President cannot stop at condemning violence and commending the armed forces for “doing a good job.” Condemnation and commendation are easy words to say. What is harder and necessary is to confront the inequities in Philippine society that make violence seem inevitable: corruption that rots governance, patronage politics that mocks democracy, and economic monopolies that burdens Filipinos in poverty.

As someone who has been in the hallways of UP, I beg to disagree with the “recruitment” narrative. It is not because the CPP–NDF–NPA has a relentless recruitment program in universities. Insurgency endures because the Philippine government’s response, from Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in the 1970s through to his son’s current administration, has always been an armed counter-insurgency measure. Decades of militarized responses have failed to end rebellion because they never addressed the root causes: poverty, landlessness, corruption, and exclusion.

The numbers are stark. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, poverty incidence stood at 15.5 percent in 2023, representing about 17.5 million Filipinos living below the poverty line. Surveys by Social Weather Stations in late 2025 revealed that half of Filipino families (50 percent) rated themselves poor, with poverty most severe in Mindanao (69 percent) and the Visayas (54 percent). Economically, the Philippines continues to lag behind its ASEAN neighbors. World Bank data places the country’s GDP per capita at around $4,800, far behind Thailand ($7,800), Vietnam ($5,000), and Malaysia ($13,100). Singapore, at nearly $96,000, is in another league entirely. In global competitiveness rankings, the Philippines consistently ranks last among the ASEAN-5 economies. These realities underscore why insurgency persists: poverty remains widespread, inequality entrenched, and the Philippines lags behind its neighbors in delivering prosperity.

A Peace President must break this cycle by tackling structural injustices, not simply by deploying more troops.

Governance Overhaul and Economic Justice

Peace cannot coexist with corruption. A Peace President must digitize government services to reduce graft, empower watchdog institutions with teeth, and protect whistleblowers. Governance reform must also mean open governance, enshrined in law, enabling citizens to directly audit government projects, such as Department of Public Works and Highways corruption-ridden flood control project. When citizens can hold officials accountable, democracy becomes real.

Insurgency thrives where poverty festers. A Peace President must dismantle monopolies, empower labor, and expand social safety nets. Economic justice must also mean government–private partnerships to develop key industries and job centers, ensuring growth is not captured by elites alone. Farmers must be supported with fair land policies and modern tools, while workers must be protected with living wages and strong unions. Only when both labor and farmers thrive will insurgency lose its appeal.

Healing the Nation

Most of all, a Peace President must be a healer-in-chief. The President must demilitarize civilian governance, institutionalize peace talks with accountability, and invest in community-driven development. 

These are the best of times to engage the CPP–NPA–NDF in a peace dialogue. Generational shifts make this moment unique. Gen Z, predisposed to activism and digital transparency, demands inclusive solutions rather than endless war. Meanwhile, the Martial Law Babies, those who grew up under Marcos Sr., carry decades of fatigue from authoritarianism and conflict. Together, these generations are ready for a new path.

Working in favor of the path to peace, the backdrop of international wars –from Ukraine to Gaza and Iran– reminds us of the devastating costs of violence. The Philippines has an opportunity to choose differently: to show that dialogue, not destruction, can resolve conflict. The Negros 19, and Alyssa Alano among them, should not be remembered as casualties of a failed state, but as the last generation to die in Democracy’s wars.

A Senior Citizen’s Thought

Sitting in the safety of my veranda as the sun is setting and making such golden-ager reflections, I realize that age has the advantage of hindsight that Alyssa did not have. Alyssa Alano’s death should not be in vain. Her life embodied the youth’s aspiration for a just and equitable society, and her death in an armed encounter between the AFP and the NPA underscores the urgency of reform. In 2028, the Philippines does not need a president who wins wars. We need a president who makes wars unnecessary. A Peace President 2028 is one who proves that democracy can deliver justice, so that no Filipino ever again has to choose between ayuda and the gun. 

[MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Jules L. Benitez is working with the Katilingbanong Pamahandi sa Mindanaw Foundation Inc. (KPMFI), the Provincial Government of Basilan and the local religious leaders to develop and mainstream an Islamic guidance on local conflict resolution)]