We are saddened with the passing of our old friend and high school classmate in La Salle, Luis “Louie” Jalandoni, in Utrecht, The Netherlands last June 7. He was 90-years-old. Louie Jalandoni was a prominent revolutionary figure and the longtime senior adviser to the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). He was instrumental in the peace talks between the left and the Philippine government.

A former Roman Catholic priest, he was born to an aristocratic family in Negros Island. He left the priesthood in the early 1970s and joined the communist movement.

In the early 1990s, we journeyed to The Netherlands several times as speaker of the House, for meetings, sometimes in secret, with Louie Jalandoni and the late Jose Ma. “Joma” Sison, founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines. Those were difficult but necessary dialogues, held in pursuit of a just and lasting peace with the communist insurgents.

We first met Joma Sison, through Louie Jalandoni, in Utrecht in September 1993. We found Joma Sison to be slightly stooped, a familiar figure of a scholar who had spent hours devouring books. He exuded quiet dignity and looked remarkably well for a man in his 50s then.

Louie Jalandoni was unwavering in his convictions, but he was also a man of intellect and deep humanity. Despite our differing ideologies, we shared a vision of ending the decades-long conflict that has brought pain and suffering to our people.

We are reminded that in 1987, a year after Cory Aquino became President, she boldly declared a 60-day ceasefire which was well-received at home and abroad as a prelude to peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) although little progress was made until her chosen successor, President Fidel V. Ramos, established an amnesty and negotiation process in 1992, which we helped put together at the time when we were speaker of the House.

Truly, peace is a universal longing and mankind’s most shared, yet elusive goal. The world needs peace for a long and sustained time and not in intervals. For Asia and the world have a surfeit of war.

We cannot walk away from the pursuit of peace because the alternative – war – is immeasurably costly and makes all of us losers.