Marawi City - Oblivious to the tension gripping some parts of Makati City, representatives of various sectors in Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte trooped to the gymnasium of Mindanao State University on Thursday to express their commitment to peace during the opening program of the Mindanao Week of Peace.
With the theme "Building bridges of peace with our peace officers," representatives of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Peace and Development League--whose members are mostly Moro National Liberation Front, discussed their respective efforts to contribute to peace in their areas.
Col. Salvador Pegalan of 103rd Brigade of the Philippine Army at Camp Ranao said a series of `Culture of Peace` seminars were conducted, in partnership with civil society groups, for their soldiers and engaged in peace building initiatives to transform the military men and women into peace advocates.
"Culture of Peace will help us achieve lasting peace. It`s my dream that the Islamic City of Marawi and the two provinces of Lanao will become center of peace not only in Mindanao but also in the world," said Pegalan who hailed from this city.
Supt. Paniares Adap, Philippine National Police provincial director in Lanao del Sur, cited the cooperation among the local government units, Council of Elders, and other partners that prevented the aggravation of 10 armed skirmishes in the province.
"Forgiveness is better than revenge. The absence of forgiveness is also the absence of peace," he said.
On the other hand, Dr. Ricardo del Leon, president of MSU System, underscores the importance of MSU in promoting and sustaining peace in Mindanao with its mandate as "a social laboratory."
"This is a significant day for us as we started to work realizing our dream to become a peace university. There is a need for all of us to make a sacrifice, for everybody to make a contribution in removing the barrier toward peace through tolerance and harmonization," de Leon said, addressing students who filled the bleachers of the gymnasium.
A series of initiatives were mapped out for the university to integrate peace education in the curriculum of all courses at all levels of the institution with the support of the GoP-UN ACT for Peace Programme, which partners with the academe, religious sector, and media to enhance an enabling environment for peace building.
Sheikh Abdul Fatah Ahmad Hassan Al-Silhab, president of Al Azhar Missionary in the Philippines, encouraged the audience to read and study more about Islam.
"Peace is central to Islam. Islam is free from all these allegations about terrorism as it teaches friendship and love. To those who do not understand Islam, I invite you to read about it for you to understand," he said during the program that was also attended by the local officials, church leaders, civil society organizations, students, International Monitoring Team, and the donor community.
A peace covenant that shows the initiatives that could be done by all sectors to continue and up-scale the peace efforts in the two provinces was also signed.
Dialogue, partnerships, allocation of resources for peace building activities, and establishment of necessary mechanisms to support and enhance peace building gains are among the highlights of the covenant.
The celebration of the Mindanao Week of Peace, which runs until December 5, is led by the Bishops-Ulama Forum that facilitated the dialogue among Catholic and National Christian Churches of the Philippines bishops as well as Muslim religious leaders.
The initiative was recognized by the government through Presidential Proclamation 127, series of 2001.
Source: www.sunstar.com.ph (4 Desember 2007)
