Fighting for peace

Just as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front  and our government successfully ended negotiations to end the war, the two parties find themselves waging another war against a common enemy, the Bagsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, who are opposed to the negotiated peace. 

 In the province of Maguindanao, violence has erupted that will continue to test the peace process with the related destruction wrought on life and property.  We are reminded that achieving the peace we all want requires a lot more that demobilization of the armed wing of the MILF, the passage and approval of the needed law and accompanying implementing rules and regulations, the fulfillment of the President’s promise to crush the BIFF, the public funds to support the endeavor and many more.

The peace process needs the whole nation to commit and support the struggle for it. Interestingly, we who live away from the affected geographical region tend to be involved just reading about the developments, making our comments or treating this national issue with no interest at all.  We need to get more concerned for the attainment of peace in Mindanao shall open opportunities for the whole nation to move together toward a better and stronger nation.  The attainment of peace makes the realization of dreams of millions of young Filipinos possible.  Being negligent  in  doing our share in helping the peace process is being irresponsible. 

Let us all be more concerned and active in helping the peace process.  We can help by improving our attitude towards how we treat our fellow human beings who hold on to a different faith.  We need to discard the misconceptions that have crept into our mindset about the Muslims in the same way that the Muslims need to amend their perspective of Christians.   Our faith may differ in name and practices, but find a common denominator in a Being that teaches love and peace.  We all can start on bended knees asking that the peace for another start from within ourselves.

Another kind of war we need to help address is that of poverty. This war also robs millions of young Filipinos of their hopes and dreams.  Traversing the road from Mabinay to Bayawan in Negros Oriental provides a clear narrative of the immense possibilities for families to uplift themselves from being poor.  Increased concern for the well being of others can be expressed in more investments in our corn, rice, sugar fields and the needed improvement in the supporting infrastructure. The issue of smuggling agricultural products is a great threat that is aggravated by the increasing costs of production with decreasing productivity.  The public and private sector need to further get their act together in the process of helping improve the life of our farmers.  A lot of issues need to be resolved toward achieving the peace our farmers need and in some way we all need to share the responsibility of helping fight this war.

Let us end with an anecdote that emphasizes the importance of our understanding one another toward achieving the peace that we all desire.  A mother took her little boy to church.  While in church the little boy said, “Mommy, I have to pee.” The mother said to the little boy, “It’s not appropriate to say the word ‘pee’ in church. So, from now on whenever you have to ‘pee’ just tell me that you have to ‘whisper’.” The following Sunday, the little boy went to church with his father and during the service said to his father, “Daddy, I have to whisper.“ The father looked at him and said, “Okay, just whisper in my ear.”*