A March 17, 2011 press release by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace processPresidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos-Deles challenged civil society to understand and become actively involved in the peace issues to help the country move forward.
“It’s not enough that you want peace. You have to seek it, you have to understand its process, you have to take part in it,” Deles urged members of the People Power Volunteers for Reform (PPVR) during a forum and workshop, “Making Peace in Mindanao a National Issue”, held at the Regalia Tower Hotel Suites in Quezon City this Saturday.
The workshop aims to promote peace in the consciousness of the citizenry and to draw up a roadmap for the engagement of PPVR members in specific issues.PPVR is an organization of volunteers, grassroots and advocacy groups from all over the country who are actively engaging the government and the people in the pursuit of reforms.
Currently, the peace process is one of the advocacies where PPVR wants to become actively involved.
Need for people’s support to the peace process
Deles underscored that the peace process needs all the support it can get from the people.
“It is not enough to put a good president in charge in order to solve the problems of the government. With all the efforts that the government has put out, maybe it’s time for us to ask: ‘What can we expect from you?” she said.
Deles added that the government is doing what it can for the peace process, but in the end, the people will have to support it because “if we do not support the peace process, if we do not stand by it, there will be those who will go against it.”
According to Deles, it is her advocacy to attend forums and conferences to make sure that more people have better understanding of the peace process, and to elicit support.
“I attend forums like this in the hope that you will take this as an opportunity to take part in the process, in the hope that you will believe with me that the peace table is one place where miracles can happen,” adding that, “in the end, what we need most here is faith, hope, and imagination.”
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