ZAMBOANGA CITY – This southern Philippine port city of Zamboanga has joined the weeklong celebration of peace with thousands of residents parading as a show of unity – a year after a deadly siege left hundreds of people dead and wounded.
Mayor Maria Isabelle Salazar also participated in the event and spoke to the huge crowd. In her message, Salazar urged residents to support peace and cultivate a culture of peace among the people of Mindanao. She also said their is a need for continued communication and dialogue between all peoples – Christians, Muslims, and Lumads – to achieve long-lasting peace for Mindanao’s children.
In support to the celebration of the Week of Peace, Salazar issued Executive Order No. BC 83-2014 enjoining the active participation of all schools, government entities, private institutions, non-government organizations, parishes, church-based organizations, civil society groups, urban poor communities and other people’s organization.
This year’s theme is “Healing the Past, Building the Future”.
Father Angel Calvo, a known peace advocate here, joined the five-kilometer parade from Centro Pastoral to Pasonanca Park.
“Walking with the victims of last year’s war in Zamboanga City is the best way to cure their wounds and to heal social conflicts in local communities,” said Father Calvo in his welcome remarks at the opening program of the Week of Peace held at the Boy Scout Campsite.
The Week of Peace celebration, the 18th held annually here, is “our collective commitment to the struggle for peace despite the daily challenges and problems.”
The celebration was spearheaded by Interreligious Solidarity for Peace that Father Calvo convened. He said peace is a gift from God given in small sizes, which everyone should cultivate to grow and spread.
He said the trek to the Pasonanca Park symbolized the need to walk with the victims of the war to help them rehabilitate and recover the lives they lost by the violence of the attack.
“The Week of Peace 2014 serves to highlight the peace-making challenges before us: psycho-social healing not only of individual victims but also affected social segments, the need to repair our divisiveness and overcome apathy and negativism, the need to redress the immediate victims of all acts violence of the past, the need for peace education among the youth, the need for good governance to reduce poverty and so foster peace in families and communities,” Father Calvo said.
Young wards of Akay Kalinga, a shelter for homeless children also ran by Father Calvo’s Katilingban para sa Kalambuan, Inc., presented a dance and mime number. The ceremony ended with the release of doves and balloons. (Mindanao Examiner and Peace Advocates Zamboanga)
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