By BEVERLY C.
PAOYON
ALABEL, Sarangani
(April 22, 2012) – The military, police and former Moro combatants will fight
for the first time in a new arena.
“The last time they
fought like this was in the battlefield,” said Jocelyn Lambac Kanda, Sarangani peace program
officer. “This time their fight will be inside the
hardcourt.”
The arena is called
OlymPeace, a friendly athletic competition to be participated in by different
teams from the province’s local peace partners like the Armed Forces of the
Philippines (AFP), Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Moro National
Liberation Front (MNLF), Philippine National Police (PNP), International and
Local Monitoring Teams, former rebels, provincial government and
media.
OlymPeace is part of
the April 23-25 Musabaqah at the Capitol grounds.
Governor Migs
Dominguez has directed all Capitol departments “to give their utmost
consideration to the delegations and cooperation for the success of the
Musabaqah.”
The MNLF and the provincial government will play the
first game of the basketball tournament on April 23 (Tuesday). The IMT vs rebel
returnees, MNLF vs AFP, rebel returnees vs PNP, Madaris vs AFP, MNLF vs MILF and
ABS-CBN vs PNP will play the second, third and succeeding games,
respectively.
The OlymPeace is the highlight activity integrated in
this year’s 4th Musabaqah, an intramurals of the 2,500-strong Muslim youth from
the 49 Islamic schools in Sarangani.
As the province is working towards achieving a
participative and inclusive peace process, Kanda said the activity likewise
serves as “a venue of friendship for those we perceived enemies of the
government and will strengthen our built relationship with them.”
OlymPeace will provide “a space for healthy engagement
of different peace workers regardless of their organizational affiliations,
beliefs and principles,” Kanda said.
She added OlymPeace will also “send a message that we
can give peace a chance by opening oneself to give way for the possibility of
working together.”
She said this would be
“a significant instrument of successfully integrating the Moro constituents of
the province into the mainstream of governance and promoting camaraderie among
peace stakeholders.”
Sarangani is generally
peaceful. Its local government has invested in empowering its people so that
they may be able to participate in governance and identify their own problems
and solutions to these.
Kanda said the
province has been proactive in its approach. “Instead of responding pag may
conflict na, we worked to change the mindsets of our constituents on peace and
conflict thru culture of peace (COP) trainings and molded the good values of our
Muslim children thru Madaris,” she said.
“We have proven that a
culture of dialogue can be institutionalized and it is very effective in
bridging the gap between people or groups that have conflicting standpoints,”
Kanda said. She cited the International and Local Monitoring Team
meetings/dialogues that the LGU convenes as an effective way of “clearing out
issues that might escalate into violence.”
“Yung relationship of
tri-people in the province became better. It paved the way for easier
mobilization of the grassroots communities to be in the frontline of peace
building,” Kanda added.
In 2009, the program
dubbed as Kalinaw (vernacular for peace) received the Galing Pook Award as
Sarangani’s innovative peace and development program that succeeded in
instilling peace especially among former conflict-affected areas of the province
thru culture of peace trainings, Madaris Education for Muslim youth, and peace
partnerships with government and non-government organizations. (Beverly C.
Paoyon/ SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE/Come and enjoy Sarangani Bay Festival on
May 24-25, 2013)
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