February 2019 — On February 15th, a grand peace festival entitled “We are one for Peace to attain Sustainable Development” at the Philippine Sports Stadium, Bulacan, will be held to launch nationwide peace movement throughout the country’s State Universities and Colleges.
This event is expected to have 30,000 participants including social representatives in the Philippines and international peace activists including the organizers – Volunteer Individuals for Peace (VIP) by Dr. Ronald Adamat, CHED’s Commissioner and Mr. Man Hee Lee, Chairman of HWPL (Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light), who organized this event as a peace NGO under the UN ECOSOC.
“The highlight of this peace event is to give inspiration of citizen participation in peacebuilding. Cultural performances will represent harmony under peace beyond differences in ethnicity, religion or nationality. Also, the principles of peacebuilding with civic participation and national support will be introduced – the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War (DPCW),” said Mr. Ian Seo, General Director, Department of Public Relations, HWPL.
The DPCW, the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War, addresses principles of conflict resolution and international cooperation for peacebuilding such as the prohibition of the use of force, peaceful dispute settlement, and spreading a culture of peace through education and citizen activism, within 10 articles and 38 clauses.
As a partnership in promoting a culture of peace between the City Government of Paranaque and HWPL, there will be an inauguration of the “PEACE ROOM” in Paranaque City Public Library where peace education materials will be exhibited to inspire daily visitors. According to organizers of this project, “peace corner and peace room will be established in different libraries nationwide to raise awareness of peacebuilding to citizens.
Last January 2018, Commissioner of Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and HWPL signed an MOU to promote peace education throughout public colleges in the country. Approved by CHED, peace education together with indigenous people education is now integrated into all Higher Education Institutions nationwide.
“Promoting peace education through the CHED will affect many Philippine educational institutions and play a crucial role in promoting peace in the Philippines,” said Dr. Adamat.
“We should think of how we can achieve peace. It should start by teaching peace to the youths,” emphasized Mr. Lee in his last visit to the Philippines. As a representative of HWPL, Mr. Lee, a Korean peace activist, and Korean War veteran will visit in February to advocate global cooperation for peacebuilding.
