Human conflict has always been an evident reality that has marred out existence in the passage of time. Since ancient times even now during modern civilization, mankind has engineered ways for destructive conflicts using weapons of different natures, whether it’s the power of words in terms of propaganda or the power of arms, destructive conflict that leads to battles and wars are a complete waste of human lives, resources, and brings about scars and pain to our humanity. The Philippines is also a country struggling with issues about peace, there are internal struggles faced by the greater Filipino society that should be achieved in order to attain social reform. The roots are drawn from old conflicts mostly in the Visayan and Mindanao regions and more likely escalated during the Marcos Regime especially during Martial Law.

Even in the late 80’s, 90’s, and the late 2000’s there have been peace issues with a lot of group, either insurgents or other militant groups wishing to voice out their concern using armed means or propaganda. The military is then faced with lethal and at often times questionable missions to quell the threats by these groups, and sometimes with the aid of other military groups foreign and domestic. But on the other side,it is these insurgent and militant groups like MILF/MNLF, New People’s Army, Abu Sayaff and other off shoot groups that have initiated vicious crimes like kidnapping and unprovoked war on civilians and military alike. It seems that the government should concentrate more efforts in healing wounds rather that retaliatory missions to quell the threats posed by these groups. Thanks to efforts of some concerned people organizations, non government entities, and even small government sectors, The Just Peace Organization was started.

The organizations that will be able to”weave strands” of peace should have a unified vision like Just Peace. Just take a look at the efforts given by groups like The Coalition for Peace (1987) – the Multisectoral Peace Advocates (1990) and the National Peace Conference (1990), they have used various mediums in terms if education, development agenda, infrastructures for peace studies, and even communities and individual citizens to fuel the peace effort. I’m sure everyone would strive for constancy and continuity in the country which is free of war and conflict.

For the most part, the best course of action that we citizens should take part is start initiating efforts that would not cause conflict to our brethren. For more details, you can contact the Just Peace main headquarters and see how you can contribute by getting involved.