OPPAP chief to peace advocatesand ‘Let’s hold on’
BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES • 03:29 AM Sun May 17, 2015
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By:
Edwin Fernandez
Presidential
Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) Sec. Teresita Deles has urged Friends of
Peace (FOP) and other groups pushing for the passage of the draft Bangsamoro
Basic Law (BBL) into law, to hold on and keep praying and working for peace.
It is
important we continue to hold on, not to give way. We have survived so many
challenges during the course of the Mindanao peace process and we are now closer
to achieving our goals of establishing genuine peace in Muslim Mindanao,” Deles
told about 5,000 participants of the peace march” organized by the FOP in
front of the House of Representatives main gate.
Huwag tayong
bibitiw (let’s hold on),” she urged the crowd who chanted pass the BBL now.”
The peace
march that started along Commonwealth Avenue and ended at the Batasan Complex
and lasted from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. was participated not only by Bangsamoro
people but non-Moros from various parts of the country and the national capital
region.
It is normal
that during the peace process there were obstacles, there were some
disturbances we need to hurdle, we have reached this far and we should continue
working for peace,” she added in Filipino. Our track
record showed that we have faced all the challenges head-on and we succeeded,”
Deles said.
The peace
rally was held hours before the House AdHoc Committee on the Bangsamoro was
supposed to vote the passage of draft bill at the committee level. (The voting
was postponed to May 18 to accommodate more proposed amendments).
She said
President Aquino was determined to achieve peace in Mindanao and ready to
hurdle all the challenges along the way.
It’s like
Boston marathon,” Deles said as she likened the peace process to the famous
Boston marathon in the United States.
In the Boston
marathon, Deles said, the runners will come to a stage when they are almost at the
finish line of the marathon and only need few more steps to reach the goal.
They call it
‘heart-breaking’,” she explained. Those who did not give up reached the finish
line, Deles said.
We are at the
stage of heart-breaking, few more steps and we reach the finish line, the few
steps before the finish line is the legislative process our lawmakers are doing,”
she said, adding that once the bill is passed, and signed into law by the
President, then, that is the finish line.
We may have
lost hope, we might have been weakened by the process but we need to reach the
finish line,” she added.
Can we reach
the end line?” she asked the crowd who responded a loud and strong yes.”
Reminding the
crowd of the song Let’s hold on together,” Deles rally the peace advocates to
remain strong and committed.