Lobregat keynotes Week of Peace rites
Mayor Celso Lobregat, Peace Advocates Zamboanga head Fr. Angel Calvo and PAZ Vice Chair Prof. Ali Yacub release white doves signalling the start of the observance of the Week of Peace in Zamboanga Nov. 26 at the JFE Complex in Baliwasan. (JOEY BAUTISTA)
Mayor Celso Lobregat has hailed Zamboangueños from different faiths, cultures and traditions as instruments of peace even as he lamented that people of Mindanao have long been in search of the very elusive peace in this part of the country.
“All of us are in search of a lasting peace. Muslims, Christians, Lumads and people from other faiths want peace. This is the call that we shall continue to heed with all the efforts, with all the commitment and with all the dedication we can muster,” Mayor Lobregat said yesterday during the opening ceremony of the Mindanao Week of Peace at the jampacked JFE Memorial Sports Complex in Baliwasan.
“To achieve (that) peace we have to understand each other; not tolerating each other but understand each other’s culture and understand each other’s faith,” Lobregat said, adding that in Zamboanga there should be no distinction between Christians and Muslims, between Muslims and Lumads and between Catholics and Protestants. “We should focus on what unites us and not on what divides us. We are all Zamboangueños and we are all Filipinos,” he stressed.
To the Muslims, the chief executive said, “In our search for a lasting peace nothing is more consoling than the words of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) when he exhorted his followers to live in peace and said ‘A true believer is one with whom others feel secure—one who returns love for hatred.’
The same message, he said, is propagated in the teachings of the Catholic Church: “Jesus is the truth which gives us peace.” “Believers in Christ are also impelled to become convincing witnesses of the God who is inseparably truth and love, placing themselves at the service of peace in the broad cooperation with Christians, the followers of other religions and with all men and women of good will.”
Lobregat has issued an executive order mandating the observance of the Mindanao Week of Peace in Zamboanga City from Nov. 26 to Dec. 2, 2009 with the theme “Think Mindanao, Feel Mindanao, Bring Peace to Mindanao.”
The event is being initiated by the Inter-Religious Solidarity Movement for Peace under lead convener Fr. Angel Calvo in coordination with Peace Advocates Zamboanga (PAZ) and SALAM Foundation.
Present during the program were Fr. Calvo, WMSU President Dr. Grace J. Rebollos, PAZ vice chair, Prof. Ali T. Yacub, Muslim convener and executive director of the Golden Crescent Peace Council, Datu Julkarnain, Civil Service Commission Regional Director Macybel Alfaro-Sahi, Human Rights Commissioner Manuel Mamauag, foreign guests and several other officials. (Vic Larato)