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OP Kors!: Balay Mindanaw Peace Center hosts comprehensive peacebuilding course

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CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – A core pool of more than 50 community-based development workers, community leaders and local government officials in Mindanao recently participated in the first half of a four-week program, “OP Kors!: Operation Peace Course.”

Dubbed as a “Comprehensive Course for Peace Builders in Mindanaw,” the live-in course was held at the newly-inaugurated Balay Mindanaw Peace Center in Barangay Bulua this city, from Feb. 27 to March 11, 2005.

The Konrad Adeneuer Stiftung (KAS) provided funding support while the Catholic Services (CRS) served as project partner, providing expert facilitators for the course which was held using the facilities of the Peace Center partly donated by the Japanese Embassy and the German Development Service (ded).

During the course, participants learned peacebuilding skills packaged in three modules. These modules consisted of participatory workshops and interactive lessons in: self-transformation, basic concepts in conflict transformation and basic peacebuilding skills, including negotiation, dialog and mediation, among others. Deng Guiguinto, Emmanuel Amancio and Bebot Sescon facilitated the courses.

“Op Kors!” is a local phrase often used in text messaging (SMS) and is coined from the English expression, “of course” which means “without a doubt” or “exactly”.

As adapted by the Balay Mindanaw Group of NGOs for this activity, the term is the acronym for “Operation Peace Kors (Course)”, also alluding to the appropriation of the term “operation” often used to connote a military campaign but used here instead to convey a series of peacebuilding.

According to Charlito “Kaloy” Manlupig, BMG President, OP Kors! is a 23-day journey and is composed of participants from varied backgrounds. Most are leaders in their communities, a few are cooperative heads, a handful are indigenous peoples and a majority is composed of development workers from all over Mindanao.

The opening program on February 27 started with an indigenous dance. The lights dimmed and out of the shadows emerge the dancers with their painted faces as stoic as the offerings they carried. Arms fluid with their movements, their torsos undulating to the beat of the indigenous music in the background, they formed a boat out of their bodies, a very symbolic insignia of their solidarity. Eyes lit with fire, their faces now transformed into eager expectations of what the future will bring to Balay Mindanaw and to the entire Mindanao Island.

During the program, Manlupig gave a thought-provoking introduction to the course. He presented the objectives of the whole seminar and its significance to the people of Mindanao.

He explained that the goal is to be able to form a core pool of people who will pave the way for community-based peacebuilding and to come up with sustainable programs of peace which will signal the start of a significant social movement in the archipelago.

He stressed that peace building, together with development and sustainability, had always been a pillar of Balay Mindanaw’s aspirations through its eight years of existence as a non-government organization working in communities. In fact, the BMG is the independent Secretariat of the on-going peace process between the Government of the Philippines (GRP) and the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng mga Manggagawa sa Mindanao (RPM-M).

Together with Kaloy during the opening program were Belle Garcia and Ayi C. Fernandez. As Coordinator for the BM Peace Center, Garcia informed everyone of the Balay Mindanaw ground rules. Hernandez is the Executive Director of BMFI and took the task of introducing the facilitators, the people working behind this endeavor and the documentors. He also explained the workings of the seminar proper and how and why the participants were divided the next day. There weree two (2) groups: (1) the baranggay leaders and the people occupying a key role in the community they belong to and, (2) the development workers working alongside the people in the community.

One significant segment during the program was Manlupig’s reading of the “Meditations on Peace”. The piece stated that peace is not a thing to be possessed. It is a Way. Much like the Tao, an ancient Chinese script made popular by the philosopher Lao Tzu, peace advocates stress compassion, humility and selflessness. Worthy of reflection, the poem encompassed everything that the comprehensive course hoped to attain and more so, what Balay Mindanaw upholds.

One highlight of the course was the dialogue held between the course participants and Mr. Klaus Preschle, the Country Representative of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. The two-hour dialogue was characterized by deep and open discussions on peace and Mindanao development, and the role that KAF wishes to play in these concerns. Mr. Preschle also announced KAF’s commitment to Balay Mindanaw’s pursuit of its peace agenda, stressing that they are fully committed to the completion of the two remaining modules of Op Kors!.

The second half of “OP Kors!” will consist of two modules: a fieldwork and exposure in areas where Balay Mindanaw is mediating the GRP-RPMM peace talks and a peacebuilding design course to empower participants to plan sustainable community-based peacebuilding programs in their localities.

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Venue

Cagayan de Oro

Contact

Klaus Preschle