(Last of 3 parts)

SOME 5,000 delegates from the six regions of Mindanao are coming today to attend the 1st Mindanao Cooperative Peace Forum which will be graced by no than Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. They will be crafting the cooperative agenda for peace and to showcase grassroots’ peace initiatives. This supports the truism that cooperativism, by nature and nurture, is the roadmap to peace in Mindanao.

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On this historical convergence, the one million two hundred twenty six thousand six hundred forty active cooperative members in Mindanao are declaring through their delegates their collective intent to build peace in Mindanao. It is their resounding outcry to stop the war to erase miseries and poverty in this land of plenty. In this age of spiritual awakening, rectifying historical and social wrongs through the firepower of guns has become obsolete in our cosmic journey towards the light.

It has been said that neither the past nor the present shapes the future. What will shape the future is our collective of what we want it to be. Notwithstanding the fact the stripe in Mindanao is the second longest running conflict in the world. Notwithstanding the intricacies of the problems, the cooperatives firmly believe that when the Mindanawons work together towards that vision of oneness in diversity, then this wonderful island with its beautiful people will finally be in harmony. For in truth, we are all waves of one sea and leaves of one tree. For whatever our differences be, we are all sons and daughters of Mindanao.

In the forum, good governance will be presented as a condition sine qua non to peace and development. It follows democratic processes. Unless the people participate in development processes, all the outpourings of development assistance will just be palliatives and cannot be the real solution.

Social change to have positive peace has been illusive all these years despite two people power revolutions and two decades of martial law.
There might be changing of the guards but the structures that breed violence and poverty are still as formidable as ever. As poverty is rooted in the powerlessness and social exclusion of the people, remedial measures must be taken to empower them. Increasing therefore their capabilities, enhancing their skills and developing their well-being are the imperatives for people to be empowered.

Another path to peace is to develop the capabilities, to enhance the skills of the people especially those in the margins of development. A country that has not developed its human capital is now being penalized by slow growth. Enhancing the inhabitants’ skills, knowledge and values is imperative to mitigate social exclusion and to contribute to peace building processes.

Sheikh Ali Mamondiong said, “A boil cannot be cured by merely cutting it off with a blade. The contaminated blood will only produce more and more boils.”

Advancing the essence of cooperativism means mitigating, if not, uprooting the causes of conflict. As we draw all the cooperatives into the mainstream of peace-building, conflict transformation can be had to erase the factors to transform negative peace into a positive one.

Indeed, the road to peace is long and tedious and the climb will be steep but we will get there. Join the cooperatives in this noble crusade. If not now, when? If not the Mindanawons, then who? (cda_cdo@yahoo.com.ph)