OPAPP ‘peace buzz’ to travel from Benguet to Marawi city

BAGUIO CITY — The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process will launch this month a Luzon-Mindanao bus tour to promote a culture of peace among Filipinos.

OPAPP has chosen the Cordillera, particularly Mount Data, as the starting point for the ‘peace buzz’ campaign, said OPAPP consultant Tom Killip. Killip is a former mayor of Sagada town.

He said that peace advocates from different parts of the country will be boarding a bus that will drive from Mount Data in Benguet to Marawi City.

The ‘peace buzz’ will have several stopovers in Baguio City, Quezon City, Bicol, Samar, Surigao, Davao, and Ozamiz before reaching Marawi, where President Rodrigo Duterte will meet the peace advocates.

“Mount Data was chosen as the starting point of the 'peace buzz' because of its historical significance as the venue of the signing of the peace pact between the Philippine government under former president Corazon Aquino and the Cordillera Bodong Administration–Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army (CBA-CPLA) under the leadership of the late Fr. Conrado Balweg on September 13, 1986," Killip said.

The 'peace buzz' will launch on September 21 and proceed to Baguio City, where the main program will be done at Malcolm Square at around 9 a.m. The campaign will coincide with the 31st anniversary of the signing of the peace accord between the government and the CPLA.