THE report made by the Bishop-Ulama Conference (BUC) to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last week is replete with affirmations on the remuneration for a culture of war. There's the Moro secessionist movement, the centerpiece of the conflict in Mindanao that is made worse and fanned by warlords, clan wars, prejudice and distrust, and just plain hotheadedness among those who wield the gun.

The conflicts in Mindanao, in fact, are a picture of how it is if we always allow guns to rule over everyone. We've seen a demonstration of that during the administration of President Joseph Estrada and we'll keep seeing that over and over again for as long as the people and government will continue to allow force, violence and war to take precedence over all other solutions and relations.

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We need only to look at how children are playing war games right in the war zone, strutting their toy guns in a make-believe world of power to sense there is an embedded culture there. There appears to be a sense of power attached to the gun that these children are already imbibing with their toy guns. It's in the consciousness, in how society has honed them. There is but the law of the powerful, there is but the brawn. This is the message that continues to be passed on from generation to generation as the menfolk of the Moro provinces regard their guns as their most precious possession.

That there are vast armories of loose firearms in these areas is already a manifestation of a culture gone wrong; an undercurrent that says enmity not friendship rules. For why would a community arm itself if it does not expect to attack and be attacked?

All is not lost though as there are pockets of peace that we are also seeing in conflict-ridden areas. Communities that have come together to foster a life away from the guns that they have been living with. With the help of international and local non-government organizations, the culture of peace is being sown albeit in tiny amounts as compared to the culture of war that continues to prevail.

But in these tiny amounts is tomorrow’s hope. It is in these communities where the local residents themselves have sworn to give up the gun and instead build a community based on trust and concern for each other that their children will inherit; it is in these communities that people are digging their heels against blind obedience to power and force that warlordism has spawned since generations past.

They may be puny resistance at the moment, but even in their most puny state, children are already enjoying the peace that has long been denied them, the same peace denied their parents and grandparents as children.

There will be expected resistance too, especially from the warlords who cannot live without their guns. The vested interest, the absence of trust, the greed, will always beget more arms, bombs, and resultant hostilities. But that is the greatest challenge that Mindanao continues to face.

That BUC, through the hundreds of focused group discussions and dialogues all over Mindanao, has identified causes of conflict beyond just the Moro rebellion is already a positive step. It is when we refuse to identify and recognize causes of conflict that we will continue to live with whatever form conflict has taken within our midst. To prevent conflict, we have to identify the causes. The study made has identified the causes, now we just have to come to terms with it, recognize these as the cogs to the peace process, and then work from there. It will not be easy, because identifying and recognizing the causes may mean identifying and recognizing ourselves and how we are perpetuating those conflicts. In the same way that the warlords and every owner of a loose firearm out there will just have to recognize his contribution in this conflict.

It's not going to be easy, but it has to be done.

"There is no path to peace, peace is the path," said Mahatma Gandhi. We are living witnesses of what force, violence, and a culture of war begets. So, why not peace, instead?