Sunday, August 31, 2008 Activist challenges Visayas youth to help prevent southern civil war
A PEACE advocate whose advice has been sought in war-torn countries like Nepal and Rwanda yesterday warned that the country is on the brink of civil war.
Ed Garcia, senior policy adviser for International Alert, said all signs of an impending civil war are in place in the Philippines.
“If the present polarization, division and mistrust continue, then obviously there is going to be civil war. You must be blind if you cannot see the signs,” he said.
Today, on the eve of Ramadan, the country must respond to the church’s call to prayer and give space for reflection, he said. He issued a “call to conscience” to the Filipino people and the government.
Speaking before the youth in a Generation Peace forum yesterday, Garcia denounced the “lack of moral leadership” in the country.
“We are all Mindanaoanons. Our Muslim brothers feel betrayed,” he said, referring to the present conflict on the aborted memorandum of agreement (MOA) creating the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.
The cause of the conflict, Garcia said, is “lack of respect for the rule of law” and a lack of transparency in the government.
With the tension more manifest in Luzon and Mindanao than in the Visayas, he said the Visayan youth can lead the nation by showing “solidarity.”
Garcia drafted Article 13 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, on Social Justice and Human Rights. He used to teach in the Ateneo de Manila University and University of the Philippines.
Party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquiel and Sens. Francis Escudero and Francis Pangilinan were among his students.
Garcia said he spoke to the Generation Peace because the youth “has great potential and can mobilize people.”
Sangguniang Kabataan officials, Akbayan party-list leaders, and campus journalists from all over the Visayas attended the forum, which the Gaston Ortigas Peace Institute and Cebu Labor Education Advocacy Research organized. (KAB)
