Northern Luzon’s first peace center to rise in Baguio

The first-ever Peace Center in Northern Luzon will soon be constructed in Baguio City, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity said on Monday.

The announcement came after Presidential Peace Adviser Sec. Carlito G. Galvez Jr. and Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong recently led the groundbreaking ceremony and the signing of a memorandum of agreement for the construction of the peace and development center.

The funding for the center worth P50 million will be sourced from the 2024 national budget of OPAPRU’s Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan or the PAMANA program.

The facility, to be built ats the Upper Session Road in Baguio, will serve as a peace knowledge and learning center for the residents.

Its spacious floor area of 3,775 square meters could also be used as a convention center for meetings and seminars among peace workers and stakeholders.

The center could also be a venue for the conduct of peace dialogues, capacity and skills training, women and youth peace and security seminars, and the practice of conflict resolution approaches that originated in the Cordillera.

The PAMANA program is the national government’s peace and development convergence program which forms an integral part of the Philippine comprehensive peace process.

OPAPRU said the PAMANA’s cross-cutting and community-driven intervention directly contributes to the implementation of the Transformation and Normalization policies under the various peace agreements while ensuring the sustainability of project interventions in peace and development focus areas.

Magalong said the idea of establishing a peace center in the city started during his casual talk with Galvez at an event at the Philippine Military Academy in September last year.

“He mentioned to me the different programs of OPAPRU and the funding for the programs. He also mentioned the peacekeeping and reconciliation programs to which we both agreed to suggest that we can put up a peace and development center here in Baguio City,” Magalong recalled.

Galvez said the peace center shall serve as a concrete symbol of OPAPRU’s recognition of the Cordillera Administrative Region’s “key role in peacebuilding that is deeply rooted in its rich culture and traditions such as the Bodong system, Pechen, Tung-Tong, and Mediation.”

“We are looking forward to a very strong partnership and collaboration with regard to this joint venture and that is, the construction of a peace and development center, the first of its kind in Northern Luzon. I also heard that there would be more peace and development centers that will be put up in other parts of this country,” Magalong replied to Galvez