Northern Luzon peace center on the rise

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

This comes after Presidential Peace Adviser Secretary 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 and the facility — to be built at 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.