PASIG CITY -- Seventy youth leaders from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao were chosen as delegates of this year's MasterPeace IV: Youth for Peace and Transitional Justice webinar series.

Organized by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), the month-long virtual workshop is among the various activities being held during this year's National Peace Consciousness Month celebrations.

The MasterPEACE series include, among others, lectures and workshops that aim to introduce participants to the fundamentals of Transitional Justice and instruct them on how to apply these principles in their peacebuilding work.

Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito G. Galvez, Jr., in his message read by a member of the Government of the Philippines (GPH) peace implementing panel (PIP) for the GPH-MILF peace accord OPAPP Director Farrah Grace Naparan, underscored the importance of understanding the concepts of transitional justice and reconciliation (TJR).

"It is our hope that you will use this activity as an opportunity not only to gain more knowledge and a better understanding of transitional justice and reconciliation and learn new peacebuilding skills, but more importantly, to build connections with your fellow participants, and later on, develop projects you can implement in your communities," Galvez said.

For his part, Usec. David B. Diciano, chair of the GPH PIP on the GPH-MILF peace accord, in his message read by OPAPP Director Ishmael I. Bahjin, stressed the need to look back to the lessons of the past using the TJR lens in order to build a better future.

"This year's MasterPEACE is focusing on the various issues relating to transitional justice and reconciliation. This is in recognition of the idea that we need to acknowledge our past to see how far we have gotten, and to determine how much longer we must go towards a more just and inclusive society," said Diciano.

Meanwhile, MILF PIP Chairperson Mohagher M. Iqbal, who is also BARMM's Minister of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education, gave participants a background on the Bangsamoro peace process and how TJR will help preserve and sustain its gains, in his message read by Ammier M. Dodo of the MILF TWG-TJR.

"We are in the critical stage of the peace process wherein parties are implementing the commitments stated in the signed peace agreements...one of these components is the TJR," Iqbal said. "Generally speaking, transitional justice is a process of acknowledging, prosecuting, compensating and forgiving past crimes during a period of rebuilding after conflict," he added.

In the meantime, the GPH and MILF Technical Working Group on TJR threw their full support behind the youth participants, encouraging them to play a more active role in peacebuilding through TJR.

"I hope that as youth, while you learn about this dark history of our country later, as the session progresses, tingnan rin natin ang TJR not only as dealing with the past but also a way to do a forward-looking and solution-seeking," said OPAPP Director Jana Jill L. Gallardo of the GPH TWG-TJR.

"Kahanga-hangang tingnan na ang mga kabataan ay gumagawa ng iba't-ibang paraan upang sila ay makatulong sa pagkumpuni o pagsasaayos ng nasirang kapatiran ng mga mamamamayan sa Pilipinas dulot ng hidwaan, hindi pagkakaintindihan, o maling pagkakakilala sa bawat isa," noted Ammier M. Dodo of the MILF TWG-TJR.

The MasterPEACE series featured a lecture on the Culture of Peace by OPAPP Director Vanessa Vianca Pallarco; an Orientation on the Six-Point Peace and Development Agenda by OPAPP Director Mae Ballena; an overview of the peace process between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) by Director Bahjin; an introduction to Transitional Justice and Dealing with the Past (TJ-DwP) Framework by Prof. Ma. Lourdes Veneracion-Rallonza; a lecture on Youth, Peace, and Security (YPS) in the Philippines and in the Bangsamoro by OPAPP's Karen Marla N. Rodulfo and Kriselle Marie S. Aquino. (OPAPP)

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