Though they have already announced their plans to retire as a group—going as far as saying they’d be playing their last gigs by May of this year—it seems that providence has other plans for Jim Paredes, Buboy Garovillo and Danny Javier, collectively known as the Apo Hiking Society.

The 40-year old musical group has recently been tapped by the Arroyo government as “peace ambassadors” in Mindanao.

Ironically, the trio was not chosen for what made them popular in the first place—songwriting brilliance.

According to Annabelle Abaya, presidential adviser on the peace process, they didn’t commission the group to write or sing songs, or do a concert—they picked them, rather, to be the “face and voice” for the new peace campaign.

“The Apo will be appearing on TV and doing radio ads to make the public aware… to encourage [them] to take part in a series of [peace] dialogues that we will be organizing from Luzon to Mindanao from February to March,” said she.

The main idea, as hatched by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) is to promote "reflective dialogue" analogous to starting fresh negotiations between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Both the government and the MILF swapped draft agreements in Kuala Lumpur last week in a bid to end a long drawn out insurgency that hobbled economic development in most parts of Mindanao for decades.

The government is pulling all stops to get a final agreement inked before President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo steps down on June 30.

But why the Apo?

“They have a good image,” Abaya quipped.

It is Javier, who is said to be living in General Santos City nowadays, who is most passionate about the campaign, said Abaya.

“He offered himself as ‘spokesperson of peace,’" she said, and the other two were very supportive.

“They readily said yes when we asked them to do it, without conditions," she said.

The idea of the dialogue is to get people to air their sentiments and share their views on the issues being tackled at the negotiating table, Abaya explained.

“We have to emphasize that talking is not limited to negotiations. It includes people who have something to say. Mindanao is their homeland. They live the consequences of whatever decision they’re making. So we have to consult them."

“We don’t want a debate. People close their minds and ears when you have a debate," Abaya added. “We call it reflective dialogue because it promotes thinking— thinking for oneself."

In his Philippine Star column last month Jan 24, 2010, Paredes explained why Apo Hiking Society has decided to call it quits.

“40 years is a long time. The repetitive nature of any career can get boring. That’s why in the past few years we have been individually looking at other horizons. We are all creative and, by nature, there is a gnawing restlessness in all of us that needs to be constantly fed with new experiences. And our personal journeys have brought us to different paths, made us drift apart and led us to interests that demand more and more of our time, making our commitment to APO and all its obligations less tenable.

“These are some of the reasons why we are disbanding, although there are individual reasons as well.

“It is best to end APO while we are still respected players on the scene. If breaking up is inevitable, why not do it now? We can’t complain; the past 40 years have given us a good run.”