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Manila Bulletin devider Opinion devider Doing great things together

Doing great things together

Published Nov 18, 2024 01:16 am

PEACE BY PEACE

GALVEZ PIC.jpg

 

(Part I)

The Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity (OPAPRU) hosted last Thursday, Nov. 14,  its inaugural International and Private Partnership Forum (IPPF).


Our fellow peace builders, peace advocates, and peace partners from the embassies, international organizations, civil society organizations and the private sector were on hand to participate in the exchanges and in finding areas of collaboration for partnerships to work on. I’m sharing here portions of my speech.


Here we go:


Before I begin, I would like to share a quote from Mother Teresa which I believe is fitting for tonight’s gathering. She said, and I quote, “I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together, we can do great things.” 


And that is why we are here today joining together for the OPAPRU’s first-ever International and Private Partners Forum so that together we can do more great things. This is a milestone for our agency since we decided this year to formally expand our partnerships particularly to the private sector. 


I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to the members of the diplomatic corps, private sector partners, members of the academe, and civil society organizations for your meaningful participation in the recently concluded International Conference on Women, Peace, and Security (ICWPS) held last Oct. 28 to 30. 


From the establishment of the Center of Excellence for Women, Peace, and Security here in the Philippines, to the commitments made by several countries during the conference, words cannot express how thankful we are for this robust and enduring cooperation we have nurtured over the years. Your partnerships with our agency will allow us to take our peace and development initiatives to even greater heights. Thank you very much to our partners and stakeholders!


Over the years, the international development community has been among our agency’s invaluable partners in sustaining the gains of the comprehensive Philippine peace process, particularly in the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro.

 

Gratitude to private sector partners 


I am truly filled with so much honor seeing you all today. A lot of our private sector stakeholders who are here with us also have been our partners since my stint as the vaccine czar and chief implementer of the National Task Force on Covid-19.


During the pandemic our private sector partners such as the Ayala Group, Zuellig, McDonalds, Jollibee, ICTSI, Bloomberry Resorts Corp., SM Corp., to name just a few, went the extra mile to help us roll out the vaccines for our countrymen to protect our people and save our economy.


It is because of the lessons of these strong bonds that we have built with the private sector and diplomatic corps that we deemed it crucial to expand our network to include all of you in our  peace and development efforts.

 

Peace and sustainability 


We cannot overemphasize the importance of local government units in this convergence framework. The LGUs are at the forefront of our peace, development and security interventions on the ground.

 

Role of private sector 


Under the government’s whole-of-nation, whole-of-society approach, we cannot overlook the indispensable role of the private sector in our normalization and convergence efforts. 


From your corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, to enterprise development efforts, these endeavors help us expedite the implementation of our peacebuilding initiatives to our constituents in a timely and efficient manner whose impact is felt from the national down to the grassroots level. 


We have seen how the private sector can contribute to all aspects of the normalization process – the provision of basic services particularly in the areas of food security, energy, clean water, education, and health. The private sector can also bring capacitation and productivity and corporate business ventures that can sustain a better life for our people.


The media organizations have also enabled us to increase our media coverage and expand our audience reach, giving our various peace partners and the general public a better appreciation of our peace and development efforts.

 

(Secretary Carlito G. Galvez, Jr. is the presidential adviser on peace, reconciliation, and unity.)
 

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Secretary Carlito G. Galvez Jr. PEACE BY PEACE
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