October 01, 2016•Update: October 07, 2016
By Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, the Philippines
The Philippines’ government has launched a mobile application to provide updated information about its ongoing peace processes with communist and Moro Muslim rebels as part of efforts for greater transparency and inclusivity.
GMA News reported Saturday that the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process announced that the app called “PeaceBOC”, or Peace Buddies Organizing for Change, will give regular updates on peace initiatives alongside some trivia and research relating to the negotiations.
It will also include youth-oriented interactive features that “seek to raise their awareness and engage them to actively support the government’s peace programs”.
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza described the app, as well as a newly signed memorandum of understanding with the University of the Philippines (UP), as part of the government’s objective to engage all sectors of society in peace efforts so "every Filipino supports the agreements that we will sign on their behalf".
"We want that bigger table to be part of the process so that everybody will have ownership of the outcomes,” he was quoted as saying in Quezon City, Metro Manila.
Under the partnership inked Friday, the university committed to supplying technical support to the Office for the ongoing peace negotiations.
"UP will provide expertise to the table to bring consensus points in very contentious issues that we are going to tackle," Dureza underlined.
Regarding "PeaceBOC”, he said it was aimed at reaching young people.
“The new generation has provided a new approach in communicating peace and this is very exciting because we get our inspiration from the young and the support they give us will help us get through this difficult work we are undertaking together,” he stressed.
The new programs were launched before Dureza and other members of the government peace panel were scheduled to leave the Philippines on Saturday evening to travel to Oslo, Norway, for the second round of formal peace talks with consultants for the country’s decades-old communist insurgency.
Since President Rodrigo Duterte won the May 9 election, he has also made overtures toward Muslim rebels from the Moro National Liberation Front and its breakaway group the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
