DepEd, citizen’s group link up for peace

MANILA, Philippines -  The Department of Education recently affirmed its partnership with a citizen’s group whose peace education and advocacy campaign has been adopted and incorporated in DepEd’s education for all programs in public and private elementary and secondary schools nationwide.

In a memorandum dated April 6, 2017, Education Secretary Leonor Briones said that though unfunded, the Yes for Peace campaign “proved that a national consensus can be established through bayanihan or the pro-active involvement and collective participation of the Filipino people.”

Such bayanihan is built upon the concepts of being inclusive, citizen-led, non-partisan and multi-sectoral, according to the memo distributed to the DepEd’s undersecretaries and assistant secretaries, bureau and service directors and regional directors, schools division superintendents, and public elementary and secondary school heads.

Yes for Peace was described by the EDSA People Power Commission as “the new face of people power,” when the advocacy group symbolically turned over more than 11 million responses in support of the peace process during the 30th anniversary of the 1986 Edsa revolution last year.

The DepEd-Yes for Peace linkup includes answering questionnaires on the means to achieve lasting peace in the country as well as related homeroom activities, the results of which will be relayed to the Philippine Postal Corp. which conducts a running tally.