COTABATO CITY – A Catholic bishop in Mindanao Thursday said there was a need for a paradigm shift among guerrillas and government officials for peace talks to succeed in Mindanao.
“We have to sacrifice some of our old time beliefs, old time paradigm,” said Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Cotabato.
“Sometimes we become hard liners and think (that) the only way to peace is our way and we fail to recognize the other side of the coin,” he said in a statement in connection with the celebration of the Mindanao Week of Peace, which runs from Nov. 29 to Dec. 3.
Without addressing a particular group, Bagaforo also warned that “violence will just multiply by itself and we will never attain peace.”
He said dialogue is one way of finding a solution.
“First and foremost, let us sit down and talk and let’s forget about violence, let’s forget about other means of achieving peace because the only way to peace is peace itself,” Bagaforo said.
“It is through the heart of everyone that we can appeal for peace. Let us be open and explore possibilities where we can live together, work together and achieve our own peaceful way of living together,” he said.
