MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity (OPAPRU) is expected to be converted into a national peace institute in 2025 to gather research data and promote peace education across the country, OPAPRU Chief Carlito Galvez Jr. said on Wednesday.
According to Galvez, the office experience must be transformed into a “solid institution.”
“The national peace institution is intended to serve as the repository for all peace engagements, including our local and international experiences. At the same time, it will also institutionalize our engagement with peace education institutions,” Galvez said in a mix of Filipino and English at a forum in Malate, Manila.
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The OPAPRU is in charge of implementing the government’s peace process under the mandate of Executive Order No. 158 or the “Strengthening the policy framework on peace, reconciliation, and unity, and reorganizing the government’s administrative structure for the purpose.”
Furthermore, Galvez underscored that peace education is a part of the office’s peace-building components, alongside peace enforcement and peacemaking.
“In peace building, we refer to positive peace as changing people’s mindset to reduce aggressive tendencies,” Galvez added.
Galvez also noted that the OPAPRU’s institutionalization will benefit all the employees, especially the contractual ones. The OPAPRU chief mentioned that there are currently 247 plantilla positions while there are around 300 to 400 contractual employees.
Galvez shared that aside from getting a directive from the Department of Budget and Management for the institutionalization, they are also conducting consultations with the academe and government agencies.
“We’ve seen a lot of positive feedback… Our politics can be very divisive; we need an institution that can strengthen positive engagement with the department,” he stated.
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