25,000 gather in Zamboanga City for start of peace week

ZAMBOANGA CITY—More than 20,000 people marched on the city streets at the opening yesterday of the Week of Peace.

Senior Supt. Edwin De Ocampo, acting city police chief, said the number of marchers, including students, women, lawyers, farmers, urban poor villagers, street children, teachers and human rights workers, could have reached 25,000.

Claretian priest Angel Calvo, head of the Peace Advocate Zamboanga, said it was overwhelming to see young people joining the campaign for peace.

“It shows that more and more people are committing to be instruments of peace building,” said Calvo, who also initiated the Mindanao Week of Peace 15 years ago.

Fifteen-year-old high school student Eunice Calo said she joined the march “to show to others that I want peace, I want to go to school without fear that something might explode somewhere or someone might be shot at anytime.” Julie S. Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao