Zone of peace is priority for Bishop of Bacolod

LETTER FROM THE PHILIPPINES
ASKED how he planned to spend his retirement, the 76 -year-old Bishop Emeritus of Bacolod, Mgr Antonio y Fortich said: "There is no retirement from the work of justice and peace."
A top priority of his active retirement has been to promote the concept and vision of zones of peace in the war torn and poverty-stricken island of Negros in the Philippines.
The first known zone of peace was declared recently in Sitio Cantomayog in Candoni, some 160 kms from Bacolod. It is a small community of 40 families who have witnessed the dislocation, grief and death of 180 children as a result of the military's Operation Thunderbolt last year. And more recently, residents of Cantomayog have been slain by both government soldiers and insurgents.
It was this experience and an abiding fear and insecurity that caused the residents to take action that they might live in peace.
On Christmas day last year, they passed a resolution which declared Cantomayog a zone of peace. This resolution was made known to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Communist New People's Army (NPA). It is not, however, accepted by the AFP.
On February 16. the residents of Cantomayog decided to make a formal declaration that "our place and residences should be a zone of peace." The declaration was read at Crossing Baga, three kms from Cantomayog.
Nating Epalan, carrying her two-year old child in her arms, read the first known declaration of a zone of peace in the Philippines.
Like the people who wrote it the declaration was simple and direct. They wanted "to avoid and prevent conflicts in our place between the NPA and the AFP. This decision means that there will be no arms that can kill, especially firearms, inside this zone of peace . . . so that we could improve our means of livelihood and our lives as a whole."
Epalan got a warm and sympathetic applause from over 300 people who joined the caravan tor peace. The solemn declaration of the zone of peace was the climax in the intinerarv of the caravan for peace that had gone around the island of Negros from February 13-17.
The caravan was blocked by
another 300 people power volunteers rounded up by a certain Captain Labillo in the neighbouring towns of Cawayan, Sipalay and the evacuation centre at Bactolan in Candoni. The hired people power was led by a surrenderee who wore blue glasses and a mask.
Brigadier General Raymundo Jarque, when informed that the 300 people who were backed by the military had set up a road block to prevent the entry of the caravan for peace to Cantomayog, said the military would merely stay on the sidelines.
The order to remain in the sidelines, however, never reached the men in the field. The negotiation for passage to Cantomayog failed. But Manzano was able to get permission from the people power group for a mass on a hill on the other side of the road.
It was after the mass that the declaration of a zone of peace in Cantomayog was read. It was the one ray of hope in a day marked by vexation, frustration and a deep sadness.