Message of Sec. Teresita Quintos-Deles for the Bike for Peace 2011, Cotabato City

Inspirational Message of Sec. Teresita Quintos-Deles
On the occasion of Bike for Peace
 
May 29, 2011; Cotabato  City Hall
Theme: “Going the extra mile for peace in Mindanao”
 
 
Given the look of anticipation in your faces, I wouldn’t want to keep anyone here any longer by giving a lengthy inspirational remark.  I can see you are ready and roaring to go the thirty-six kilometres from Cotabato City to Upi Maguindanao. This length is beyond the imagination of many of us who are not athletes, and maybe to some of you here who are attempting to bike this long distance for the first time. Ako ho ay nakasuot biker lang, hindi ho ako sasakay sa bike.
 
 
This exercise as envisioned is meant to simulate our own collective experience of making and waging peace, in addition to getting a wider public interest and support for the Mindanao peace process. It is a symbolic act and a reminder to us all of what the work for peace entails:  peace is action, peace is effort, peace is community, peace is reaching out, peace is going the extra mile.
 
 
In addition, this exercise is a reminder of what it takes to help us to get there.  If it is not your training that will help you to stay the course, it will be your determination that will. If it is not your determination, it will be your companion who will. And if this would still not be enough, it will be your imagination that will help to bring you to the end of the journey.
 
 
First, on the point about imagination—let me take off from the observation of Johann Galtung, Norwegian sociologist and a principal founder of the discipline of peace and conflict studies, who went to the Philippines some years ago and who, during a dialogue with us Philippine peace makers, said: it is not the lack of discussion and dialogue that is the problem in the Philippine peace process; it is the lack of imagination.
 
 
We have to be able to imagine what a future of peace is like, for without that vision, without that ability to conceive and perceive a mental image of what it is we want to have, we cannot be brought to the point of wanting it enough to say: this is what we really, really want, and we will be willing to trek winding, wicked, twisted roads a million times over if that’s what it takes to get there.
 
 
A second and last point that I’d like to make – and I promise to make it short – is on the promise of faithful accompaniment that riders make to each other before embarking on a long and difficult journey. Ang ibig sabihin, walang iwanan. And this, in the peace process, is the appeal I want to make to all of you – walang iwanan. Magkakasama tayo hindi lang sa mga panahon ng tagumpay, kundi lalo na sa mga panahon na malubak ang kalsada at may mga kasamang nadadapa.
 
 
When one of our companions in the peace process falls, I hope we will be like the bikeriders who faithfully provide accompaniment to their fallen fellow riders, instead of breaking away to get ahead of the pack. More than the experience of camaraderie is the experience of faithful accompaniment that I know we will truly experience today.
 
Congratulations in advance to all of you who will make it to the whole 36 kilometers, and to the rest of us who will be with you in spirit, mas marami yata iyong mga in spirit lang. Congratulations to the GPH and MILF Panels for organizing this event and affair to remember.
 
 
Go in peace, enjoy your journey, and stay safe.
 
 
Thank you.