Abra peace program launched to stop slays, political violence

By Maria Teresa B. Benas

BANGUED, Abra – A peace program to stop violence like political killings in the province is now set for implementation. 

This, after Abra’s framework for peace program, was launched and adapted during Abra Week for Peace commemoration.

Called “Pagta ti Kappia” (pact for peace), this embodies strategies and mechanisms to address issues of peace in different angles. 

The Abra Week for Peace was launched in 2007 right after Gov. Eustaquio P. Bersamin assumed office to address bad peace and order situation in the province as indicated by high criminality rate aggravated by political killings. 

For years, the AWP was celebrated but it had not spelled out concrete program to attain peace and order in Abra.

AWP 2014 was a breakthrough in the peace efforts and initiatives in the province. The AWP technical working group broke into groups to study  issues and find to address the issues of peace in different angles. 

One big issue was, “Are we Abrenians one in terms of our concepts/perceptions of peace as well as in terms of our strategies and mechanisms of addressing the issues of peace in Abra?”

 A TWG team was tasked to do a survey to generate the Abrenians’ concept of peace.

The research was carried out following a technical methodology of employing key informants from all sectors of society with consideration of an acceptable margin of error. 

The research result was presented during the AWP 2014 celebrations.

Other members of the AWP-TWG picked up from the result of that survey and came up with their own strategies of addressing the issues assigned to them.  Hence, various offshoot programs and projects on peace-building emerged.

These offshoot programs and projects such as the Lifeline Counseling Center, the Lesson Exemplar, the Pagta ti Kappia, among others were all taken into account and the TWG worked seriously on these as work-in-progress with the most possible participation of all peoples from all walks of life to ensure complete representation of the Abrenians.

This peace effort is made possible with the initiatives of the Abra Peace Conveners’ Group led by Carmelita Bersalona and the tribal elders led by Francis Cayasen and Victor Valera for facilitating the series of conference-workshops.