The search for national peace has been a lifelong goal of us, the Filipinos. Is it really impossible to have national peace? There are a series of reasons why this “peace” thing seems very unattainable to us. First let us look at our current situation here in the Philippines. Conflicts still flourish up to this day, violent as ever. Killings persist, kidnappings endure. These scenes are already familiar to us since the Marcos regime. That’s why the Filipinos start to think that this goal is becoming more of a dream, a dream that seem unattainable. As you can see, even in our current situation, the Filipinos are becoming more and more hopeless of being able to attain this national peace. Even though there are numerous attempts to attain this, they all remain useless. Instead of Filipinos becoming one, they began parting their own ways. They even start fighting with each other, or even kill each other, which is not a Filipino must do to his own count

Here alone, problem arises. We try to question now the existence and importance of governing bodies in our country. Government versus ordinary citizens, ordinary citizens versus ordinary citizens. We have this crab mentality in us. We tend to put down people that we think are doing their jobs well, instead of helping this people succeed, we often times pull them down and that’s another problem. You see, the case here is that people doesn’t want anybody to be ahead of them. They all want to be the head of the group, the one who imposes the law and the one to be followed. If all of us are like this, if all of us wants to be the leader, we really cannot attain oneness, for only by being one we will attain peace.

The celebration of the country's Centennial of the revolution against Spain has brought into focus history's accounts of armed conflict and a growing recognition of the need to emphasize peaceful struggles. For example, in the Centennial's information and advocacy programs, there is a conscious effort to demonstrate that the Muslims, women and indigenous peoples actively participated in the struggle for freedom. This is to rectify historical accounts, which primarily centered on activities in Northern and Central Luzon. Documentation of local history likewise encourages the presentation of women, minorities, writers, artists, and development workers as "peaceful" players in the revolution. Global movements focusing on human rights – gender and children's rights, sustainable development and social development issues have underscored peaceful social transformation strategies and continue to emphasize values of trust, mutuality, cooperation, sharing, compassion and respect for other cultures.

The peace process in Mindanao did not happen overnight. It is the consequence of vigilance expressed in overt and active social action over the years by concerned citizens' groups. While the principal negotiators came from government, their authority was derived from continuing consultations with the peace constituency coming from various sectors.

The peaceful people's revolution at EDSA in 1986, which brought down the Ma

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