[HWPL]

[HWPL] 8th Anniversary of the January 24th HWPL Peace Day was held in the Philippines!

An international online peace conference was held to celebrate the 8th anniversary of a civilian-led peace agreement in Mindanao on the 24th of January. The day was designated as the HWPL Peace Day by the Province of Maguindanao and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the Philippines.

The event, under the theme of “Law of Peace in Heaven and on Earth” gathered more than 2,000 social representatives. In addition, this event served as a venue to raise public support for establishing an international law for peace based on the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War (DPCW) and to promote interfaith harmony between religions.

The host organization, Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), is a non-governmental organization associated with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the UN Department of Global Communications (DGC). Since 2013, the organization has been committed to various peace activities for world peace and the cessation of war.

HWPL Chairman Lee Man-hee visited the Philippines to contribute to the peace-building efforts in Mindanao starting with the peace agreement made on January 24th, 2014 between the Islam and Catholic communities through Hon. Esmael G. Mangudadatu, the then Governor of Maguindanao and Archbishop-Emeritus Fernando Capalla of the Archdiocese of Davao. Through the agreement, the Province of Maguindanao established January 24th every year as HWPL Peace Day in 2015 and built the first peace monument in the Philippines.

Since then, annual commemorative events such as grand peace festivals and interfaith conferences were continued to celebrate the peace agreement and raise awareness of peace among citizens in the Mindanao region. On the 2nd anniversary of the civilian-led peace agreement on January 24th, 2016, the unveiling ceremony of HWPL Peace Monument was held inside MILF's Camp Darapanan in Sultan Kudarat, Mindanao, while January 24th was also declared as a Peace Day by Hon. Ahod Ebrahim, Chief Minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

The event’s main speakers were Justice Raoul Victorino (ret), Chairman of the Philippine National Prayer Breakfast (PNPB), Prabhu Mahendra Das, Temple President of Sri Sri Radha Madhava Mandir, and Dr. Ronald Adamat, Commissioner of the Commissioner on Higher Education (CHED). Also, representatives from different sectors including law, education, youth, women, media, and more presented commitment messages towards peace.

Peace!