Global Peace Festival Foundation
Philippines
University Students and Officials celebrate 3rd Global Peace Festival Day in the Campus by giving to GPFF-ALS Communities
‘Thousand Messages for Peace’ and youth concert conclude University of
Makati’s 2nd GPF month-long festivity
Makati, PHILIPPINES –The University of Makati’s (UMak) 39th Foundation Opening Day also marked the finale of a month-long 2nd Global Peace Festival celebration as students released hundreds of multi-colored balloons, carrying ‘Thousand Messages for Peace’ while more than 5000 people, including school faculties, event partners and students from other colleges, witness in awe at the Olympic-sized University field.
“At first, the students were ignorant of the cause and hesitant if such peace activities really do exist,” Professor Remedios B. Placer (Adviser of Global Peace Youth Corps - UMak Chapter, also a member of the faculty), stressed in an interview. Simultaneous activities such as ‘Thousand Runners for Peace’, ‘Helping Hands’- a community outreach participated by students for an orphanage called Boystown- and Student Conferences on Leadership and Peace building, however, improved the students’ views on peace being attainable, rather than only an elusive trance.
Also, one motivating part of the event is a presentation by a national icon, Ms. Gina Lopez, ABS-CBN Foundation’s Managing Director to promote “ No 2 Mining in PALAWAN ”, an initiative to save the province, dubbed as Philippine’s Ecological Frontier, free from human disruption. While having ‘40% of the country’s remaining mangrove areas, 30% of coral reefs, 17 key Biodiversity areas’ plus the world-renowned Puerto Princesa Subterranean National Park (one of the 28 finalists for the New 7 Wonders of Nature), the province is at risk due to mining. The discussion, by some means, also tackled the issue of Environmental Sustainability, one of United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.
On a lighter note, spectators were amazed at the students who did not only dance a synchronized routine but also stunningly formed a field-size, human Philippine flag on the extensive athletic field. It offered nothing but goose bumps!
The releasing of the balloons bestowed a very powerful image, a physical symbol of releasing the message throughout the world and a way of helping to create a ceremony of remembering the countries currently struggling to attain peace particularly Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.
Prior to the event, simultaneous activities were held in and out of the campus to ‘promote, implement and celebrate programs that bring together students, teachers and personnel as “One Family under God,” as described in the manifesto signed up by Prof. Tomas B. Lopez Jr., the University President himself. The manifesto, inked up last year, also declared ‘the 1st day of March 2010 and every year thereafter as the Global Peace Festival Day in University of Makati.’
Hence, Prof. Lopez, who has been an active enthusiast of the cause since the event was commenced to him, was given a special citation before thousands of students as recognition for his outstanding service to the Global Peace Festival Foundation with his affirmation. The citation was awarded by Mrs. Sharleen Tomobe, Founding Trustee of Global Peace Festival Foundation-Philippines.
Capping the entire celebration is a youth Peace Concert. Two bands composed by undergraduates from the same university together with Detour, a fast-rising all-male group, elated the students with musical performance and stage feats. Furthermore, the song “Where Peace Begins,” coined as GPF’s theme song was performed by Detour as the finale.
Undeniably, with the theme, “UM-ACT for Peace: Achieve, Commence and Take Action as One Family under God,” UMak’s 2nd Global peace Festival will not be as successful as it seemed without the support and participation of all partner organizations such as: University of Makati Supreme Student Government; CCS Council (SSG-CCS); Center for Students and CulturalAffairs (CESCA); Center for Performing and Digital Arts (CEPDA) College of Computer Science (CCS); College of Technology Management (CTM) ; Collective Arts of Students and Thespians ( C.A.S.T. Inc.); Global Peace Youth Corps (GPYC); Global Peace Festival Foundation-Philippines (GPFF) National Service Training Program (NSTP); Rotary Club of Makati Olympia & its sponsored Rotaract & Interact Clubs; PSNEI and the Local Government Units of Makati City.