The seeds of Yes for Peace - Bayanihan ng Bayan (YFP-BB), a non-government initiative to get the Filipino people into the centerstage of the comprehensive peace process that was eventually supported by government agencies, was planted at the Diliman campus of the University of the Philippines (UP) in 1988.

Four years later, in 1992, the campaign, which was then known as DiYes for Peace was recognized by the UP Board of Regents when it resolved to declare all UP campuses a Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality (ZOPFAN), as well as support the campaign inside and outside of UP.

The campaign silently moved on until it was identified as one of the strategies to address the root causes of the insurgency by the 4th National Peace and Order summit in 1995.

Unnoticed by mainstream media, the campaign was able to reach out all over the country through the Department of Education and the Philippine Postal Corporation through implementing memoranda issued by succeeding Secretaries of Education and Postmasters General.

Seeing the need to expand the network of volunteers and for inter-agency cooperation in the consensus building phase of the campaign, an inter-agency Memorandum of Undertaking was entered into in 2002 among the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP); the Department of Education (DepEd); the Philippine Postal Corporation (PhilPost); the Office of the Press Secretary - Philippine Information Agency (OPS-PIA); the OPS - National Printing Office (OPS - NPO); the Boy Scouts of the Philippines (BSP); the Girl Scouts of the Philippines (GSP); the Alpha Phi Omega International Phils, Inc (APO; and the Organizer, Yes for Peace.

The campaign continued even as the questions posed evolved alongside developments in the "on and off" peace negotiations that were essentially kept away from the public notwithstanding the government firm stand that people participation was essential to its success.

While the campaign was able to reach out to and obtain the responses of more than 15 million Filipinos, 10 years and older, a question pervaded among critics and naysayers, "After establishing what you call a national consensus, what then?"

Lawyer Domingo B. Alidon, National President of the 40,000 strong Department of Education National Employees Union admitted, "We were so focused on consensus building that we almost forgot that beyond it, a lot more have to be done."

The concern came to fore when the Sectoral Unification, Capability Building, Empowerment and Mobilization (SUCBEM) cluster of the National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) resolved to adopt and refine Yes for Peace - Bayanihan ng Bayan and incorporated it into the National Action Plan submitted by National Security Adviser Hermogenes C. Esperon, Sr. and approved by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte in 2018.

"Having realized that whether we like it or not, people will badger us for an answer to a more challenging concern than merely documenting a national consensus for peace, we turned to the career government officials through the Career Executive Service Board (CESB) through which we were able to build a list of community peace and development programs." said Ernesto Angeles Alcanzare, Organizer of YFP-BB.

"Upon the guidance of Secretary Esperon, we refined the campaign its strategies independent of the NTF-ELCAC to be able to formulate a unifying process that could engage even the opposition and armed rebels which we believe is needed for the Whole of Nation approach to succeed," said Mama S. Lalanto, al Haj, Chairman of Yes for Peace, Inc. (YFPI).

"We registered Yes for Peace, Inc. as a non-stock, not for profit corporation with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) upon the advice of Secretary Esperon to establish the juridical entity of the campaign and for whatever purpose it may serve in the future," Alpha Dasmarinas, an educator and Chief Financial Officer of YFPI related.

"The refined strategy of YES FOR PEACE - Bayanihan ng Bayan is designed towards the realization and institutionalization of the concept of participatory democracy which has long been a pipe dream of idealists who believe that sovereignty rests upon the Filipino people and that all power of the government emanates from them," said Lawyer Fortunato G. Guerrero, Executive Director of the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) and Legal Counsel of Yes for Peace, Inc.

"Essentially, we adopted what radical nationalists have long believed to be effective tools to bring about meaningful social change - arouse, organize, and mobilize," Guerrero added.

"However, our adopted strategy deviates from what the militant activists have practiced to pursue their goal of violently overthrowing the government. Instead, the whole process will depend upon the government, from the Barangays up to its highest echelon," Yusoph J. Mando, Commissioner of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos and YFP-BB spokesperson noted.

After an open and extensive brainstorming, the YFP-BB organizing group redefined the concepts, which Alcanzare revealed in a post in the University of the Philippines Alumni Community (UPAC) Facebook group:

• Arouse - establish national consensus among Filipinos 10 years and older against armed struggle and terrorism; and to end armed conflicts within 2021 through the Yes for Peace questionnaire;
• Organize - upward declaration of Yes for Peace Zones from Barangays to Municipalities to Provinces to Regions to the Philippines based on documented responses to Yes for Peace questions; and
• Mobilize - pro-active involvement and collective participation in identifying, planning, budgeting and implementation of community-based peace and development programs.

"We look forward to the opportunity to working with the whole of government, particularly the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), in getting the Filipino people directly involved in successfully institutionalizing the Whole of Nation approach that the NTF-ELCAC is setting-up in place," Emil Carreon, a freelance TV Senior Executive Producer and a long time YFP-BB volunteer said.

"We are engaging Civil Society Organzations as well as religious groups to support our CARE (Counter Action on Radical Extremism) program, which aims to stop the recruitment of our youth into the armed struggle being waged by leftist groups," said Cosanie M. Derogongon, Director of the Bureau of Peace and Conflict Resolution (BPCR) of the NCMF and one of those who launched the refined YFP-BB in UP Diliman.

"One of the concrete steps we are undertaking is the Yes for Peace - Bayanihan ng Bayan to Arouse, Organize and Mobilize the pro-active involvement and collective participation of Filipinos, 10 years and older, to categorically reject armed struggle and condemn terrorism," Derogongon added. (PIA NCR)