Message from Director EMMANUEL G.

ANDAYA CEO VI National Printing Office During the celebration of the National Peace Consciousness Month

My fellow peacemakers, it is with great pleasure that I lead this ceremony of the National Printing Office, in union with the entire nation in celebrating the Peace Consciousness Month. To a large extent, the future lies before us like a vast wilderness of unexplored reality. God, who created and sustained the evolving universe through the sons of progress and development, has not placed our generation at the tag end of the creation process, but at the beginning. And so we are here at present for the future. As peacemakers of the future, now is the time to practice peace-building. We need to do away with violence, which obliterates those who feel its touch. Most of the tragedies in the past bear out a point. Peace-building starts at home with how we treat those who are dear to us. Violence occurs when we forget and deny our basic identity as Gods children, when we treat one another as if we were worthless instead of priceless. Peace-building calls us for introspection. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greedthose things inside yourself, not in another. According to the Nobel Peace Prize Winner Mother Teresa of Calcutta: If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. For this coming 2012 Peace Consciousness Month, the theme is Ako, Ikaw, Tayo, Magkakaiba, NagkakaisasaKapayapaan. We need this month long celebration to emphasize the importance of unity despite diversity and the individual participation of each Filipino in moving the peace process. In unity, I urge all employees and officials of NPO to practice loving kindness and compassion; vow to not take up the way of killing; vow to cultivate love and apply it in our daily life at home and in the large community; vow to moderate our lifestyle for the protection of all things. Every action geared towards peace-building will make us capable of union. All of us are here for the next generations of all Filipinos so let us collaborate in our collective efforts to practice peace-building. We at NPO are much willing to externalize peace consciousness in our workspace as part of our public service, particularly in the printing of informative and campaign materials relative to peace consciousness. In the words of our dear President PNoy in his message to the Filipino people in celebrating Peace Consciousness Month: Our people have for so long been shackled not only by violence, but also by insecurity, cynicism and paralysis that arises from violence. We have finally embarked on a journey of transformation and this is a journey that necessarily entails

the active involvement of every Filipino. The future remains bright. May more stakeholders from the private sector and general citizenry be enthused to participate in empowering venues to pursue the peace process. Together, let us break barriers and foster gains that will surely be remembered in the next peace months to come. Maraming salamatsainyongpakikiisasapagsulongsakapayapaan.