Rally for Peace in Cotabato City

July 15. Rally for peace were conducted this morning. The event was in relation to my previous post Major establishments closed in Cotabato City but this time, it was an effort of students, parents and teachers to advocate peace in the city.

In the decades that past, kidnapping were already rampant and avoidable to businessmen. I remember when I was still in grade school, even the businessman's son who owned a not so huge capital establishment in Lugay-lugay was not let off by kidnappers. His son was kidnapped at night while they were closing their store and freed by paying hundred thousands or more.

Our neighbor who owned a small hardware at Washington (yup! there's a place here in the city named Washington for those who don't know it yet) was also kidnapped but she was saved naked by our fellow barangays.

It's not just kidnapping that we wanted to end in city but also bombing like the recent bombing event where 5 were killed and 35 were hurt. If I'm not mistaken, bombing always happened here every year. There are times I admit that I wanted to move somewhere away from here but moving is not easy for a regular employee like me. Most of the riches and middle class families in the city started to move to major cities like Davao, Cagayan de Oro, GenSan and etc where you feel at peace always and gimmick place can be found anywhere hehe.

This city has been founded 50 years ago and yet we're still left behind even by newly installed cities like Koronadal. We really need to move on, have a peaceful and more productive city in the near future.