Nearly 3,000 delegates from 1,345 Catholic-run schools across the country today began their group’s 70th national convention in Davao.

The meeting also marked World Peace Day.

Vincentian Father Gregorio Banaga, president of the Catholic Education Association of the Philippines (CEAP) http://www.ceap.org.ph/ and of Adamson University, said the theme of the convention, “Building a Culture of Peace – Shaping the Vision, Living the Dream,” coincides with the UN declaration of September 21 as Day of Peace.

Representatives gathered to hear the best practices of mission schools in dealing with justice and peace issues, as well as to learn how they test their “Catholicity” in this part of the country where Islamic fundamentalism is also being watched closely by authorities.

Father Joel Tabora SJ, president of Ateneo de Davao University, said his committee on public advocacy would like to discuss extensively the different issues confronting CEAP members and influence public policy.

These include “reproductive health [and] placing the private schools under the professional regulations commission rather than the commission on higher education.”

The government marked Peace Day around the country in various ways. The office of the presidential adviser on the peace process organized a forum on peace at a mall with its secretary Teresita Quintos-Deles announcing the government was declaring a one-day unilateral ceasefire with the communist-led New People’s Army.