Honorable judges, respected teachers, fellow participants, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls

of all ages, a pleasant morning to all of you.

Language plays a dominant role in human existence. It is a means of communication and the
medium of instruction in schools. It is also a means of preserving people’s culture, enhancement of peace
and conflict resolution in the society. Language is also used for regional integration, means of public
enlightenment, debate and addressing socio-economic problems in the media.

Unfortunately, some factors hinder the use of language for peace, conflict resolution and national
development. These factors are high illiteracy level in the country, lack of local or indigenous language,
poor recognition of indigenous language as people’s culture and inadequate time in the media to address
social problems using appropriate register that promote peace and national development.

On January 10, 2019 President Rodrigo Duterte denounced bishops in the Catholic-majority
country as "sons of b*****s", renewing his attacks on the church that had criticized him over his bloody
war on drugs. On September 7, 2019, Vice Ganda slammed Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III for
saying that trans women can never be women because they do not have ovaries and they cannot get
pregnant. While both Duterte’s and Sotto’s comments might have gone unnoticed in another era, in
today's digital world it's usually only a matter of hours before their remarks end up on international news
sites or uploaded onto YouTube.

With this year’s LAS theme: Optimizing Language Excellence in the Promotion of Peace, what does
promoting peace through language mean?

The role of language for peace and conflict resolution could only be appreciated when we
recognize that language being an integral part of people’s culture still stands out as a medium of
interaction and ways of expressing thoughts and feelings in a society.

Language is often said to be a tool because it is used to perform the function of letting other
people know the thoughts, ideas or emotions. In accordance with the different purposes to be served
language is used in different ways. For example, there is the language of science, journalism, advertising,
political oratory, prayer and worship. In these instances, language is used as a multipurpose tool and put
to various uses as and when required.

The basic function of language is to communicate information of some kind or other. Propaganda
of all kinds and even deliberate misinformation could come under the term information. In order to
describe the world and reason about it people may make use of true or false propositions, correct or
incorrect arguments and pass on information which may or may not be important.

I would like to conclude with reiterating my intention that language when appropriately used
promotes peace, enhances economic and social development but when wrongly used leads to conflict,
breakdown of law and order in the society. So let us use language that honors and respects human dignity,
tolerance, truth and national integration. We must step out from our comfort zones and we must break
our personal biases in order create an atmosphere that upholds diversity, coexistence, hope and peace.