Kababaihan at Kapayapaan Issue No. 3

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March 2015Issue No. 3


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Contents

ON THE COVER: A collage of photos shows the passion and commitment of Filipinos from all walks of life calling for anend to violence and a regime of peace in war-torn Muslim Mindanao with the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law.Photos by Joser Dumbrique and Kris Lanot Lacaba. Cover design by Mai Ylagan.

Editorial Staf

Staff Jurgette Honculada

Kris Lanot Lacaba

Melisa Yubokmee

Editor Paulynn Paredes Sicam

PhotographersJoser Dumbrique

Kris Lanot Lacaba

Larry Madarang

Layout Artist Mai Ylagan

This magazine is published bi-annually bythe Ofce of the Presidential Adviser on the

Peace Process

Address

7th Floor, Agustin 1 Bldg.

F. Ortigas Jr. Road

Ortigas Center, Pasig City

Telephone

+632 636 0701 to 07

Fax

+632 638 2216

Website

www.opapp.gov.ph

KABABAIHANat

KAPAYAPAAN

Connect with us!

peace.opapp

@OPAPP_peace

peaceopapp

[email protected]

Editorial BoardChair

Sec. Teresita Quintos Deles

Usec. Ma. Cleofe Sandoval

Pennie Azarcon dela Cruz

Jurgette Honculada

Paulynn Paredes Sicam

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In pursuit of peace, truth

and justice...

By SEC. TERESITA QUINTOS DELES

Women at the Forefront:

Championing peace

against all odds

By POLLY CUNANAN

Gender in the peace process

By SOCORRO REYES

PHOTO ESSAY

Saving the BBL: Citizens

rally for all-out peace

By KRIS LANOT LACABA

Women forge on, echoing

the call for peace

By ANA NATIVIDAD

Zenonida Brosas andCecilia Jimenez:

Deepening the peace

By JENNIFER SANTOS and JURGETTE HONCULADA

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Quote Unquote

The Road Out of

Mamasapano:

In Maguindanao,

gender empowerment

is key to peace

By JURGETTE HONCULADA

REFLECTION

The bigotry of power

By JENNIFER SANTIAGO ORETA

Michelle Bonto:

The warden is a teacher

By MICHELLE ANN RAMIREZ

Field Notes from the North:

Journeying with CPLA

women integrees

By MA. LOURDES VENERACION-RALLONZA

PEACE TABLE UPDATES

NEWS BRIEFS

PEACE CALENDAR

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3/44KABABAIHANatKAPAYAPAANMarch 2015

FROM THE PUBLISHER

“IT IS GOOD TO KNOW THE TRUTH BUT IT IS BETTER TO SPEAKOF PALM TREES.” The depth and paradox of that Arab saying come to mind as I pen a message forKababaihan at Kapayapaan. Lent came early to Mamasapano in Maguindanao this year, with the deathof 67 commandos, combatants, civilians, driving the peace process betweengovernment and the MILF into a wilderness that would daunt the most stout-hearted of peace advocates. Whereof comes this wilderness? To my mind itsprings from three divides, faultlines, if you will: “them” vs. “us”, north vs.south, and CSOs vs. other groups. “Them” vs. “us” bespeaks a deep-seated dualism cemented by culture andhistory. It relates to the Crusades in Europe that waged war against the Moors(Moros). Spanish colonial Catholicism then painted Muslims as the “other”, theheathen, the indel. That this dualism is bred into our psyche recently came to

light: “Muslims are traitors, the MILF cannot be trusted.” And the unspoken: ”Letthe BBL pay the price.” The second divide is north vs. south: Divide and conquer. Spanish colonizers pitted local chieftains against one another(e.g. the Battle of Mactan for which we immortalize the fearless Lapu-Lapu with a sh and in a song). The north-southdivide has ramied over time, taking root in the most unlikely places, as in Mindanao and Cebu joining forces, in NGOassemblies, against “imperial” Manila. In the furor ensuing over Mamasapano, war’s alarms ring loudest in the safeconnes of Congress, for instance. But close to Ground Zero, the people ee even as they cry out for peace.

Other sectors in Mindanao seek peace as well: the religious – both Christian and Muslim, business – both big and micro,the academe. And rightly so, because Mindanao bears the brunt of the ghting, although the entire country must pay theprice of war.

The third faultline overlaps with the second: CSOs-NGOs (especially the peace constituencies) vs. other groups. Threedecades of sustained peace building have grown robust support for the peace processes in country. Yet in press, broadcastand social media, we hear calls that range from “No more BBL”, “No more peace talks with MILF”, to “Freeze the BBLhearings”. The subtext is: Let us not sell the country short, let us not be hoodwinked by the MILF. But the fact is that the current GPH-MILF peace process, now running ve years, has been transparent from Day One.Portraying the MILF as villains and the GPH panel and peace adviser as MILF lackeys – does this sum up the truth of ve

years of hard negotiations? Or has Mamasapano become grist for the political mill, a pawn in realpolitik, with interestedparties coaxing the truth in certain directions to lead to certain narrow conclusions? “It is good to know the truth but it is better to speak of palm trees.”

Let not a narrow reading of Mamasapano dictate the narrative of peace in Mindanao, and in the entire country. For peaceand violence have a back story that goes back millennia; it counts the cost in rivers of blood and generations of stuntedchildren. Let not the faultlines forever condemn our country to brother killing brother, sister killing sister. Let not thosewho have not known grief and pain perorate about war and violence.

We must speak of the dead and injured, dislocation and despoliation, on both sides. But truth is not only about death.Truth is about life, about palm trees, about our children’s future. This, I daresay, is what peace is all about.

Then, and only then, can we nd our way out of the wilderness.

TERESITA QUINTOS DELES


4/44 KABABAIHANatKAPAYAPAAN March 2015

A MONTH AGO YESTERDAY, all hell broke loose at Mamasapano in Maguindanao and, with it, the hopes wewere nurturing for the timely passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law that would conclusively shift the MILF strugglefrom armed to electoral, from violent to peaceful. Or so it seems.

Are we now consigned to picking up the bits and pieces of a Humpty Dumpty of a BBL; or are we tasked to dosomething else? I think you and I are on the same page when you call this afternoon’s activity a forum on theBangsamoro – in pursuit of peace, truth and justice. For the forcible deconstruction triggered by Mamasapanocompels us to a reconstruction, a recovery, a rethinking that must go deep and far and wide if we are to do justiceto truth and the pursuit of peace.

Amidst the din and frenzy, the death and despair, the grieving and recriminations, we must go deep into a spacewithin ourselves—as individuals, as communities, and as a people, and face up to certain hard questions. We may nothave all the answers, but, as the poet Rilke says, sometimes the questions are more important than the answers.

I propose three questions:

First, what happened at Mamasapano and how do we make sense of it? Second, how has the fall-out fromMamasapano impacted on the GPH-MILF peace process and what are our stakes in it? Third, given the saber-rattling

and name calling, what is to be done?

As we tackle these questions, may I further propose two guideposts? – Embrace history as our guide. Avoid dualism.

First: What happened at Mamasapano and how do we make sense of it?

By now we have a clearer picture of what happened during that longest dawn and day and night at Mamasapano. Wehave the cold statistic of 67 deaths, not just 44, of police commandos and Muslim combatants and civilians includingan eight-year-old child. Several bodies are probing the why and the wherefore—why things went terribly wrong, andwho are called to account.

In pursuit of peace,

truth and justice...SEC. TERESITA QUINTOS DELES

Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process

Keynote Address, Bangsamoro Peace Forum Ateneo de Manila University

February 26, 2015



The details, and the accountabilities, I leave to the investigating bodies. My concern here is the question: how do wemake sense of it? And here we must take the long view, a deep breath, and reach far back into our common history tobegin to make sense of the carnage at Mamasapano.

The Statement from Mindanao, issued 15 days ago by religious leaders led by Cardinal Orlando Quevedo of theArchdiocese of Cotabato and joined by Jesuit presidents of Ateneo universities in Mindanao, rightly says that noone has a monopoly on guilt or on righteousness. The statement reminds us that for 300 years, a proud Moro people

stood up to Spain, the United States, and a succession of Philippine governments, colonial and republican, to defendtheir sovereignty and claim their homeland. They paid the price in blood – the massacres of Bud Dajo, Bud Bagsak,and Jabidah. In the end they, and the lumads, the indigenous peoples, are pushed to the margins by the guns of PaxAmericana, the waves of migration from the north and central islands, and the shrewdness of a Torrens title.

The past 45 years of intermittent warfare in Mindanao have claimed the lives of at least 150,000 combatants andcivilians. This has led to the “mutual insight” that guns, violence and wars only fuel the need for more guns, violenceand wars in a macabre death dance with no end in sight but the end. It has been said that peace is the only way topeace. Proof of this is that, in the past three years, the ceasere between the government and the MILF has heldwithout a single skirmish – and this is by the accounting not of OPAPP and the negotiating panel but of the ArmedForces of the Philippines.

The bloodbath at Mamasapano does not debunk the imperative of peace. On the contrary, Mamasapano tells us – andmay I paraphrase the poet e.e. cummings here – that, of peace, we must be more careful than of anything else. It is abeacon but it is also a fragile ower. It lives in the hearts of men and women but, stunted, it can also turn toxic.

We must make sense of Mamasapano by learning the lessons of history; and by keeping our ears close to the ground.War’s alarms ring in the halls of Congress and in social media but not in the blood-drenched elds of Maguindanaowhere people, and children most of all, pay the price of the conict.

Second: How has the fall-out from Mamasapano impacted on the GPH-MILF peace process and what are ourstakes in it?

It has been said that the BBL is as much a casualty of Mamasapano as the fallen 67. True, two legislators havewithdrawn sponsorship of the proposed BBL. True, the MILF is being faulted for, demonized even, for breaking thepeace. And our peace negotiators, myself included, have been criticized for speaking in behalf of MILF.

More specically, some lawmakers have called for the resignation of GPH Panel Chair Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, GPH-CCCH Chair Brig. Gen. Carlito Galvez, and myself. These legislators have charged us with being spokespersons, evenlawyering for, MILF. They have called the BBL a “sell-out” for being one-sided and favoring MILF.

But what is the truth? The Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro or CAB, precursor to the BBL, waspainstakingly crafted over three years of hard negotiations with the MILF, and the fact that, more than once,negotiations nearly broke down is a testament to the integrity of the process. The four annexes to the Framework

Agreement on the Bangsamoro or FAB, signed by the parties in September, 2012, took 16 months to complete, 13months beyond the timetable projected in the FAB, precisely because negotiating positions were so difcult to bridge.

On the side of government, the most contentious issues were rst threshed out with the concerned national agenciesin discussions which sometimes seemed as difcult as the negotiations with the MILF. After each negotiation round inKuala Lumpur, the GPH panel and myself, briefed the designated peace observers from the House of Representatives,as well as key members of the Senate peace committee, on the progress of the talks. In the last rounds of talks in KL,our peace observers from Congress even accompanied the GPH panel to Kuala Lumpur so that they could personallywitness the rigor and difculty of the peace negotiations. No one told us then that we were betraying the interests ofthe republic.



The CAB, and later the BBL, has been subject to consultations and forums particularly in but not limited toMindanao. The private sector and big business, academe, religious leaders and ofcials both Christian and Muslim,and civil society organizations have weighed in on the peace process and the agreements they have produced. Allsigned documents were immediately posted online, widely covered by media, with infographics reprinted in majorbroadsheets. But the truth is that few of those who are talking loudly today took much interest in all these then.They say that peace is not an easy path; sometimes it’s like walking a tightrope. But there is no alternative to peace.War cannot end war. Religious ofcials, civil society leaders, business persons, academicians have spoken out who

live and work in Mindanao. They know how destructive war is, and how fragile peace is. That is why, to a person,they have issued calls for peace very early on when thick haze still hung over Mamasapano. They called for aresumption of congressional hearings on the BBL.

Some legislators and politicians wish to demonize the MILF. But I can say,from working with the MILF in the past three years, that they have earnedthe trust and respect of GPH peace negotiators with a ceasere that hasheld rm since the Al Barka incident in October, 2011. The trust of the AFPhas been won with successful joint operations against lawless elements andto rescue kidnap victims, and some occasional PNP ofcials who wanderedinto hostile territory, in central Mindanao. And most of all, they have won

the trust and respect of the whole-of-government for choosing time andagain to stay on the table through the stickiest negotiations, shifting fromwinner-take-all talking points to joint and mutual problem-solving to movethe multiple tracks of the peace process forward – not just in pursuing thepolitical settlement in the autonomous Bangsamoro , but also in the deliveryof the Sajahatra Bangsamoro peace dividends, the crafting and adoptionof the Bangsamoro Development Plan, and the groundwork for the phasedand gradual decommissioning of MILF combatants in the context of thecomprehensive Normalization Annex.

To say so is not lawyering for them but speaking the truth in love, to borrow

a line from scripture.

I nd it oddly strange that it is legislators and politicians who have not witnessed, or felt, rst-hand the scourge andravages of war in Mindanao who come charging at our peace structures with a wrecking ball. What is it like to live

your life forever on the run? What is it like to lose your home, and your wits, because bombs come raining from thesky? What is it like to force your adolescent daughter to work abroad because there is no decent work for bakwitsor semi-permanent refugees? What is it like to force your underage daughter to marry because there is no securityof home for her? What is it like to know that the little boy that you suckled at your breast will not grow up to learnreading and arithmetic and how to make a living from his talents and acquired skills? What he will learn best is howto point the gun and pull the trigger and, at what is supposed to be the prime of his life, he will wake up on manymornings with the knowledge that this is a day when he may kill or be killed.

This is what war has meant in Mindanao – not for one, or two, or three, but for thousands, for tens of thousands, forhundreds of thousands, and during the episodes of all-out war, for half a million people, even a million, of its people:Muslim, Christian, lumad.

That is why Mindanao people – children and bishops and ulamas and businessmen and women and teachers and NGOleaders – that is why their reaction to congressional freezing of BBL hearings is visceral, pained. Because they knowwhat the costs are, they know that war is innitely costlier than peace.

If speaking this truth labels me as lawyering for MILF, I do not mind. Better that than to shut up because it is not

“I nd it oddly strangethat it is legislatorsand politicians whohave not witnessed,

or felt, rst-hand the scourge and ravages of war in Mindanao whocome charging at our peace structures witha wrecking ball. ”



popular, or sexy, to speak up at this time in defense of peace. How oddly strange to be so viciously assailed forspeaking up for peace.

People in Mindanao are also pained by the resurgence of our old biases and dualistic thinking of us versus them,expressed in the view that the only good Moro is a dead Moro, or that Muslims can never be trusted. We mustunlearn this dualism so we can move beyond our supercial analyses to a more discerning view of the peace processand our stakes in it.

Mamapasano has, indeed, set back the peace process but let us use this lull to clearly spell out the stakes, not onlyfor Mindanaoans, but also for people from the north (Luzon) and the central islands (Visayas). We cannot prosperas a nation with a house divided. We cannot live the promise of life abundant while pockets of poverty and violenceand squalor remain in Mindanao.

Let us issue primers on peace, let us hold fora such as this, let us write letters to the editor, let us lobby ourcongresspersons, let us reach out over and over again to Filipinos who are different from and unfamiliar to us. Let uskeep the ame of peace burning, to keep BBL at the top of the agenda, and to honor our fallen 67.

And, nally - what is to be done?

There is a well-loved Protestant hymn that goes: “Once to every man/woman and nation, comes the moment todecide…” In the end, this is a moment of truth for every Filipino: Christian, Bangsamoro, or lumad. The President,PNoy, has put it this way: Am I for peace? Or am I for war?

Shall we let our fears, insecurities, and falsehoods, rule us? Can we afford to sit on the fence, let the wind blow whereit will, and may the best or strongest side win?

Let us not sell ourselves short. Not for nothing did we ght Spain, again and again, for three and a half centuries – tostrike out at injustice, for the call to freedom. Not for nothing did we ght the Americans – at the cost of becominga howling wilderness – to defend our sovereignty and freedom. Not for nothing did we ght against the darkness of

totalitarian rule, which triumph inspired the world with our people power revolution 29 years ago yesterday – toregain our freedom and once again light our way to a future of justice, democracy, and peace.

I beg you, the young people here: as young Filipinos to whom the future rightly and irrevocably belongs, pleasedo not sell yourselves short. Insist on your say to how the future will take shape. Insist that decisions that willdetermine your future not be made on the basis of emotions – or more accurately, emotionalism – not on thebasis of allegations and surely not on the basis of prejudices and petried perspectives that belong to the past andwill not serve in your quest to manage and overcome the challenges of the future. Please demand that, when theBBL is put to a vote in Congress, it will be the future of the children – Christian, Muslim, and lumad; equally for thechild in Mamasapano as the child in Manila – that will take center stage and not the 2016 electoral prospects ofpoliticians.

Today we are called to stand beside, not against, our Muslim brothers and sisters in their quest for justice andselfhood within a house united, not divided. The most vociferous voices call for a stop to the BBL hearings, call for arevamp of the peace infrastructure in midstream. Perhaps the most charitable thing to say is that they do not knowwhereof they speak.

Let the blood shed at Mamasapano clear, and not blind, our vision in the quest for truth and justice. Let the sturm unddrang of these days be as a rener’s re to purify words of their dross.

And may the peacemakers be blessed.



Women at the Forefront:

Championing peace

against all odds

Another war?

More than a month after the tragic incident inMamasapano, Maguindanao, which claimed 67 lives, itseems that another war has ensued. This one, a war ofwords, a decimation of reputations, and the Bangsamoropeace process is the latest casualty.

With politicos grandstanding in both chambers of Congress;media spouting sensationalized “news”; and uninformednetizens calling for all-out war from the comforts of theirhomes, noises and cries for blood abound in the publicsphere.

In the midst of all these are four women – two Christiansand two Muslims – who, going against popular opinion,have appealed for sobriety and reason. In the process, theyhave been cursed and vilied, but they persist – all in thename of ending an internecine war and nally bringingpeace to Mindanao.

IT WAS ANOTHER HEATED DEBATE.

In the hallowed halls of the Senate, a lawmaker who had immediately withdrawn his sponsorship of a proposedlaw that could resolve the 40-year armed conict in Mindanao took to the plenary oor.

In front of reporters and TV cameras, he asked the Presidential peace adviser, Secretary Teresita Quintos Deles,in his typical bluster:

“What side are you representing sa peace panel? Kayo ni Chair Ferrer, and ni Gen. Galvez? Are yourepresenting the Government of the Republic of the Philippines or are you representing the MILF?”

In a mixture of frustration and conviction, Secretary Deles, replied:

“Of course, your Honor, I am representing the Republic of the Philippines on every occasion... yourHonor.”

By POLLY CUNANAN

Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita“Ging” Deles, Government of the Philippines chiefnegotiator Miriam “Iye” Coronel-Ferrer, and Muslimlawmakers, Maguindanao rst district and Cotabato CityRepresentative Bai Sandra Sema, and Anak Mindanao partylist Representative Sitti Djalia Turabin Hataman standtall among the few men and women who have openlysupported the call for the passage of the Bangsamoro BasicLaw that is designed to bring peace and development toMuslim Mindanao, the poorest region in the country.

Secretary Deles and Chairperson Ferrer seem to possessnerves of steel while Bai Sandra Sema and Sitti DjaliaHataman have shown hearts of gold as they face great oddsin their ght for peace in Bangsamoro, in Mindanao, andthe entire country.

“It’s okay. You don’t need to think of how to defend me,”the soft-spoken Ferrer tells her staff. “It is all part of the

job.”



“It has always been my job to give hope where there isnone,” Deles says. “When I was in Maguindanao recently,a stranger just came up to me and told me that sheappreciates what I am doing. It is really for them that I do

what I do.”

Women championing peace

One marvels at the quiet dignity, grace, and stamina Delesand Ferrer have shown in the hearings conducted by bothchambers of Congress, and the media frenzy as they gothrough interview after interview in an effort to get peopleto understand the high stakes in the government’s peaceprocess with the Bangsamoro.

One wonders if other people, men for example, were intheir position, would they exhibit the same level of passionand commitment that these women have shown? Orperhaps the better question is, if they were men, wouldthey have received the same kind of bullying these womenhave been unfairly treated to?

“Denitely in judging, maligning, demonizing the peaceprocess… We have to admit there is a gender bias there. Ido not think we would have had that kind of viciousnessif it were men in our place,” the peace adviser laments.“Women are always tested harder than men but, I hope, wehave passed so far.” Indeed, if they could successfully end more than 17 years ofpainstaking negotiations with an armed group, denitelythese women peace champions can steer the peace processto rise above its present quagmire.

Ferrer, in fact, foretold this in an early statement when shesaid, “We know there will be typhoons or ooding along theway. But if we don’t give up, and we stay together, maaabot

din natin ang inaasam na kapayapaan (we will denitely reachthe peace we have long desired),” she said.

The peace imperatives now

The Mamasapano tragedy is considered a major test for thepeace process. But what does it take to move it forward atthis juncture?

Both Deles and Ferrer agree that exacting truth, justice andaccountability for those who have fallen in Mamasapanoare important, and it must be for the sake of all partiesinvolved in the incident. But the quest for elusive peacemust continue.

“Let the blood shed at Mamasapano clear, and not blind,our vision in the quest for truth and justice,” SecretaryDeles said at a recent forum. “Let the sturm und drang ofthese days be as a rener’s re to purify words of theirdross.”

She appealed: “We must make sense of Mamasapano bylearning the lessons of history; and by keeping our earsclose to the ground. War’s alarms ring in the halls ofCongress and in social media but not in the blood-drenchedelds of Maguindanao where people, and children most ofall, pay the price of the conict.”

Chair Ferrer notes that the only way forward is “to showthat this path to peace is viable and that it can accomplishthings that war has not accomplished… That is why wehave not wavered in our determination to see throughthe peace process because the other alternative is simplyunthinkable. That alternative will bring chaos.”

She reminded the Filipino people of the aspirations that areat the core of the Bangsamoro peace process: “Stop the war

Deles, Ferrer, Sema and Hataman: Standing up for the peace process



in Mindanao, realize meaningful autonomy in the regionand deliver social justice through political and economicreforms.”

“If we don’t lose sight of these basics, we will nd a goodway to ensure the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law and

bring to life new institutions and not be stomped along theway.”

Deles also took note of the great opportunity that thecurrent conversations on the peace process afford. “Ourlegislators are now very much engaged in the discussionson the law. I hope and pray that this will strengthen andresult in to an even better Bangsamoro Law.”

Sisterhood in peace

Bai Sandra Sema is the wife of Moro National LiberationFront leader Muslimin Sema. She has been very vocalabout her experience of being caught in the cross re ofconict since her childhood in Mindanao. Since then, shehas actively worked for peace so that her children andgrandchildren will never have to suffer through what sheherself has gone through.

“It is easy to call for war,” she said at a hearing on theMamasapano incident of the House of Representatives’Committee on Public Order. “We are here to know the

truth, so that what happened will not be repeated; so thatnally peace can be attained; so that the lives of military,police, MILF, and others will be spared, but most especially,the lives of our people.”

For her part, Sittie Djalia has called for openness andacceptance of Muslims and the Bangsamoro people by thelarger Filipino populace.

In a television interview, Sittie Djalia shared a conversationwith her son where the latter said, “Ina (Mother), I don’tthink that most of the Filipinos do not like us. I think it’s

just that they do not know us.”

The Muslim lawmaker noted that “education, knowledge,and pagpapakilala (getting to know one another)” are veryimportant for the larger Filipino populace to understandthe context of the Bangsamoro struggle.

Sittie Djalia has been a peace advocate for 18 years prior tobeing a party list representative. She related a conversationshe had with a young woman-leader from Al-Barka, Basilan,

the site of a bloody encounter in October 2011 betweenthe military and MILF forces, and the last recorded violentclash between the parties. Since then, the ceasere has heldfor more than three years until the unfortunate incident inMamasapano.

“The rst time I met her, I asked her, what do you want? Ang sabi lang ho niya, saan ho kami makakakuha ng ID or ng certicate o kahit na anong sulat na magsasabing mabubutingtao kami (She just said, where do you think we can get an IDor certicate or any kind of document at all that attests tothe fact that we are also good people)?”

“I believe in the inherent goodness of every person. That’swhy, we are not giving up,” Sittie Djalia said. “Makiusaptayo, magpaliwanag tayo, baka sakaling marinig, mabuksanang isipan, mabuksan ang puso, magkakaroon ng pagkakataon

para sa kapayapaan (Let us appeal and explain [to theFilipino people], perhaps they will listen, they will haveopen minds, open hearts for us to nally have a chance forpeace).”

Nudges and moving forward

Taking stock of current realities, the women peacechampions know how difcult the work is going to be,winning over an angry public, getting them to support thepeace process, and making them see what the other side is

all about.

For both Secretary Deles and Chair Ferrer, it doesn’tmatter if they continue to be bashed by lawmakersand crucied in the public sphere. No matter what reand bluster are unleashed in the public sphere andin the venerated halls of Congress, Ferrer holds, “It isvery important that we keep nudging – cautiously andgraciously, ever so sensitive to the cultural milieu of theFilipino social strata.”

For Deles, “If speaking this truth labels me as lawyering forMILF, I do not mind. Better that than to shut up because itis not popular, or sexy, to speak up at this time in defense ofpeace. How oddly strange it is to be so viciously assailed forspeaking up for peace.”

Undeterred and even more determined, she said, “Thepeace process has been disrupted but not beaten back. Wewill forge ahead. Let us stand for peace and reclaim thebirthright of countless generations of Filipinos yet unborn,of a country united in a just and lasting peace.”



Gender in the Peace Process

THE TWO WOMEN leading the peace process, ProfessorMiriam Coronel-Ferrer, Chair of the government peacepanel and Teresita Quintos Deles, Presidential peaceadviser have demonstrated in the Mamapasano hearingswhy they are the best for the job. With sharpness ofmind, clarity of articulation, calmness of disposition,both provided substantive answers to questions fromlegislators, whether they were speaking to the gallery orgenuinely searching for the truth. They showed masteryof the content and process of the agreements reached, the

mechanisms established, the rationale and meaning ofevery single BBL provision.

Subjected to the harshest of criticisms and baselessaccusations, including lawyering for MILF, both Coronel-Ferrer and Deles exercised maximum restraint and kepttheir composure. At no time were they disrespectful tothose who scolded, castigated or embarrassed them.

Yet with all these outstanding qualities of good andeffective negotiators, some legislators and inuentials

have called for their resignation. One even called them“peace ladies” who should have convened a group of“retired military advisers” insinuating that as women andnon-military people, they do not know enough of the waysof war and how to negotiate with rebel groups.

This perspective reects a deep gender bias as it assumesthat the peace process only starts when the combatants,mostly men, are brought to the negotiating table in anattempt to end the conict. In reality, the process startslong before formal negotiations when women and civil

society initiate steps to end the conict.

A peace and women’s rights activist, Deles has spent mostof her working life with peace organizations such as theCoalition for Peace founded in 1987 and the Gaston Z.Ortigas Peace Institute and has spearheaded numerousprograms to promote peace and solidarity. Coronel-Ferrer, on the other hand, has been involved not onlyin negotiating for an end to the Mindanao conict but inpeace processes in other countries such as Cambodia, EastTimor and Nepal.

By SOCORRO L. REYES, PH.D.International Consultant, Social Development and Gender Equality

Gender stereotyped or socially constructed roles andpower relationships permeate conict resolution andthe peace process. Women’s presence at peace talks is anecessary but not sufcient condition for the integrationof the women’s agenda in the discussion and negotiation.Fortunately, both Deles and Coronel-Ferrer as well as thewomen in the Bangsamoro Transition Commission havea women’s perspective as shown in the explicit genderequality provisions in the Framework and ComprehensiveAgreements as well as the Basic Law on the Bangsamoro.The support of the men in both panels was extremelyhelpful.

A study in 2012 showed that of 31 peace processesbetween 1992 and 2011, women are only 4% ofsignatories, 2.4% of chief mediators, 3.7% of witnesses and9% of negotiators (UNIFEM, 2012). This is in spite of thepassage in 2000 of Security Council Resolution 1325 thaturges increased representation of women at all decision-making levels in national, regional and internationalinstitutions and mechanisms for the prevention,management and resolution of conict. To assess theprogress in the implementation of SC 1325 by memberstates as well as address obstacles and constraints, ahigh-level review will be done this year, the 15thanniversary of SC 1325. This is one of the provisionsof SC 2122 passed on October 18, 2013, to provide amore systematic approach in the implementation ofcommitments to women, peace and security.

The appointment of two competent, experiencedwomen experts in the highest decision-making positionsin the peace process in Mindanao is a majoraccomplishment in the Philippine government’simplementation of SC 1325. What better way tocelebrate Women in History Month than to recognizethe contributions of Ging Deles and Iye Coronel-Ferrerin the crafting of the Framework and ComprehensiveAgreements on the Bangsamoro and the drafting of theBangsamoro Basic Law. Though these are now undersharp scrutiny, the fact remains that these are milestonesin the peace process!!



THE MAMASAPANO INCIDENT

was a national tragedy, the pain and

confusion of which reawakened incertain sectors age-old biases againstcommunities in southern Philippines.

The Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL),a proposed measure to establish a

just and lasting peace in war-wearyMuslim Mindanao became an easytarget. Some lawmakers viciouslyattacked the BBL as beneting abloodthirsty terrorist group that is outto dismember the Philippine republic.And there were those who havedisingenuously declared their desirefor peace while calling for all-out war.

Many have seen through the smokeand mirrors and decided it is time tospeak up for genuine peace for thepeople of Mindanao. They are on radioand television, and speak in forumsto explain the BBL and counter the

half-truths being peddled to the publicby the media and the legislature. And

they are out in the streets and parks,to march, to rally, to plead, to pray forthe continuation of the peace process,the preservation of the ceaseremechanisms, and the passage of theBBL.

They are civil society members,women’s groups, nuns, priests, police,students, academics, legal experts, andordinary concerned Filipino citizens –Christians and Muslims alike – who seethat the promise of peace in MuslimMindanao, once so close one couldalmost touch it, must urgently befullled through the BBL.

One of the rst demonstrationswas a march to Mendiola by morethan a hundred members of womenand youth groups and civil societyorganizations. And on March 6, which

was declared by peace advocates asa “National Day Towards Healing for

Unity and Peace”, interfaith prayerrallies, marches, musical concerts,peace vigils were held in Baguio, MetroManila, Bacolod, and Dumaguete.Peace advocates also gathered invarious places in Mindanao, includingTawi-Tawi, Davao, and Mamasapano,to rally and pray for peace.

The groups called on the public tounderstand that all-out war will onlymean a continuation of the viciouscycle of hatred and violence. Thepassage of the draft law, they said,will help break that and establish avirtuous cycle of peace, security, andsocio-economic development forpeople badly in need of it.

As the peace advocates declare, “Warsolves nothing. Let us pursue theMindanao peace process.”

Saving the BBLCitizens rally for all-out peace

Text by KRIS LANOT LACABAPhotos by JOSER DUMBRIQUE and KRIS LANOT LACABA


15/44KABABAIHANatKAPAYAPAANMarch 2015 KABABAIHANatKAPAYAPAANMarch 2015

THE MAMASAPANO INCIDENT, which has dominatedbroadsheets for weeks now, serves as a loomingreminder of how delicate the road to peace really is. Itshows how one incident can create a giant speed bumpto an otherwise steadily moving process that had allintentions of charging ahead. In the midst of the shock

and outpouring of emotion, social media has developedinto another battleground where cries for all-out warhave joined the mourning voices, those seeking answersand the truth, and those calling for justice. The streamsof information released have also contributed to thegrowing negative sentiments felt all around. Despite thesechallenges, peace advocates have not wavered. On thecontrary, they are as motivated as ever to push for peace,to provide a less-heard but equally important perspectivethat takes a look at the bigger picture. Among them are thewomen of WE Act 1325.

The Women Engaged in Action on 1325 (WE Act 1325)recognize the pressing need to insert positive voices,voices of peace, into this mix. Following January 25,various efforts have been mobilized to remind the generalpublic that turning our backs on the peace process atthis critical juncture would be detrimental to everyoneinvolved. These efforts highlight the need to look beyondthe incident. There is a need to look at the context,the history, and, most importantly, the community—the ordinary citizens affected by what happened in

Mamasapano. They urge the public to look beyond thedeaths of the 44, acknowledging that 67 Filipinos lost theirlives that day, and many more may suffer the same fate ifwe do not continue with the peace process in Mindanao.The gains achieved by the laborious process that hasspanned decades will be negated, says their statement, ifwe allow the peace process to be taken hostage as a resultof the incident in Mamasapano.

The network has been heightening its advocacy by joining other peace networks, such as the Friends of

Women forge on, echoing the calls for peace

By ANA NATIVIDADWE Act 1325

A women’s group urges us to look at the Mamasapano incident from a different angle.

the Bangsamoro, in public actions, such as the one heldon Mendiola bridge, and press conferences calling forpeace and truth in these trying times. The network hasalso launched newspaper ads, asking such questions as,“As stories of Mamasapano are told, can’t we rise aboveour prejudices long enough to mourn them all?” This

highlights the fact that many people beyond the SpecialAction Force members were affected, and that thisincident should not be the cause for us to renege on ourcommitment to peace and revert to our prejudiced lensesof viewing the Bangsamoro.

A notable and very important initiative that the networkhas participated in is the Women’s Solidarity and ListeningMission, wherein civil society representatives visitedthe women of Mamasapano to hear the stories that havebeen missed by the mainstream media. In the shadows ofthe headlines are women’s voices sharing their personaltragedies, and hopes for true and lasting peace for

their families and communities. WE Act 1325 SteeringCommittee member, Carmen Lauzon-Gatmaytan’s articlein Mindanews, opens a window into other wounds leftin the wake of Mamasapano, and how these mothers,wives and grandmothers continue to forge on, despiteeverything they have lost.

The women of WE Act 1325 are determined not to let thisincident turn into a glaring stop sign, but simply a speedbump, on the longer journey to a just and lasting peace forthe Bangsamoro and for the entire nation.



Zenonida Brosas and Cecilia Jimenez

Deepening the Peace

“I WOULD BE DANCING,” ZenBrosas says gaily, when asked whatshe would be doing if she was notinvolved in the security sectorand the peace process betweenthe Government and the MoroIslamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Zen is currently co-chair of the Joint Normalization Committee(JNC) tasked to implement thedifferent phases of the Annex onNormalization. She adds that shemight also be farming or gardening:“I want to raise owers.”

But life had a different path laid outfor Zenonida “Zen” Brosas.

Zenonida Brosas, Co-chair, Joint Normalization Committee

Making a dierence in a man’s worldBy JENNIFER SANTOS

Zen has a bachelor’s degree inAgricultural Economics from UP LosBaños and a Masters’ and PhD inUrban and Regional Planning from UPDiliman.

After college, not knowing what shewanted to do, she took on differentresearch assistantships in UP doingfeasibility studies for the Bureau ofImmigration, the Development Bankof the Philippines, and other groupsor ofces through friends’ referrals.

She also did a project proposal for theDepartment of Agriculture on RuralDevelopment and other integratedarea development projects. Whatmotivated her to do all these, as wellas her current jobs, is the desireinculcated in her by her parents,to make a difference. They said,“Your goal in life should be to makea difference in someone’s life, be itanywhere or everywhere.”

From freelance work, Zen took on afull-time job at the National SecurityCouncil (NSC). “A friend of Dr. AllanOrtiz asked a friend of mine if heknew someone who could do a job atNSC,” Zen recalls. At the time, she wassupposed to embark on a six-monthUNDP water impounding project inMalaysia. However, her mother had

a stroke and Zen had to weigh heroptions carefully.

A career in national security

It was the start of an interesting20-year (and still counting) career innational security, where, by tradition,men have ruled for decades.

The National Security Council (NSC)is the principal advisory body for theproper coordination and integration

of plans and policies affecting nationasecurity. It was created throughExecutive Order 330 of 1950, underthe Quirino Administration.

Zen started working at the NSC asdirector of the Socio-Economic Unitof the Policy Study Branch, a post sheheld from 1990 to 1998. “I came in asa director for six months. And thenthey recommended me to become

the assistant director general.” Shewas also the assistant director forthe Information Management Ofcetasked to make project proposals onissues affecting national security witha focus on socio-economic factors.

At NSC, she saw the connection of leftrecruitment and the socio-economicconditions of a person. “If you lose



was appointed chair of the GPHTechnical Working Group (TWG) onNormalization.

“When I arrived in KL for the rstmeeting, the MILF team was shocked.They never saw me during the time

when Dean Marvic Leonen was GPHpanel chair.” But she felt she hadthe upper hand when handling themeetings because she already knewsome of the people involved in thenegotiations.

“Iqbal has been known to me eversince we negotiated the CeasereAgreement in 1996. We drafted thatmechanism.” Zen was anxious at rst

because this was the rst time thatshe had come face-to-face with anMILF commander, her counterpart,Muhammad Nassif. To overcomeher anxiety and to learn moreabout the process, she befriendedher counterpart on the other sideof the table. “So, that started theintroductions and during coffee time,I told my partner, usap tayo (let’s talk).”

The Comprehensive Agreement onthe Bangsamoro and its Annexes,including that of the Normalization,was signed in March 2014. Zen iscurrently the co-chair of the JointNormalization Committee (JNC) taskedto implement the different phases ofthe Annex on Normalization, makingsure that the police structure basedon the Annex is set up, and theirrole on the decommissioning. “The

JNC, together with the InternationalDecommissioning Body (IDB),determines how to secure thecombatants who will turn over theirrearms at and come up with a socio-economic package for them.” JNCmakes the policy and the Joint Peaceand Security Committee through the

Joint Peace and Security Team whowill implement it.”

your job, will the left recruit you?That’s the bottom line. I couldn’tsee that before. I couldn’t gureout the left’s basis for recruitment.”She learned how displacement,unemployment and poverty arefactors leading to the vulnerability of a

person to be recruited by the left.

As part of her job, Zen worked withOPAPP on the GPH–MNLF PeaceAgreement as her rst assignment.At that time, although there werewomen in the staff, she was the onlywoman ofcer of NSC. She studiedthe agenda of the GPH–MNLF PeaceAgreement since they were workingon the Organic Act (Republic Act

6734) which called for the creation ofthe Autonomous Region in MuslimMindanao.

In 1998, Zen was appointed assistantdirector general for Administrationand Legislative Liaison and PolicyResearch Support. She held the postuntil 2010 when she was promoted toDeputy DG.

In 2010, Zen was appointedundersecretary of the NSC andexecutive director of the PresidentialSituation Room (PSR). Createdthrough Administrative Ordernumber 2, the PSR is where thePresident handles situations of criticalimportance to national security. Itprovides the President informationin real time and a space for dealingwith security situations. Zen makes it

a point to review the PSR report everyday which she needs to nish by eighto’clock every evening.

Zen was not involved in actualnegotiations during the GPH–MILFPeace Process. “My involvementwas giving opinions, comments withrespect to the things that OPAPPwould send us.” But in the end, she

What excites Zen about herwork in normalization is thedecommissioning. “It will be a big,big accomplishment and it will showthe world that after all, these peopleare reasonable. When someone saysthat the MILF is not to be trusted, my

response is, just wait, everyone makesmistakes. The most exciting part isthe fullment of the objective of thedecommissioning which is to get theMILF to turn over their rearms andgive the rebels a civilian life. THAT ismaking a difference.”

The challenge of peace

With all the challenges the peace

process is facing, Zen is optimisticthat peace can be attained and thepeace process will work. “I thinkwith the help and prayers ofeveryone, it will. We’ve gone a longway, decisions of individuals andpolicy makers would have to bepragmatic. We have to be pragmatic;we have to think of long-termsolutions, and not just for thisadministration. We’ve been through

conict a lot and the solutions ofbefore didn’t really work. So thisis making a difference in decision-making, I am hopeful that this willwork, if we all cooperate.”

Zen adds, “Peace is something youwork for. Peace cannot be done by anindividual; it is a partnership. But youhave to have inner peace before youcan make peace with everyone.”

Zen Brosas might not be dancing, orrunning a farm or planting a garden,but by the work she is doing, she israising more than crops or owers.She has raised a consciousness ofthe work for peace, and how in thetraditionally male domain of nationalsecurity, a woman can and has, madea big difference.



DESPITE THE ROCKY PATH,toward the passage of the BangsamoroBasic Law (BBL), the government ofthe Philippine Republic (GPH) andMoro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)are ready, willing and able to pursuematters of justice and reconciliation.

Eminently qualied by professionaltraining, work experience, andpersonal inclination is lawyerCecilia “Cej” Jimenez-Damary, whorepresents the Philippine governmentin the Transitional Justice andReconciliation Commission (TJRC).Formed in September 2014, the TJRC ispart of the annex on normalization inthe Comprehensive Agreement on the

Bangsamoro. The TJRC is chaired byMô Bleeker, Swiss special ambassadoron transitional justice. Thecommission’s MILF representative islawyer Ishak Mastura.

Jimenez earned a foreign servicedegree from the University of thePhilippines but was later drawn to lawstudies for several reasons. First was

Cecilia Jimenez, GPH Representative, Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Commission

The return of the nativeBy JURGETTE HONCULADA

the inuence of a grandfather judgewho “used law to better the lives of

others”. As a high school studentat Stella Maris College, ran by theFranciscan Missionaries of Mary, shewas struck by the nuns’ reports ontheir missions to Mindanao “tendingto the needs of marginalized peopleincluding Muslims…bearing witness tothe atrocities committed there.” Thiswas, after all, martial law, and thenuns’ periodic reports sharpened her“sense of justice”.

Finally, as undergraduate at theUniversity of the Philippines, shewas exposed to protest action, visitedpicket lines, and spoke with torturevictims in detention. As PhilippineCollegian news editor, she becamefriends with news reporter, now GPH-MILF panel chair, Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, with whom she would sharean abiding passion for human rights

advocacy.

Human rights work

Jimenez completed a law degree atAteneo de Manila in 1988, passedthe bar in 1990 and worked with thePhilippine Alliance of Human RightsAdvocates (PAHRA) as deputy generalsecretary for international affairs andfor legal matters until 1993.

People Power propelled Cory Aquinoto the presidency in the mid-80s butwhen government peace talks withthe CPP/NPA/NDF collapsed, themilitary adopted a “total war” policy.One consequence was intensivemilitary operations in targeted orsuspected rebel areas that causedmassive dislocation of populations.

Jimenez recalls continuing “arbitraryarrests” and “warrantless arrests”

that took her all over the islandsdoing legal work to protect victims ofhuman rights violations.

Spanning 450,000 hectares innorthern Luzon, Marag Valleyhad been tagged as a hotbed ofrebellion from the 1970s throughthe 1990s. Marag Valley was subjectto military campaigns that droveentire communities from their homes

and rice elds. Many sought refugein the deep forest. One area waslisted as having 200 casualties butthe combined tally for the dead andmissing is believed to be closer to 500.

Representing PAHRA, in tandemwith the Ecumenical Movement for

Justice and Peace (EMJP), Jimenez ledthree fact-nding missions to MaragValley in the ‘90s, her rst exposure

to the issue of internally displacedpersons or IDPs (then called internalrefugees). What she learned and theadvocacy work emanating from thisexperience would serve her later inthe international human rights arena.

Jimenez was spokesperson for Asia-Pacic NGOs at the 1993 Conferenceon Human Rights in Vienna. Soonafter, she took a year off in London

to pursue a masters of law degreein public international law, as aChevening scholar. After marriage in1995 to a Swiss agronomist active inPhilippine solidarity work she movedto Bulgaria, but Jimenez continuedher work as member of the AmnestyInternational (AI) Mandate Committeetasked to study “borderline cases”.One question posed to her was



whether female genital mutilation(FGM) fell within the scope of AI’swork. Her study recommendedinclusion of FGM, which she says was“revolutionary” at that time. In abouta year, FGM ofcially became part ofAI’s mandate.

Returning to Geneva, Jimenez washired as NGO lobbyist for a draftoptional protocol, an addendumto the United Nations Conventionagainst Torture. It was hard work thattook all of ve years. She broughtto bear on this task everything shehad learned in the Philippines andelsewhere about human rights,torture and preventive mechanisms.

When she was certain that theprotocol would pass the UN GeneralAssembly, she knew her work wasdone and was ready to move on.

Legal consultancies in the next six years engaged her, among others,in the formation of the UN HumanRights Council (in lieu of the UNCommission on Human Rights,which suffered credibility problems)

and also in pro bono work such assecuring the right to vote for Filipinooverseas workers. In 2008, Jimenezwas hired as senior legal ofcerand senior trainer by the InternalDisplacement Monitoring Center(IDMC) of the Norwegian RefugeeCouncil, a worldwide humanitarianNGO.

Full circle

Her task? To give advice and trainingto governments and human rightsorganizations on the United NationsGuiding Principles on InternalDisplacement (UNGPID). Jimenezis grateful for her ve years withIDMC where she honed her skillsand knowledge in the human rights-based approach to humanitarian

assistance and disaster management.This also afforded her the chanceto take specialist courses such asInternational Disaster Law and inInternational Humanitarian Law, acourse on the Islamic laws of war.

With IDMC she has gone “full circle”, Jimenez says, Marag Valley in theearly ‘90s introducing her to the issueof internal displacement. The fullcircle also makes a tting preface toher work with the TJRC.

The TJRC is mandated to prepareand submit a report on how to tacklematters of transitional justice andreconciliation, specically policy

recommendations. The report willbe submitted to the GPH and MILFnegotiating panels with focus onimplementation.

To attain its mandate, the TJRC haslaunched a process of consultations,mandated studies, and is undertakingassessments on transitional justiceand reconciliation in the Bangsamoro.Over 200 consultations will be held

in the Bangsamoro from Februaryto April 2015. Jimenez calls it a“listening process”. The report,she says, should be “politicallyfeasible and acceptable, based onthe Bangsamoro history, reality andvision for justice”.

The report will delve on the issuesof legitimate grievances of theBangsamoro, historical injustice,

human rights violations, andmarginalization through landdispossession. Jimenez stresses thatthe report will not be only for theBangsamoro and Mindanao, but alsofor the nation. Our tribal identities(Ilokano, Ilonggo, etc.) remain strong,she says. “Diversity is good, but wemust learn to live together as a nationwhile retaining our identities”.

Jimenez holds that it is “necessary tohave multiple narratives…at the endof the day some narratives will be incontention with each other”. It hashelped, she says, that as a Filipina shehad lived for 17 years in Switzerland.The country, with its French-,

German- and Italian-speakingpopulations, is a model of differentpeoples living together in diversity.

Jimenez says we as a country still needto work toward such acknowledgmentof diversity, sharing the same politicaland economic space.

Citizenship, Jimenez underscores,is “a matter of identity, loyalty andcommitment as to one’s constructive

contribution to society”. In nearlytwo decades of working and livingin Europe, she earned her legal,academic and NGO spurs and raiseda family. Through it all, her Filipinocitizenship remained her true north.

Upon her return to the Philippines,Commission on Human RightsChairperson Loretta Rosales neededa consultant to manage a project on

IDPs supported by the United NationsHigh Commissioner on Refugees(UNCHR). In early 2013, Jimenezanswered the call and resigned fromher international post, relocating toDavao City with her family.

Davao is a deliberate choice becauseit allows her to “see issues from thepoint of view of Mindanao”. And theTJRC assignment, she says, provides

the opportunity “to immerse myselfin learning and understanding thecontext of Bangsamoro historically,politically, and culturally”.

Having done work in eastern andcentral Europe, Africa and the MiddleEast, this native has returned to treadthe rocky road to peace in Mindanao—and is warming to the challenge.



I am for peace, the peace that God grants to people of goodwill. I am for the peace that God gives through the collaborative work of men and women who work conscientiously for the good

of the whole country. By focusing on the good of a Bangsamoro minority in the “peripheries” who have suffered social injustices for centuries, they are working for the common good of all

Filipinos. They are healing historic wounds that have caused great suffering to all Filipinos.ORLANDO CARDINAL QUEVEDO, Archdiocese of Cotabato

At a critical juncture in ourhistory, we have a golden

opportunity to preserve our gains and use them as a

platform to put the country onan irreversible path towardsinclusive development and

political maturity. We cannotafford to squander 56 monthsof institutionalizing reforms,weeding out corruption, and

solidifying our economic and

social foundations. Joint statement of

CAGAYAN DE ORO CHAMBEROF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRYFOUNDATION, INC., EMPLOYERS

CONFEDERATION OF THEPHILIPPINES, FINANCIAL

EXECUTIVES INSTITUTE OFTHE PHILIPPINES, MAKATI

BUSINESS CLUB, MANAGEMENTASSOCIATION OF THE

PHILIPPINES, MINDANAOBUSINESS COUNCIL,

PHILIPPINE BUSINESS FORSOCIAL PROGRESS

Let me declare at the outset that I support the creation of a Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.Its establishment is certainly allowed by the 1987 Constitution… Indeed, in many ways, the

Philippines as a whole will benet from the experience of the Bangsamoro.

TONY LA VIÑA, Dean, Ateneo School of Government

We don’t want to repeat history. Going back to war with theMILF is quite absurd. It’s illogical. It’s unlawful, maybe… Hereare people asking for peace and then all of a sudden you tellthem, ‘No, let’s just go to war to nish all these things.’… It’s

easy to call for war… If they want war, they should be the rstones to volunteer to be in the front lines. Maybe they’ll know

what kind of war they’re talking about.

GEN. GREGORIO PIO CATAPANG JR.Chief of Staff, Armed Forces of the Philippines

It is going to be a very dicult one but wecannot abandon the search for peace. We

cannot drop the Bangsamoro Basic Law. I amscared of the possibility of the collapse of the

peace process… I am scared of war.

REP. RODOLFO BIAZONRetired General and former AFP Chief of Staff

Justice is served when we give peace.Peace is the ultimate justice we can get.

GEN. EMMANUEL BAUTISTARetired AFP Chief of Staff



Any responsible government that aspires to somelegitimacy would do everything to exhaust all

possibilities of strengthening that fragile peacethrough mutual agreement before it threatens waragainst its enemies. But, how thoughtlessly we talk

about war! We who were lucky to be born in the post-war era have only an abstract idea of what war means.

Unless we have lived in Mindanao, we really do nothave any appreciation of the value of peace, or of what

it means to be able to raise a family and pursue a life

without being hounded by continual fear.

RANDY DAVID

Think that the peace process was aboutbringing about a situation where even

ideological dierence might be overcome

in peace and prosperity, or at least solvedcivilly. Think that with the peace process

being wantonly scuttled, the legislators aredelivering us back to this madness. The

legislators. Because the ball is now in theirhands. If they fumble, the game is lost.

FR. JOEL TABORA, S.J.

We believe that the true path to nationalunity lies not in retribution and vengeance,

rather in the greater understanding that

we are raising a future generation that will grow up in an environment of peace and

inclusive development. We urge our leadersespecially in government – from across allbranches – to continue to strengthen the

peace process.

PROFESSORS FOR PEACE

Their [Deles, Coronel-Ferrer, and Iqbal’s] diligent efforts, with countless othersalong the path of peace, have moved the nation closer to realizing the aspirations of

our Bangsamoro brothers and sisters for meaningful self-determination to live theirreligious convictions and shared culture in peace and prosperity.

FR. ROBERTO C. YAP, President of Xavier University

[The BBL] is not a cure-all to all the problems in Mindanao but itwill create the conditions, the prospects of peace and prosperity if

we have a representative and inclusive BBL.SEN. SONNY ANGARA

Decades of war and neglect havemade this part of the country the

worst in almost all available indices. And for them to catch up, the BBLwill be providing the Bangsamoro

a means for infrastructuredevelopment and socio-economic

programs coupled with sound political mechanisms and security

arrangements.

SEC. YASMIN BUSRAN-LAONational Commission for Muslim Filipinos



In Maguindanao,gender empowermentis key to peace

THE ROAD OUT OF MAMASAPANO

MAGUINDANAO HAS SEARED ITSELF into the national consciousnesswith images and accounts of two bloodbaths within barely half a decade of each other:the numbing carnage committed by a political dynasty in Shariff Aguak in 2009; and the more recentwrenching deaths of scores of police commandos and Muslim combatants and civilians in Mamapasano.

How to delink Maguindanao from images of death and despair--a bridge too far, too frail, a lonely corneld? How todisabuse ourselves of the crippling stereotypes that Maguindanao evokes: of unbridled corruption and political dynastybuilding in the extreme; of the rule of the gun rendering the rule of law irrelevant, worse, inutile; of the vast majorityconsigned to penury and squalor by inordinate greed of the few; of a poverty of spirit that will not risk dissent and action;of a culture of violence that mocks childhood and barters away the future?

But the narrative is not unique to Maguindanao for it resonates in other parts of the country. Indeed, there is ambiguity,fragility, terror in the narrative – but they cannot cloak a dynamism, a greater complexity, a resilience, a vibrancy thatdares say: war and death are not the last words in this narrative.

As a Mindanaoan, I have lived with the pain and grief from decades of the so-called Muslim-Christian conict. As non-Maguindanaoan, I ask myself what can stop the juggernaut of corruption-greed-poverty-violence that has deprived manyMaguindanaoans of a decent life? And how to make sense of the violence at Mamasapano that dees easy answers andanalyses? How not to respond to calls for justice with a peace process that is not left twisting in the wind, if not dead in thewater?

In the days preceding Mamasapano, I visited Maguindanao in pursuit of a story that, in fact, targeted the juggernautquestion (albeit indirectly). After several days of interviews I took off from Cotabato airport mid-morning of January 25,not knowing that life and death hung in the balance for 67 persons (including an eight-year-old girl) not far from where Ihad traveled through days earlier.

Let me leave Mamasapano for now and share the story that was my reportorial task: the rst local implementation of theNational Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (NAP-WPS) in Maguindanao. In the end that narrative will take us fullcircle, in a fashion, back to Mamasapano.

The NAP covers nearly all the bases. It is based on United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 which seeks theprotection of women, and promotion of their rights, in armed conict and post-conict situations. NAP’s goals arefourfold: protection and prevention, empowerment and participation, promotion and mainstreaming, and monitoring andevaluation (see Kababaihan at Kapayapaan, September 2014).

But the story of NAP localization in Maguindanao goes back earlier to the 1990s when national government agencies (andlater, local government units [LGUs]) were mandated in the yearly General Appropriations Act starting in 1995 to set aside

By JURGETTE HONCULADA

M a p c o ur t e s y of R a p pl er



at least 5% of their budgets for genderand development, that is, the GADFund. (In 1992, RA 7192 - Women inNation Building - mandated that partof overseas development funds beallocated for gender and developmentprograms.) For various reasons, the

GAD Fund has often remained unused,or as often misused, even abused.

GAD fund as the key to NAP

Not anymore, at least in some partsof Maguindanao. NAP localizationhas provided the key to unlock thelocal GAD funds in the province.With characteristic prescience, NAPnational steering committee co-chair

and peace adviser Teresita QuintosDeles saw a perfect t in NAP and theGAD Fund, especially in areas thathave experienced armed conict.

In mid-2012 the Regional Councilof Bangsamoro Women, regionalcounterpart to the Philippine Councilof Women (PCW), held an orientationsession on the NAP for LGUs in theAutonomous Region in MuslimMindanao that includes Maguindanao

among ve provinces. Althoughlivelihood, education and humantrafcking (of women and younggirls) were acknowledged as priorityissues for the province, trafckingwas chosen because it was the leastaddressed. In a two-year period (2010-12), 186 cases of trafcking, mostlyof young girls, had been reported inARMM.

Gender Focal Point Ofcer PolAmpatuan enthuses, “Since NAPstarted in 2012, GAD programs haveincreased particularly in livelihoodand women’s empowerment. NAPprovided direction, established theGAD focal point system for effectivemechanisms in fund handling andutilization.” He adds that in the past,most of the GAD planning was leftto the planning ofcer who came up

with content not suited to women,e.g. study tours which were “notissue-based”. NAP has been integratedinto the 15-year provincial strategicplan to ensure continuity even withleadership change.

Triple whammy

Maguindanao (“land of the oodedplains”) is agriculture-based withnearly a million in population,over half of whom are childrenand youth (median age is 17.6).Over 500 barangays constitute 36municipalities, 22 of which haveexperienced trafcking in persons.Nearly half of the population is female;

and nearly half (45%) of the total livesbelow the poverty line. Maguindanaohas consistently ranked second orthird poorest province in the countryin the past decade. (NSCB, 2010).

A triple whammy explains the riseof trafcking in Maguindanao (andits neighbors) – nearly a decadeof conict (2000-08) between themilitary and the MILF displacednearly a quarter of the population

(235,000+), fueled in-between warsby rido (feudal conict), and wasaggravated by ooding (in 2006 and2009) reaching its peak in 2011 whichdisplaced 462,000 individuals in 27municipalities.

School participation rates in theprovince dropped by 30% withinternally displaced persons (IDPs)reaching hundreds of thousands. Therepeated cycles of conict, feudal warsand ooding plunged families intodeeper poverty. Entire communities

lost their homes, land andlivelihood. Early marriages are also aconsequence of armed conict and ofprolonged stay in refugee camps andresettlement centers.

Provincial administrator AbdulwahabTunga poignantly describes the livesof IDPs: “Pag nasa evacuation centerdi na bumalik dahil takot. Lumaki saresettlement area, kubo-kubo, pero

walang livelihood. Magsasaka biglangnadala sa resettlement area na walang sakahan, biglang naging vendor, walang puhunan, walang kaalaman sa pagtitinda.Kaya ‘Tulong ka na anak, mag-exitabroad,’ akala heaven (Fear keeps IDPsfrom returning home. Children growup in huts in the evacuation area,sans livelihood. Farmers are expectedto become vendors without capital,without vending skills. So they pleadwith their daughters to become OCWs

and help the family. They think workabroad is heaven).”

Hence the lure of work abroad, for young girls, with monthly salariesranging from P12,000 to P18,000 (in

Nulfarid (Pol) S. Ampatuan, Gender Focal Point Ofcer (left) and Engineer

Abdulwahab V. Tunga, Provincial Administrator (right)



Majority are aged 17. The oldest is 32 and the youngest 14. All are female, saveone. Most come from conict areas or host communities (areas which hostinternally displaced persons). Most have reached elementary school level, afew are unschooled. Most parents are farmers with low level of schooling, or

none at all. Some recruiters are victims’ relatives. Birth certicates are fakedor simulated. Through the “baklas” system (Pilipino for “pull out”), underagegirls assume the papers and identities of other older women. Interceptedvictims often do not, given their true family backgrounds. [From MaguindanaoProvince NAP 2013-2016]

Social welfare ofcer Barbara T. Guialel recounts that prolonged armedconict and the inadequacy of government and humanitarian aid to addressbasic needs of the poor push young girls to overseas work, with an offer theycan hardly refuse: cash for the family, free travel and accommodations whileprocessing papers, and free processing. With no gainful work or meaningfulactivity, they are an easy prey to recruiters, often their own kin who reportedly

get P5,000 per recruit.

When processing of papers grew more stringent in Maguindanao withincreased anti-trafcking advocacy, processing shifted to the cities of GeneralSantos, Cotabato, Butuan, Cagayan de Oro, and Davao where unscrupulousrecruiters and agents still had some leeway. In 2013, 54 women and childrenwere intercepted in Marbel, South Cotabato – three cases of illegally trafckedMaguindanao women and children have been led in Butuan City, and twobatches have returned.

They may be the lucky ones. Guialel cites one Teduray tribe member fromNorth Upi who has led a case with the regional trial court. Under an assumed

identity, she worked in Syria for seven years starting at age 11 without pay,the employer had her jailed when she fought back, she lost her wits, andwas repatriated in 2011. Another OFW experienced rape, brutality and foodstarvation. Yet another died soon after her return home at age 22, apparentlyfrom poison injected by her employer as punishment for a head woundsustained by a toddler under her care after a fall.

Provincial administrator Tunga speaks of a Catch-22 situation for manyvictims. His own cousin sold all her properties to work abroad, sending homeher savings in the course of 20, maybe 30, years. She returned home to nothing,her kin had spent all her earnings. Others take a loan of P20,000 from therecruitment agency for papers processing, paid for with their rst few months’

salary. But there are other debts to pay, e.g. airfare. After paying off debts whenvisiting home, she must return abroad to continue sending money home. Onand on the cycle goes, she lives out her days as a domestic in a foreign land.

The provincial government’s response to the trafcking problem is threefold:prevention and awareness raising through education campaigns andworkshops on anti-trafcking legislation; protection, recovery, rehabilitationand reintegration through coordinated action across LGUs and livelihood skillstraining; and prosecution and law enforcement (illegal recruiters have beenprosecuted and jailed).

Proles of victims and survivorsSaudi Arabia) notwithstanding thestories of abuse and poor workingconditions. Underage recruits manageto qualify through various means:the wonders of hijab (head covering)and make-up, parents’ false witnesson their daughter’s age, and spurious

birth certicates for a fee (seeSidebar).

Four targets of Maguindanao NAP

Maguindanao’s provincial NAP planhas four targets, highlighted in thebooklet Province-National Action Planon Women, Peace and Security 2013-16,namely: institutional development--including GAD focal point system and

local committees on anti-trafcking(LACAT); prevention and advocacy--capability building and intensiedinformation campaigns; prosecutionand law enforcement; andre-integration, recovery andprosecution.

The years 2013-14 were activity-lledperiods that included meetings ofanti-trafcking bodies and strategicplanning, capacity building for police

and boosting the gender focal pointsystem, women’s livelihood skillstraining, orientation on domesticviolence, and focus on children’s rightsthrough lm showing, photo exhibitsand poster making. Communitysessions on children’s rights andchild protection have been held in52 barangays. A total of 135 out-of-school youth have undergone life skillstraining sessions.

In mid-2014, public hearings on aproposed GAD Code were capped by itsapproval by the provincial board. Thiswas followed by a gender sensitivitytraining workshop, orientation-workshop on GAD planning andbudgeting, and adoption of localordinances on mandatory registrationof births, deaths and marriages.



Genuine birth certicates are asafeguard against spurious traveldocuments that aid and abettrafcking. There is also need fora comprehensive data base systemsince the Inter-Agency Council onAnti-Trafcking national trafcking

database does not translate intoprovincial-level statistics. PolAmpatuan says the Child ProtectionWorking Group, a network of civilsociety organizations (CSOs), can helpwith this. A complete registration ofwomen’s groups is being undertakenwith the Department of Interior andLocal Government so they can betargeted for livelihood projects.

Role of women and organizedwomen’s groups

The New Maguindanao Women’sOrganization (NMWO) is a provincialorganization whose membership ofover a thousand is drawn from womenmayors and barangay captains, thewives or “First Ladies” of mayors, andother female LGU ofcials. NMWOis led by Bai Jennah M. Lumawan,

also president of the Associationof Barangay Captains (ABC) inBuluan municipality and sister ofthe governor. The GAD Fund hasnow veered away from “prioritizingmen’s concerns” and offers womenlivelihood skills training.

Lumawan also notes that wheremen ruled the roost as local chiefexecutives in the past, since 2011-

12, women have emerged as mayorsand local legislators: one out of fourmunicipal mayors is female. In thepast it was zero. The mayor of Paglatmunicipality and the Association ofBarangay Captains president are bothwomen: Zulaika P. Langkuno andFaijiah Mangelen, respectively.

The GAD Fund works only with abibingka (rice cakes) strategy: heat

above and re below. Maguindanaowomen in government are followingthe above-mentioned kinship-basedorganizing strategy that is probablynot unique to Maguindanao. But otherwomen in government are takingthe route of issue-based organizing

as in upland Upi municipality,straddling the GO-NGO nexus withan initial membership of 3,000 now

nearly double, coupling gender withgovernance to amazing results (seeSidebar on page 26).

The Paglat Moro Women’s LeadOrganization (PMWLO) in Paglatmunicipality with a membership of240 Bangsamoro women is led byLubaida Litigan Manson with herhumor-lled accounts of members’erstwhile abject poverty (see Sidebar

on page 22).

While the NAP cum GAD Fund seeksto secure lives one girl child, onewoman, one family at a time, its litmustest lies in scope and scale: women’sorganizing and empowerment incommunities. Maguindanao womenare rising to this challenge.

Role of NGOs and CSOs

Paglat municipality, with eightbarangays and a total population ofover 11,200 (2010 NSCB statistics)may be among the province’s smallermunisipyos but it leads in the GO-NGO/CSO partnership that is essential forNAP-cum-GAD to succeed.

Anak Kawagib (AK) is a federation ofsix youth organizations organized

Bai Jennah M. Lumawan, ABC President, Buluan (left) and Barbara T.Guialel, SWO 2, Provincial Social Welfare and Development Ofce (right)

Bainot Kalanganan, organizer, Anak Kawagib (left) and Lubaida L. Manson,President, Paglat Moro Women’s Lead Organization (PMWLO) (right)



The Paglat Moro Women’s Lead Organization (PMWLO) has 240 members bothMNLF and MILF including some 35 widows with ve to eight children. It is ledby Lubaida Litigan Manson, a sanitary inspector with the government’s ruralhealth unit (RHU).

PMWLO participated in the drawing up of a women’s situationer for theNAP focusing on four concerns: health, education, economic, and waterand sanitation. PMWLO members live in barangays located around the220,000-hectare Liguasan Marsh that straddles three provinces includingMaguindanao. Many families farm rice and other crops during the dry seasonand sh during the wet season. But heavy rains trigger devastating oods,disrupting normal daily activities such as children’s schooling.

Lubaida recalls a time, not too long ago, when many PMWLO members didn’town cooking pots. They had to borrow clothes to attend a wake.

But starting 2012 onwards “May palayok na nakasabit, nakakapag-enrol, alagaanng mabuti, may ‘buntis patrol’, health (services) pupunta sa kanila (There is acooking pot hanging in the kitchen, the kids are able to enroll, they are wellcared for, there is a ‘pregnancy patrol’, health services now come to them)”.Lubaida was speaking of the changes initiated when over a hundred PMWLOmembers joined the government’s Pantawid program providing health andeducation subsidies to poor families.

PMWLO’s nexus with NAP has also provided skills training and livelihood

opportunities such as water lily weaving and ber processing courtesy ofthe provincial government and Villar Foundation. Sixty members of RuralImprovement Clubs around the Liguasan Marsh area participated (PMWLOwomen are also RIC members). The marsh abounds in water lily and waterhyacinth that can be processed and woven into mats, baskets, fans andslippers. The British development agency Oxfam donated P1 M to PMWLO forsanitary toilets and capital. Villar Foundation ordered a million woven matsfor Yolanda typhoon victims in Leyte. PMWLO members produced close to 400mats earning them P56,000.

Their newfound earning power and capacity to create products functionaland beautiful come with a strong sense of self, and a desire to keep their

households, including toilets, clean. Some old problems are being addressedbut others remain, for instance, marketing of the women’s woven crafts.For another, when the rogue rebel group BIFF attacks, Paglat becomes anevacuation zone, rice elds are abandoned, interrupting harvest and disruptinglivelihood. As well, there is a need to straighten up regional Pantawidaccounts and address the problem of delayed, reduced or missing remittances.Nevertheless the PMWLO women led by Lubaida hope in a future that willprovide their children with basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, education andhealth care.

The Paglat Moro Women’sLead Organization (PMWLO)

by Kadtuntaya Foundation, Inc., andsupported by European developmentagencies. Engaged in peace,children’s rights and environmental(particularly of Liguasan Marsh)advocacies, AK is a major partner inNAP. Paglat municipality has allocated

AK a spanking new modest structurefor its use. According to BainotKalanganan, children’s organizer, AKactivities employ creative methodssuch as lm showing, photo exhibits,theater skills training and others inits community education sessions andcampaigns.

Similarly, Child Alert Internationalhas helped NAP by training municipal

social welfare ofcers through 51community sessions in evacuationcenters and host communities in14 barangays, in conjunction withthe Commission on Human Rightsand the Philippine National Police.Rural Improvement Clubs (RICs) haveserved as the basic rural women’sorganization for long decades now,their vital presence felt once morewhen the NAP tapped RICs for skills

training last year and other activities.Still, the Maguindanao NAP needs toreach out to more CSOs and NGOs forgreater impact and effectiveness.

Men as champions and support

staff

Gender and development is premisedon more equitable male-femalerelations. If, as they say, charitybegins at home, advocacy of andsupport for NAP-cum-GAD must startwith men in government. With Tungaand Pol Ampatuan are young malepoliticians who prioritize the needsof their constituents, including andespecially, poor women.

The tragic circumstances surroundingGov. Esmael (Toto) Mangudadatu’sgubernatorial bid and victory are



known to most: election-relatedviolence that killed scores of people,including his wife.

Gov. Mangudadatu’s eight-pointdevelopment agenda begins withrestoration of peace and order. Hebelieves that development cannottake root and ourish without peace.The absence of peace hits hardest themost vulnerable: women, children,elderly. In his third and nal termas Buluan mayor, Gov. Mangudadatuundertook the building of market

stalls, 500 altogether, benetingmostly women, as well as livelihoodtraining, and micro-lending forwomen.

The second point is transparent,accountable and participativegovernance. People who trustgovernment will not rebel, but whenthere is armed conict, womenare forced into the role of (sole)

breadwinner. This, says the governor,is where women’s empowermentbegins, followed by leadership,entrepreneurial training and nancialliteracy.

Another male gender championis Zamzamin Ampatuan, a formerstudent activist and civil engineeringgraduate, who held various nationalgovernment posts before returning

to Maguindanao and winning asRadjah Buayan mayor in 2013. RadjahBuayan was rst to respond to the

provincial call for NAP localization inmunicipalities. Proof of his hands-onapproach to governance is a weeklyreligious leaders’ forum after Fridayprayers to consult with some 40mosque leaders.

Afrmation of gender equality comeseasy to Zamzamin who grew up at theknee of a revered grandmother whoheld no formal position in politics but

had the skill and smarts to inuencemale leaders and politicians in sixadjoining municipalities. This whileraising a brood of over ten children inan unconventional household whereher husband was provider and also

assumed primary responsibility forchild care.

Zamzamin says that half of RadjahBuayan’s GAD fund will go tolivelihood programs for poor womenwhom he witnessed, as barangay

councilor, as “having too manyburdens with less resources, lesscapacities … (thus) with no incomeand no leverage in decision making”.Women’s economic empowermenttherefore is a cornerstone of themunicipality’s NAP-GAD program,which will also encompass spiritualvalues and will be mediated throughwhat he considers to be culturallyappropriate.

Lumpingan and the women’s

and children’s center

A stately three-storey building, thenewly-inaugurated Women andChildren’s Center in Buluan, homebase of Gov. Mangudadatu, was builtwith an P8 million from the nationalgovernment and double that amountas provincial counterpart. Twomore storeys will soon be added to

the structure with the ground oordesignated for ofces, and other oorsfor livelihood training for women,housing for trauma victims, a cateringbusiness for self-sustainability; andmore.

Radjah Buayan Mayor Zamzamin L. Ampatuan (left) andMaguindanao Gov. Esmael (Toto) G. Mangudadatu (right)

Judith H. Anam, Kagawad, Bgy. Blensong, Upi (left) and Amelita A. Piang,founder, UWFI



Upi is a rst-class municipality in the southwestern uplands of Maguindanao,with a population of nearly 45,500 (2010: National Statistics Ofce) in 23barangays. Sixty percent of the population belong to the indigenous Teduraytribe, and the remaining 40% are Moro (Maguindanao and Maranao) with a mix

of Christian.

Upi has scored remarkably in good governance (e.g., stopping a politicaldynasty in its tracks and preserving harmony in a predominantly IP andMuslim population) garnering numerous awards (e.g., Galing Pook) in theprocess. But it is gender and its impact on good governance that shall behighlighted here.

The GAD Fund was harnessed for women’s empowerment in Upi municipality years before the National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security wasformulated. In 2004 the Upi Women’s Federation, Inc. (UWFI) was formed “toempower women,” according to Amelita Arancillo Piang, retired teacher andUWFI founder. She is also wife to incumbent mayor Cesar Piang who rmly

supports women’s equality and empowerment.

Women’s organizing started in earnest in 2006 with GAD presidents (also calledGAD focal point ofcers) chosen at the barangay level to help

Documents

Kababaihan at Kapayapaan Issue No. 3