LPP-CSOs hold security forum in Lanao del Norte
By Jun Enriquez and Malyne D. Gungob
Tubod, Lanao del Norte, August
28, 2015 – It was a successful and challenging event by the Lanao Peace
Partnership (LPP), a network of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Lanao del Norte and Iligan City, conducted a 2-day forum, “Engaging the Security Sector:
Focus on Coordination Mechanism of the Peace Process”, held last August 26-27,
2015 at Riana’s Restaurant and Function Hall, Mindanao Civic Center (MCC),
Sagadan, Tubod, Lanao del Norte. There were around 146 Participants coming from
different agency namely; Arm Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine
National Police (PNP), PNP-Special Action Forces (SAF), Civil Society
Organizations (CSOs), Local Government Unit (LGU), Media, Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF), International Monitoring Team (IMT), and Local Monitoring Team
(LMT), Nonviolent Peaceforce and many others.
The said forum was organized
by the Lanao Peace Partnership (LPP) composed of Four (4) different
Organizations such as the Institute of Peace and Development in Mindanao
(MSU-IIT IPDM) headed by Dr. Mark Anthony Torres, Officer in Charge; Pailig
Development Foundation Incorporated (PDFI) headed by Roberto Quijano, Managing
Director; Kapamagogopa Incorporated (KI) headed by Engr. Mariam Barandia, Executive
Director and Civil Society Organization Forum for Peace Incorporated (CSO-FP
Inc.) headed by Juanito C. Enriquez Jr.. Managing Director. The theme for the
forum: “Transcending Beyond the Mamasapano Tragedy and Sustaining
Community-based Education as part of the Implementation of Comprehensive
Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) and the National Peace Agenda”. The said forum was in cooperation with the German Development Cooperation - Civil Peace Service (GIZ-ZFD). It may
recalled that the purpose of the activity is to cascade information about the
ceasefire mechanism, surface issues regarding the implementation of the
ceasefire mechanism and provide policy recommendation/ alternatives to
strengthen the ceasefire mechanism.
However, the chief of
operation of the International Monitoring Team (IMT), Mr. William Hovland, from
IMT office, Cotabato City, in his presentation on Lessons learned from
Mamasapano, the IMT’s role and responsibility on the security aspect is through
observation and monitoring on the implementation of cessation of hostilities signed
between the Governement of the Philippines (GPH) and moro Islamic Liberation
Fron (MILF); Conduct field verification to validate any reported violations of
the cessation of hostilities agreements signed by GPH and MILF; Coordinate closely with the Joint ceasefire
committee on the cessation of hostilities (CCCH)GPH-MILF and the Local monitoring
Team (LMT) in the conduct of field verification and validation of reported
violation to any of cessation of hostilities agreements signed by the panels,
security aspects for the concept of operation, socio-economic assistance and
civilian protection component (CPC).
Mr. Kamran Shah, Head of field
office Nonviolent Peaceforce based in Iligan City, in his presentation on
Civilian component stated their role and responsibility such as to Monitor
Human rights (HR) abuses and Violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL),
Monitor other forms of violence and protection concerns. Conduct verifications and fact finding mission
on violations of IHL and HR and verify reported cases. Lastly, Shah said the NP
will make report on the compliance and non-compliance of the
parties (GPH-MILF) with the CPC protocol.
On the other hand, Major
Carlos Sol Jr. head of the Secretariat, Joint Normalization Committee (JNC)
presented the GPH-MILF Peace architecture in the Annex on Normalization and
operational guidelines of the ceasefire agreement (CCCH and AHJAG). Sol said
that it has been 17 years of peace negotiation and lots of lesson learned, but
still have plenty of things to improve in order to achieve what really want to have
a very peaceful environment and develop Mindanao for the purpose to provide
background of the operational environment and the architecture of the peace
process with emphasis of the Peace agreement between the government and the MILF.
It included the new body, the JNC and generates insights with the role of
stakeholders and third party in the peace process. Sol said that It’s very timely
that people and stakeholders in the Mindanao peace process have important roles
and significance to achieve peaceful environment. He said the mechanisms are
only oversight, but the actual workers of the ground are the stakeholders of
the government and MILF. In the absence of the stakeholders the mechanism will
malfunction.
It was observed that it seems
like there is a problem of incomplete structure of CCCH. Col. Gilbert Gapay,
Brigade Commander of 2nd Mechanized Infantry Brigade has recommended
personalities from GPH-MILF Lanao to fill-up the gap in the structure of the
ceasefire mechanism in order to have a good flow of communication especially in
solving problems in the implementation of the peace agreement.
Indeed most of the questions
raised by the participants during the open forum was the issue on Coordination and
the impact of the Mamasapano incident vital to security and avoidance of
repetition of the incident.
On the second and last day of
the forum, understanding conflict in Lanao del Norte with the presence of
tri-people and maximum tolerance, respect and understanding must be obeserved.
The participants identified the importance on access to livelihood projects
because hunger is one of the causes of conflict. There is an importance of
conflict analysis to determine the root cause of conflicts because petty crimes
became religious conflict due to stereotyping of Muslims.
The forum also discussed the
updates on BBL. Participants asking to give a chance to the BBL. It’s already
17 years of negotiations and just ended by signing the Comprehensive Agreement
on the Bangsamoro (CAB). The BBL helps normalize Lanao but it was said that BBL
is not a guarantee to lasting peace but will help attain peace and development.
It was observed that a lack of information drive about BBL did not reach to the
grassroot level will create problem of misconceptions.
Participants raised the idea
of love and hate by recognizing the relationship of the GPH and MILF. Hate was
pictured out like mistrust, a feeling either positive or negative but differs
on the intention o the issue. Others said that there is no such thing as hate
but only misguided feelings and emotions. Participants have identified problems
exists in the Lanao region such as the presence of rido or family feud, rampant
drug abuse and addiction, political rivalries and dynasties, land conflict,
lack of crime justice and cultural diversity.
Sustaining efforts towards
peace and development should go hand in hand. The need of collaboration,
cooperation and coordination such as awareness raising, information and
education campaign (IEC) materials distribution, access to livelihood program,
are important elements in conflict transformation. Peace is not just the
absence of war but a life sustaining environment with importance on community
dialogue. It was observed that attaining peace in Mindanao is a continuing process.
In Lanao del Norte, there are three out of six municipalities are still
uncertain on its inclusion to the Bangsamoro.
Others observed that some parts of the BBL are unconstitutional but
reactions from fellow participants said that clarification to determine the
constitutionality of the BBL is the duty of the Supreme Court.
The issue on loose firearms in
Lanao is recognized as one of the major problems and there is a need to
minimize if not eradicate on it. One of the identified solutions is to have a
continuing community dialogue. The conduct of operation against loose fire arms
is one of the tasks of the PNP. There is a need to create task force in
dismantling the private armed groups with possible possession of high powered
and unlicensed firearms. It was also
identified the Normalization in the peace process is expected to continue in
the absence of the BBL. The importance of decommissioning under the
Normalization process is applicable not only for the MILF but also to private
armed groups (PAGS). The MILF declared allegedly to have in its possession with
15,000 loose firearms.
In a synthesis by Dr. Mark
Anthony Torres, officer-in-charge of the Institute for Peace and Development in
Mindanao (IPDM), emphasized that the problem in Lanao is multi-dimensional. The
participants raised issues that are anchored on the wider context of
Normalization process in Lanao. Torres said that this is the reason why the
participants surfaced many other issues that are outside the bounds of the
ceasefire mechanism. He said that there is a need to provide spaces for sharing
of information not only about the ceasefire mechanism but also on the various
tracks of the peace process and need updates on the political negotiation about
the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), process of Normalization, people-to-people
peacebuilding. He said there was a strong emphasis on the importance of
coordination not only among key players in the ceasefire mechanism such as the
military, police, AHJAG, CCCH, IMT, etc., but also with other stakeholders such
as the community. Coordination, collaboration and cooperation in the settlement
of rido are very important factors.
Torres said that the GPH must
designate a CCCH representative from Lanao to include MILF Counterpart.
Strengthen the code of conduct of both GPH and MILF parties in terms of
delineation of military and community areas and the delineation of the
geographic boundaries of camp Bilal. Law enforcement operations (LEO) should be
the sole responsibility of the PNP. Participation of the MILF in the conduct of
LEO should be coursed through the Ad hoc joint action group (AHJAG).
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