Iligan
City – Self-determination is not only for the rebel fronts in the Philippines
but it is a global issue politically and one of the main causes of conflict in
many countries around the world confronting social and political injustices. At
the extreme some other rebel fronts employ terrorism for independence. In the
Philippines, the Bangsamoro struggle in asking self-determination is confined
on Autonomy and currently created an expanded Bangsamoro Transition Commission
(BTC) now on the process of crafting an enabling law to be approved in congress
and to be implemented in the identified Bangsamoro areas in Mindanao. The
Philippine government and the MILF have already signed a peace agreement called
“Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro” or CAB signed in March 27, 2014,
that ends the Bangsamoro struggle for 47 years. Other Bangsamoro front is the
Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) have signed peace agreement with the
government on September 2, 1996. At present, the Philippine government is also
working to change the constitution in favor of a Federal government.
Just
recently, the civil society organizations (CSOs) in Myanmar visited Mindanao
especially in Lanao areas to study and learn from the experiences of the Lanao
CSOs on peace advocacies. There were about 30 Myanmar CSOs leaders present
during the event.
Allegedly,
there are 25 rebel fronts in Myanmar asking for self-determination. The Myanmar
parliament, a duly constituted government, is composed of 300 members and the
constitution allows 25 percent of the members will be done by appointments from
the military to be appointed by the chief of staff. The clamor of Myanmar
citizenry is to change their constitution and remove the provision of 25 percent
military presence in the parliament. However, the parliament needs 25 percent
plus one or equivalent to 76 votes to change the constitution but the
opposition still have difficulties to muster the 76 legislators in the
parliament. Accordingly, the head of state still a military. It was observed
that the people in Myanmar have limited freedom because the media is always
making publicity offensive against the people. They are state sponsored media and
saturated and controlled the social media in Myanmar. Myanmar is sharing border with Thailand,
China and India.
The
Lanao CSOs leaders present during the meeting were Musa Sanguila, Executive
Director of Pakigdait, Inc., with program on Peace advocacy and conflict
transformation. He is the lead convener of the Bantay Kalilintad under the
program of Bantay Bayanihan in partnership with the Military with the Bayanihan
program on winning the peace.
Miss Adona
Orquillas, President Lanao Alliance for human Rights Advocates (LAHRA), member
of the ceasefire mechanism under the Local Monitoring team of the Government
and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace process representing the CSOs.
Mr. Roberto M. Quijano, Managing Director of Pailig Development Foundation,
Inc. (PDFI), with program on conflict transformation through engaging on
organic agriculture development for economic resiliency of the community,
including “Rido” (family feud) settlement in the community. Miss Cristina
Lomoljo, Executive Director of the Balay Integrated Rehabilitation for Total
Human Development (BIRTHDEV) engaged in Children’s protection against child
trafficking, lead convener on Community Policing project in partnership with
the Security Reform Initiative supported by The British Council, lead convener
on Ranaw Bay-Mindanao Emergency Response Network (RB MERN) under the Mindanao Emergency Response Network (MERN).
Also
present in the said event was Mr. Juanito C. Enriquez, Jr., Managing Director, Civil Society
Organization Forum for Peace (CSO-FP), with program on media advocacy on peace
Journalism, President, Manggagawang Media ng Mindanao (MMM), an organization of
independent media practitioner based in Northwestern Mindanao engaged in peace
journalism on Mindanao context. He is also the President of the Magbalantay
Press Corps (MPC), in partnership with the 2nd Mechanized Magbalantay
Brigade Philippine Army based in Iligan City. Mr. Abel Moya, Project
Coordinator of the Mindanao Peace Institute (MPI) on Indigenous peoples
empowerment and protection program. Also present during the event was the
Non-violent Peaceforce (NP), an International non-government organization (NGO)
with program on civilian protection around the world. The NP is a member of the
International Contact Group (ICG), one of the official observers of the
Government and MILF peace process.
Most of
the few queries from the visiting CSOs were about the driving force of the CSOs
in Lanao for working together, the sustainability of the ceasefire agreement,
peace talks and how the ceasefire mechanism works, the backgrounds of the peace
celebrations, the balance of work in the office and organizational movement, and
how the challenges were managed and how CSOs plans integrated in government
policies.
The
Ceasefire committee on cessation of hostilities (CCCH) is composed of the
Government Military and the MILF combatants and created the so called Ad-hoc
joint action group (AHJAG), to jointly conduct arrest on criminalities within
the identified MILF controlled areas, especially on crimes on kidnapping,
carnapping, illegal drugs among other crimes. Aside from the Bantay Bayanihan
program, the CCCH is continuously monitored by the International Monitoring
Team (IMT) headed by the Malaysian government. The local monitoring team (LMT)
composed of the local CSOs, local government units (LGUs) and MILF civilian
representatives.
The
peace celebrations are consistently conducted annually such as the Mindanao
week of peace by virtue of the Presidential proclamation No. 127 to be
celebrated on the last Thursday of November to first Wednesday of December and
every year thereafter. This celebration was started by the religious sector,
the Bishop-Ulama Conference (BUC) composed of the Christians and Muslims
religious leaders. There has also a Lanao Month of peace in March and the
Iligan Week of Peace every last week of March. There is also a nationwide month
of peace celebration on the month of September, this include the international
day of Peace on September 21.
All the
peace celebrations will remind the people the importance of the culture of
peace to prevail over the culture of violence. There were activities
implemented such as the “Panagtagbo sa kalinaw” or convergence of peace during
peace celebrations invited all stakeholders of peace to participate. Usually
before the peace celebration starts there will be a press conference so that
the media will also aware, understand, learn and educate on the culture of
peace. The media is the most important sector to understand the culture of
peace because misinterpretation or misunderstanding the issue is very
dangerous. The media can make or unmake peace if they lack of understanding on
the context of conflict.
The
balance of work in office management and organizational movement is to come up
with a plan and proper scheduling of the implementation of activities to have
an effective time management. Any challenges encountered along the way will be
managed through dialogues.
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