Myanmar - Lanao CSOs encounter in Iligan City

 

Myanmar and Lanao CSOs in a forum discussion on peace advocacy

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.

 

Lanao CSOS,at left, Musa Sanguila of Pakigdait

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 2^nd 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.

In a response of the Lanao CSOs, the driving force is unity among the CSO networks working for peace because it’s not easy to live in a community behind on a culture of violence. There were activities commonly implemented especially on the Bantay Bayanihan that CSOs focus on Bangsamoro issues and concerns served as an oversight body in the implementation of the international Humanitarian law, human rights law and the rule of law, and include the ceasefire mechanism implementation, the ceasefire committee on the cessation of hostilities, and conflict transformation program of rebel returnees on engaging a sustainable livelihood program.

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.

 

Continued plenary discussions

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.