RP is model for peacebuilding, Defense Secretary says

by Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews
Sunday, 21 February 2010 17:34

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/20 February-- The Philippines has become the model for peacebuilding efforts in the United Nations and in conflict-affected areas in the world, Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales told a peace policy forum at the Ateneo de Davao University on Friday.
Gonzales says he does not know if he should be happy about it but “before Afghanistan and Iraq, it has been started here,” he said, adding the peace policy crafted in these areas were “actually derivatives of lessons learned from Mindanao.”

“The Philippines is the model when it comes to peacebuilding… Go to the United Nations, to areas of conflict. It’s the (Philippine) experience they’re using as guidelines,” said Gonzales.

Gonzales was apparently referring to peacebuilding experiences in Mindanao which are being followed elsewhere, such as the Bishops-Ulama Conference initiative which later inspired the holding of an Asian Bishops-Ulama gathering and recently, an invitation to Pakistan to share their experiences; the initiatives of peace advocacy groups and other sectors, including the military and recently, Mindanao’s state universities.

Gonzles, along with Eastern Mindanao Command (EastMinCom) chief Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer and Ariel Hernandez, executive director of Balay Mindanaw Foundation Inc. (BMFI), was a panelist at the February 19 Peace Policy Forum on the theme “Transforming Conflict and Building Peace in Mindanao Towards Security Sector Reform: An Option or a Policy.”

The forum was preceded by the launching of “Soldiers for Peace: A Collection of Peacebuilding Stories in Mindanao” at the Ateneo de Davao University’s Finster Hall.

OP Kors!

Written by Bobby Timonera, one of the editors at MindaNews, and edited by MindaNews columnist Gail Ilagan, the book features 21 stories of soldiers who applied in their areas of operations the lessons learned in Operation Peace Course (OP Kors!) as well as documented personal stories of transformation of soldiers from warriors to peace-builders and conflict managers.

OP Kors!, a series of trainings on peacebuilding, was initiated by then BMFI Executive Director Hernandez (on leave while he sits as AnakMindanao’s second representative to Congress) and Ferrer, who were classmates at the Asian Institute of Management’s Bridging Leadership Program.

OP Kors! is part of the peace education component of the Peace Building Program of BMFI.

Although the peacebuilding initiatives have not reached a critical mass in the Armed Forces, it has been gaining headway among key officials and frontline soldiers in conflict-affected areas in Mindanao.

Ferrer said the book has been their dream since 2007. “We wanted to capture the stories of the soldiers at the frontlines of building the peace,” he said.

Soldier for peace

“As we now move towards post-conlict, we want to equip our soldiers and officers on how to rebuild the social damage of the prolonged conflict,” he added.

He noted that in the protracted struggle of the New People’s Army and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), “it could not be avoided that aside from the physical damage, (the conflicts) damaged our social cohesion as a people.”

“It is about time we equip our soldiers new tools, new knowledge to be responsible fighters – respecting human rights, becoming effective peace builders,” Ferrer, also referred to as “peacebuilding general,” said.

Roda Mangayayam of Baguio City, a 2nd Lieutenant who is a member of the Philippine Military Academy’s (PMA) Class 2007, gave a testimony of how it is to be a “soldier for peace.”

Mangayayam said they were “trained for combat” and “never have we dealt about peace. Never had we had that in our curriculum.”

She said she is very happy that a book has been published about their efforts and hopes that the other soldiers will be infected with the “virus of peacebuilding.”

Mangayayam said she prefers to say “we are soldiers for peace, not for war.”

Winning the peace

She urged the public to read the collection of stories “to know a bit of what is happening around us” and “beyond that, what is the meaning of what we are doing.”

“This is what we are doing join us, join us,” she said, adding, “I want you to be inspired as I am.”

On August 20 last year, commandants of the military training institutions joined staff officers of the AFP and the Philippine Army and representatives of various divisions of EastMinCom at a Peace Policy workshop in Davao City.

There, participants were introduced to the initiatives taken by Mindanao units to actively build peace in their respective areas of responsibility. Col. Ernesto R. Aradanas, commander of the 603 Infantry Brigade based in Camp Iranun (the former Camp Abubakar of the MILF), shared his publication project that details how his brigade undertakes an integrated program for peace building.

According to the book, “Soldiers for Peace,” the Camp Iranun model “demonstrates that peace building does not require retooling of official functions or the conscription of specialized equipment. It merely involves a change of attitude in the way soldiers do their regular jobs to be more open to listen to the people and help them establish conditions for peace in their communities.”

When Maj. Gen. Carlos B. Holganza assumed command of the largest combat division of the Philippine Army – the 10th Infantry Division -- on November 16, 2009, he said, “Our soldiers realize now that winning the peace is what counts most, not just winning the war. They know that they are not just supposed to be warriors, but noble warriors who will know not just how to fight, but when and whom and why we must fight.”

Peacebuilding general

At the end of the forum, a draft policy paper was presented to Gonzales, on the institutionalization of peace education in the AFP training and to include peacebuilding in the AFP merit system.

Gonzales said he would read the proposal but added, “rest assured that any effort on peacebuilding, the Department of National Defense will always be behiWehat can we do?

Ferrer said the Armed Forces has, for the last 40 years of the insurgencies in the country, “been applying military force but nothing has changed.”

Ferrer attended a peace course in the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute, the first soldier to ever attend that course and has since been sending his officials to attend the summer course.

His efforts in Basilan and later at the 1st Infantry Division in Zamboanga, have earned for him the titled “peacebuilding general.” As such, he vows to continue his work beyond retirement.

He said he could be part of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) “to promote peace in our country.”

Ferrer is up for retirement on January 23, 2012.

Ferrer also there is a role for peacebuilding soldiers even if Mindanao does achieve peace: as peacekeeping forces here in the Philippines or be part of the United Nations’ peacekeeping forces.

Transforming Energy

Professor Rudy Rodil, former vice chair of the government peace panel negotiating with the MILF until August 2008, said “we have not broken away from the cycle of violence.”
Rodil noted that “energy cannot be destroyed (but) energy can be transformed.”

The negative energies created by the protracted conflicts, he said, have become bigger and bigger “so how do you now transform that rather than (perpetuate) the cycle of violence?”

He said the cycle of violence caused by colonization created a major problem whose historical roots are so deep.

He said the reaction of the majority of the Filipinos to the already initialed Memorandum of Agreement on Ancesral Domain (MOA-AD) of the government and MILF peace panels, was “not new.”

“It is not the Constitution, not the SPCPD (Southern Philippines Council for Peace and Development), not the MOA-AD – many of whom reacted even before reading it – that is the problem,” said Rodil.

“We are dealing here with a body of emotional energy that is (released when) triggered by certain events,” he said.

He said all sectors must be involved to help transform the conflict. “Ibalik ang kapatiran” (Let’s go back to brotherhood/sisterhood).

Aside from Rodil, the other reactors were Irene Santiago, executive director of the Mindanao Commission on Women who was a member of the government peace panel negotiating with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front from 2001 to 2003; and Prof. Saturnina Rodil of the Mindanao State University, who handles “inner peace” sessions of OP Kors; Mindanao Business Council chair Vicente Lao; 6th Infantry Division chief Maj. Gen. Anthony Alcantara and 10th ID Deputy Division Commander Brig. Gen. Romeo Fajardo.

The forum, anchored by Tina Monzon-Palma of ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) will be aired next month. (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews)