Philippines Project
Overview
Nonviolent Peaceforce was invited to Mindanao by local organizations working for peace and justice. Some of the organizations are formally involved in monitoring the ceasefire between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). NP deploys internationals to work with local peacekeepers, contribute to their safety, help to maintain ceasefires and advance the peace process.
Nonviolent Peaceforce Philippines Project objectives include:
- Enhancing the work of local peace teams through its presence and by reporting to the outside world;
- Contributing to the maintenance of the ceasefire(s) and working to prevent new violence;
- Supporting human rights reporting mechanisms in remote conflict areas;
- Assisting and connecting local and international advocacy groups;
- Ensuring grassroots conflicts are resolved through dialogue at the local level and do not grow into larger crises.
NP International Civilian Peacekeepers (ICPs) and national staff consult with local partners in deciding priorities and activities as evolving situations demand. To ensure legitimacy and accountability of the NP project to local civil society, there is an Advisory Board of prominent peace activists.
Strategy
NP's strategy in Mindanao:
- To enhance the scope and quality of locally based people’s organizations and peace/human rights advocates.
- To reduce the incidence of violence in the vicinity of NP field sites through means of unarmed international civilian peacekeeping, thereby aiding in the maintenance of the ceasefire(s).
- To support human rights reporting mechanisms in remote conflict areas and assist/connect local and international advocacy groups that work for peace with justice by responding to people’s grievances.
- To localize grassroots conflicts so that they are resolved through dialogue at the lowest level and do not snowball into larger crises.
- To provide conscious international presence by deploying international civilian peacekeepers in vulnerable areas to associate with partners from local civil society.
- To offer protective accompaniment to individuals, groups or communities wedded to non-violent solutions but exposed to threats.
- To provide neutral spaces and facilitation services to local peacemakers who attempt to resolve traditional (Rido) and non-traditional disputes carrying the potential of violence.
- To facilitate mutual sharing, learning and training on nonviolent strategies with peacemakers and authorities dealing with the peace process.
- To monitor violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, reporting them to relevant national and international agencies upon the consent of survivors.
- To interposition international civilian peacekeepers along with local peace volunteers and ceasefire monitors to boost the sanctity of buffer zones and zones of peace.
Field News
Field reports offer details and descriptions of the work of the Nonviolent Peaceforce teams. Reports are produced monthly by the Country Directors and other staff on location with in a field project.
July 2010 Philippines Project
In July 2010 the new Aquino administration in the Philippines signalled its desire to continue with the peace talks. To this end President Aquino chose Marvic Leonen, the dean of the College of Law of the University of the Philippines, to head the government peace panel. The NGO community, peace advocates, and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) welcomed him because of his specialised knowledge in land tenure and other rights of Filipino minorities. Read more »
"This is Urgent! Please, Help Us"
“This is urgent! Please, help us. Help me. I may lose my life!” So went a recent desperate phone plea to Nonviolent Peaceforce from Iqbal Sadiq,* a community leader among internally displaced persons in Mindanao, the Philippines. Read more »
June 2010 Philippines Project
The month of June ended on a historic political note with the oath taking of Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Conjuangco Aquino III (P-Noy) as the 15th Philippine President. President Aquino raised hopes for the peace process when he declared during his inaugural speech that, “My government will be sincere in dealing with all the peoples of Mindanao. Read more »
May 2010 Philippines Report
The month of May saw significant strides in agreement between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) in relation to the peace process in Mindanao. Read more »
Background
The conflict in Mindanao began when a massive resettlement program of Christians from the island of Luzon caused conflicts around land distribution with the predominantly Muslim population on Mindanao. The main guerrilla group, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), signed a peace treaty with the Philippine government (GRP) in 1996.
A referendum asked the municipalities and provinces with significant Muslim populations in Mindanao if they wished to join an Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) which had originated in 1990. Today, five provinces form the ARMM. They are Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao in Central Mindanao, and the islands Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi in Western Mindanao. Since the municipalities of some of these regions are predominantly Christian, some of the cities are not in ARMM, including Cotabato City, which is the headquarters of the ARMM.
MNLF leaders joined the government structures in Mindanao, mainly in the ARMM. Twelve thousand MNLF soldiers were demobilized, with about 8,500 of them integrated into the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which had officially split off from the MNLF in 1984, continued the fighting. The GRP and MILF officially entered into peace talks in 1997. Ceasefire agreements and peace negotiations with the MILF broke down several times. The last two all-out wars happened in 2000 and in early 2003. In March 2003, peace talks were resumed.
Peace Talks
Peace talks between the Government of the Republic of Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic National Front (MILF) are facing a difficult task on the issue of ancestral domains. On the eve of the officially signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD), the Supreme Court of the Philippines issued a Temporary Restraining Order and barred the GRP to affix its signature on MOA-AD. The cancellation of the ceremony led to the breakdown of the peace talks. A firefight erupted in August 2008 between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and three influential Base Commanders of the MILF. The GRP and MILF Peace talks were facilitated by the Malaysian who also led the International Monitoring Team. The Peace talks are suspended up to now although efforts are being made to resume. Since August 2008, firefights have been going on continuously, resulting in the displacements of thousands of families.
Violence in the South has been perpetrated by many more groups than MNLF and MILF, including other armed non-state actors (Pentagon in Central Mindanao, Abu Sayyaf, the South-East Asian Jemaah Islamiah etc.), Christian vigilante organizations, criminal gangs, and official and semi-official government agencies. Human rights organizations have counted large numbers of cases of extrajudicial killings in the Mindanao region of the Philippines. Family feuds with an ethos of revenge are also an important issue, especially in Muslim areas.
All together, between 600,000 and one million people have been internally displaced because of the conflicts, and 160,000 died (40,000 in the North, 120,000 in the South). Most of the internally displaced have now returned.
Outcome
In February 2010, swisspeace conducted an evaluation of the Nonviolent Peaceforce’s activities in the Mindanao province. Being the only international non-governmental organization working with and living in close proximity to the most conflict-affected population in Mindanao, NP was able to support and enhance local structures to achieve their goals as well as cross-community dialogue. NP accepted the offer in late 2009 by the conflict parties – the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) – to join the civilian protection component of the International Monitoring Team (IMT) of the peace process. This is a direct expression and result of NP’s successful contributions to violence reduction and non-violence in the last two years. Read the results of this study in its entirety.
The work of NP was highlighted in two workshops in the Philippines in August 2009, during which key stakeholders in the Mindanao Peace Processes acknowledged that unarmed civilian peacekeeping is an improvement in monitoring and consolidating the ceasefire mechanism structures.
