| Will the armed forces wage peace as a matter of policy? |
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| by H. Marcos C. Mordeno/MindaNews | |
| Tuesday, 23 February 2010 14:16 | |
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DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/22 February) -- All those who attended last Friday’s forum on security sector reform at the Ateneo de Davao University agreed it was high time to apply peace building as a part of the military’s overall strategy in combating insurgency. But they also acknowledged that this approach faces obstacles and questions from a military establishment that for decades has relied on body counts as the major indicator of success against rebel groups.
The forum, scheduled for airing over ANC, was hosted by broadcast journalist Tina Monson-Palma and had three resource persons - Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer, commander of the Eastern Mindanao Command; Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales and Anak Mindanao Party-list Rep. Ariel Hernandez. Sponsored by Balay Mindanaw Foundation Inc., the forum was intended to bring to the attention of national policymakers the proposal to inculcate peace building concepts in the armed forces and police. Ferrer, administrator of the short-lived martial law in Maguindanao, said he had taken note of comments coming from civil society groups that using military means against the rebels had not ended the armed conflicts. He, however, stressed that peace building as a new approach [in addressing armed struggle] “needs policy support”. He admitted that some officers are apprehensive are wary lest it will make the soldiers shy away from fighting.
Gonzales said he agreed with Ferrer that with the insurgency waning, peace building should be the thrust. “But soldiers are not politically trained,” he said. He said peace efforts have become useless because governance has remained bad. He cited Muslim Mindanao as one region which needs good political leadership. “They (people of Muslim Mindanao) need courage to elect good leaders,” he added. The secretary said if peace building would be added to the curriculum of the Philippine Military Academy the proposal to make it a policy would just be academic.
The correct move would have been to call in the Department of Agrarian Reform, Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the local government unit, he said. Mindanao Coalition of Women’s Irene Santiago, noting that peace building seminars had been confined to the Eastern Mindanao Command, said there will be uncertainty after Ferrer. She proposed that peace building work by the military should become a policy. Santiago further proposed to “genderize” not just the policy but also the procedures in that patriarchy, which she defined as the obsessive want of men to control, has often been a major cause of conflicts. Business sector representative Vicente Lao said it is lack of economic opportunities that causes conflicts. Lao said that in some conflict-affected areas aid programs were not appreciated by the local communities. Historian Rudy Rodil took off from Palma’s question of who started the conflict. “Let’s start from the beginning not in the middle. This cycle of violence was started by foreigners and we untactfully inherited it.” “In restoring relations we don’t say ‘conflict transformation’ (the theme of the forum) but ‘paano ba natin huhusayin ito’ (how do we resolve it?),” he said. Rodil, former vice chair of the government panel in peace talks with the MILF, said the conflict has deep historical roots. The reaction to the MOA-AD was not new. Those who rallied against it did not read the document, he said.
Since 2006, Balay Mindanaw Foundation has been conducting peace building courses for officers of the Eastern Mindanao Command and some police personnel. The forum followed the launching of the book “Soldiers for Peace” by MindaNews editor Bobby Timonera. (H. Marcos C. Mordeno/MindaNews) Share this story through the following Social Media sites:            |
