Cagayan de Oro, Oct. 28, 2005
Handshake to seal joint signature: (left to right) Armando Orbis and Freiderick Montes, RPM-M Panel Members; Ike delos Reyes, Political Adviser RPM-M; Franklin M. Quijano, Chairman Peace Panel and Undersecretary Rene Sarmiento, both from Office of the President Assistant on the Peace Process (OPAPP); Froilan Melendrez, GRP Peace Panel Member.
Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities.
Government peace negotiators with the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa ng Mindanao (RPM-M) claim that peace with leftist group is 90% attained with signing today of the Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities.
Government peace panel for the RPM-M Chairperson Atty. Franklin M. Quijano (top picture, right side) said that today's signing of the Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities and the eventual peace agreement with the leftist group "will open the floodgate of development in the areas where the armed group operates."
The "other" peace process.
For his part Ike de los Reyes, political adviser of the RPM-M (top picture, left side), said that today's ceremonies was just a "consummation of the whole process to attain just and lasting peace in Mindanao." Dubbed as the "other" peace process, de los Reyes meekly admitted that the peace negotiations they are having with the government "is not the totality of the peace process, but just a part of it."
Undersecretary Sarmiento (top picture, left side) of the Office of the President Assistant on the Peace Process (OPAPP) hailed the peace process with the RPM-M is unique in a way that it is community-demand driven. "It is a community-level peace process, wherein the government and the RPM-M consult the community on their peace and development aspirations," said Sarmiento.
Peace process is unique in a way that it is community-demand driven.
The peace process involved consulting the communities affected by the armed conflict between the RPM-M and the Armed Forces of the Philippines. At the start of the process, 100 communities were targeted for consultation. Of the 100, 67 barangays have been reached.
The barangay peace consultations were facilitated by the Independent Secretariat the Balay Mindanaw Foundation. Another 100 barangays are slated to be included in the consultation process.
Equity and development brings peace.
"The strategy is to address the root cause of the armed conflict which is the absence of equity and development in the grassroots. By bringing in equity and development, we are building peace," said Balay Mindanaw president Kaloy Manlupig (top picture, left side).
De los Reyes said that since the start of the peace process in 2003, the RPM-M not directly engaged the military in armed skirmishes.
This was confirmed by Task Force Ranao Commander Brig. Gen. Ben Dolorfino (top picture, right side). "In fact, I thought there was already a ceasefire agreement with them," he said.
No armed skirmishes since 2003, but strength of the RPM-M is still significant.
He added that everytime government troops are in the vicinity of the areas of RPM-M this is immediately reported to the peace panel and usually the troops withdraw from their area. Dolorfino however admitted that strength of the RPM-M is still significant in Central Mindanao and in the Lumad areas in the tri-boundary of Misamis Oriental, Agusan Norte and Agusan del Sur.
The RPM-M broke away in the early 1990s with the mainstream leftist group the CPP-NPA-NDF over ideological differences.
With the signing of the ceasefire agreement today in the Balay Mindanaw Peace Center here, Quijano set a December 2006 timeline for the final signing of the peace agreement.
With the signing of the ceasefire agreement today in the Balay Mindanaw Peace Center here, Quijano set a December 2006 timeline for the final signing of the peace agreement.
Text: Balay Mindanaw press releases
Photos: Christoph Peters
ded Link Guide: Chronicling a New Peace Process .
Filmmaker Kidlat de Guia premiered "Beyond Politics and Power: A New Peace in Mindanao” at the Goethe Institute, the German Cultural Centre.
The documentary film was commissioned by the DED and chronicles this new peace process in a balanced, intelligent manner-not shirking from depicting possible pitfalls, while maintaining an overall tone of optimism regarding the undertaking.
ded Link Guide: Chronicling a New Peace Process - read more...
More information:
Cagayan de Oro, Mindanao
The German Development Service, or DED, has been a partner in Balay Mindanaw's facilitation of this peace process since the beginning.
The DED is providing support, both in the form of securing funding for the barangay consultations and in the form of expertise to the peace process.
More information.
Visit our partner's website:
www.balaymindanaw.org
