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Visions of Peace of Professional Peace Workers pp 171–197Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Mindanao: Justice, Harmony and Peace of Mind

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Part of the book series: Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies ((RCS))

Abstract

This chapter focuses on civil society peace workers on Mindanao. These insist that the signing and implementation of a political peace agreement is not sufficient to speak of peace. Nor is freedom from fear, although some respondents concede that ordinary people might consider this to be all the peace they want. Professional peace workers, however, work on three other visions of peace. First, peace-as-justice, similar to non-violent activism in Lebanon, but with more stress on the desired outcome: ‘self-governance and a larger share of the natural resources that Mindanao has for the Moros. Secondly, peace of mind, a mostly indigenous vision that stresses the priority of good relationships over (political or economic) gains. Finally, like their Lebanese colleagues, Mindanaoan peace workers stress that in the end all three groups should live together in civil peace. Moros tend to favour peace as justice, indigenous Lumad peace of mind, and descendants of Philippino settlers civil peace.

It’s the process in itself. The peace agreement is just a milestone. And the government really hyped it. Maybe the international community as well, because they were really excited about it. But the work doesn’t end on a peace agreement. What is important is that the people left behind in the battleground need to go back to their community, to live together with people different from them.

(Interview Lyndee Prieto (International Initiatives for Development (IID)/Mindanao Peace Weavers (MPW)))

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Halfway through 2017, the law has still not been passed.

  2. 2.

    The most notable groups who are not part of the BBL process are Abu Sayyaf and the Bangsamoro Independent Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a break-away faction from the MILF that does not want to settle for anything less than full independence. See also Sect. 8.1 below.

  3. 3.

    E.g. interviews Froilyn Mendoza (Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC)/Teduray Lambangian Women’s Organization (TLWO)), Fr. Roberto Layson (Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI)), Danny Ong (Forum Ziviler Friedens Dienst (ZFD)).

  4. 4.

    See Chap. 3, Sect. 3.2 and Appendix D.

  5. 5.

    In the remainder of this chapter, I will use the term ‘settlers’ do denote those peace workers whose (grand)parents were immigrants to Mindanao from other parts of the Philippines. I prefer ‘settler peace workers’ over ‘Christian peace workers’, because not all of them self-identify as Christians and about half of them say their idea of peace is not influenced by their religion.

  6. 6.

    Before independence, the Philippines were colonized by Spain and, after the 1898 Spanish-American war, by the United States of America.

  7. 7.

    The conflict also still shows up as a minor conflict in the UCDP armed conflict dataset. See (Melander et al. 2016). In May 2017, after this research had ended, an operation to capture a rebel leader ran out of hand, leading to renewed fighting between the army and an hitherto unknown rebel group that claims to be affiliated to Islamic State.

  8. 8.

    See, e.g., interviews Elvira Ang Sinco (retired) and Mae Fe Ancheeta (Inpeace).

  9. 9.

    See Chap. 3, Sect. 3.2 and Appendix D for the exact levels of support for each vision.

  10. 10.

    If it can be said to have ‘ended’ at all.

  11. 11.

    Of course, these distinctions are not watertight. Some Moros for example stress that in Islam, inner peace is also a key value that should be taught to children, whereas some Lumad stress that they are working to attain justice for their tribe. However, we will see in Sect. 8.3 that the relative importance of these three visions of peace is different for the different groups and that this has consequences for their position in the BBL negotiations.

  12. 12.

    Cf. the diplomats’ vision of peace-as-agreement in Sect. 5.1.

  13. 13.

    See Sect. 8.1 above.

  14. 14.

    Interview Sammy Maulana (Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS)).

  15. 15.

    See Sects. 3.1.3 and 4.1.

  16. 16.

    Interview Jo Genna Jover (Kutawato Council for Justice and Peace (KCJP)). Similar views were expressed by Ang Sinco, Ong, Mendoza, Ancheta, Mahdie Amella (Mindanao Action for Peace And Development (MAPAD)), Orson Sargado (Catholic Relief Services (CRS)), Rexall Kaalim (Non-violent Peace Force (NVPF)), Arkan Momin Confederated Descendants of Rajah Mamalu (CDRM) and Mariam Daud (Nurus Salaam).

  17. 17.

    Interview Ong. Similar views were expressed by Ang Sinco, Sargado and Ali Ayoub (BTC).

  18. 18.

    Interview Ang Sinco.

  19. 19.

    Interview Prieto.

  20. 20.

    Interview Dats Magon (United Youth for Peace and Development (UNYPAD)).

  21. 21.

    Interview Ong.

  22. 22.

    Interview Guiamel Alim (CBCS). Similar views were expressed by a.o. Maulana, Ayoub, Amella, Duma Mascud (Mindanao Human Rights Action Centre (MINHRAC)), Harris Tanjili (Al Qalam) and Mary Therese Norbe (Mindanao Peoples’ Peace Movement (MPPM)).

  23. 23.

    E.g. interviews Ong and Maulana.

  24. 24.

    E.g. interviews Ong and Prieto.

  25. 25.

    Interviews Mascud and Amella.

  26. 26.

    Interview Tanjili. Similar views were expressed by a.o. Ong and Mascud.

  27. 27.

    E.g. interviews Sargado and Prieto.

  28. 28.

    Interview Ayoub.

  29. 29.

    Interview Mascud.

  30. 30.

    Interviews Mascud, Tanjili, Magon, Ayoub, Sargado, Norbe, Mussolini Lidasan (Al Qalam) and Mitzi Austero Non-violence International (NVI).

  31. 31.

    Interview Fr. Layson.

  32. 32.

    Interview Rhea Silvosa (Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute (MPI)).

  33. 33.

    Interview Sargado.

  34. 34.

    Interview Sargado.

  35. 35.

    Memorandum Of Agreement on Ancestral Domain, a 2008 peace agreement between the government and the MILF that was declared unconstitutional by the supreme court and hence never implemented. This led to new outbursts of violence on both sides.

  36. 36.

    E.g. interviews Prieto, Norbe, Ancheta, Austero and Fr. Layson.

  37. 37.

    Interview Prieto.

  38. 38.

    E.g. interviews Silvosa, Alfredo Lubang (Phillippine Campaign to Ban Landmines (PCBL)), Fr. Layson.

  39. 39.

    E.g. interviews Joji Pantoja (Coffee for Peace (CfP)/Peacebuilders Community Inc.), Prieto, Fr. Layson.

  40. 40.

    Interviews Momin, Jover, Mendoza and Rodello Ambangan (MPPM).

  41. 41.

    E.g. interviews Saturnino Cuyong (Lumad Development Sector Inc. (LDS)/Timuay Justice and Governance (TJG)), Leticio Datuwata (MPPM), Mendoza, Jover and Ambangan.

  42. 42.

    Interview Sannie Bello (TJG).

  43. 43.

    Interview Mendoza.

  44. 44.

    Interviews Bello, Ambangan, Momin and Jover. See also (Cisnero 2008).

  45. 45.

    Interview Mendoza.

  46. 46.

    Interviews Mendoza and Bello.

  47. 47.

    Interview Mendoza. Similar views were expressed by Datuwata, Ambangan and Cuyong.

  48. 48.

    Interview Mendoza.

  49. 49.

    Interview Austero.

  50. 50.

    Interview Fr. Layson.

  51. 51.

    Interview Datuwata (MPPM).

  52. 52.

    Interviews Lidasan and Ambangan.

  53. 53.

    Interview Mascud. Similar views were expressed by Alim, Maulana, Ayoub, Amella and Tanjili. See Sect. 8.2.2 above.

  54. 54.

    With the exception of Mary Therese Norbe (MPPM), who holds that peace is equal to achieving social justice.

  55. 55.

    Interview Aveen Acuño-Gulo (independent consultant). Similar universalist views were expressed by, e.g., Ancheta and Fr. Layson.

  56. 56.

    E.g. interviews Datuwata, Ambangan, Mendoza, Bello and Jover.

  57. 57.

    Interview Datuwata. A similar view was expressed by Mendoza.

  58. 58.

    See Sect. 8.2.4 above. Allowing people to have peace of mind is mentioned as a goal of their work by nine respondents: four Lumad, three Moros and two settlers.

  59. 59.

    Interviews Pantoja, Magon and Daud.

  60. 60.

    E.g. interviews Magon and Daud.

  61. 61.

    Interview Mendoza.

  62. 62.

    Interview Prieto, who started out saying that her work would be finished when ‘the non-state actors (…) settle their differences politically’, but then kept adding other elements of her peace work until she reached the conclusion that probably peace is an everlasting process.

  63. 63.

    Interview Fr. Layson.

  64. 64.

    E.g. interviews Ang Sinco, Pantoja, Ancheta and Ong. Also Lumad of peace. See, e.g., interviews Mendoza and Ambangan.

  65. 65.

    E.g. interviews Magon, Sargado and Prieto.

  66. 66.

    Some religious actors include a sixth, spiritual, dimension of establishing peace with your creator (e.g., Pantoja, and Fr. Layson). However, for practical purposes this can be included in the notion of inner peace.

  67. 67.

    Interview Austero. Similar views were expressed by, e.g., Ong, Lidasan, Mascud, Kaalim and Ancheta.

  68. 68.

    E.g. interviews Jover, Datuwata, Ambangan and Cuyong.

  69. 69.

    Interview Fr. Layson.

  70. 70.

    E.g. interviews Mendoza, Tanjili and Magon.

  71. 71.

    E.g. interviews Pantoja, Layson and Prieto.

  72. 72.

    E.g. interviews Kaalim and Daud.

  73. 73.

    Interview Lidasan. Similar views were expressed by, e.g., Ang Sinco, Acuña-Gulo and Prieto.

  74. 74.

    Interviews Ang Sinco, Magon, Lidasan and Sargado.

  75. 75.

    Interview Pantoja.

  76. 76.

    Interview Tanjili.

  77. 77.

    E.g. interviews Amella and Fr. Layson.

  78. 78.

    Interview Ong.

  79. 79.

    See Sect. 8.2.2 above.

  80. 80.

    Interview Ambangan.

  81. 81.

    Interview Magon.

  82. 82.

    E.g. interviews Tanjili, Amella and Kaalim.

  83. 83.

    Interview Amella.

  84. 84.

    Interview Silvosa. Similar views were expressed by Austero and Prieto.

  85. 85.

    Interview Prieto.

  86. 86.

    Interview Sargado.

  87. 87.

    Interview Fr. Layson.

  88. 88.

    Interview Moner Jaapar al Hadj (CDRM).

  89. 89.

    Interviews Acuña-Gulo, Ancheta and Prieto.

  90. 90.

    Interview Lidasan.

  91. 91.

    Interview Lidasan.

  92. 92.

    Interview Sargado. See also Sects. 8.2.3 and 8.4.3 above.

  93. 93.

    Interview Acuña-Gulo. A similar view was expressed by Norbe and Jover.

  94. 94.

    Interview Jover.

  95. 95.

    Interviews Ong, Alim, Ambangan, Ayoub and Amella.

  96. 96.

    Interview Ambangan.

  97. 97.

    Referring to the ways in which a group of actors tries to establish peace. Usually academics focus on ‘conflict dynamics’, the various ways in which actors wage a conflict (see e.g. Wallensteen 2015b: 38–42; Reychler and Paffenholz 2001: 7–9; Jones and Metzger 2018).

  98. 98.

    See Chap. 3, Sects. 3.1.1 and 3.2.

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  1. University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Gijsbert M. van Iterson Scholten

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van Iterson Scholten, G.M. (2020). Mindanao: Justice, Harmony and Peace of Mind. In: Visions of Peace of Professional Peace Workers. Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27975-2_8

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