Abstract
This chapter is a preliminary inquiry into gender, conflict, and peace in Mindanao, Southern Philippines. I look into the role of gender in the conflict, women’s participation in peace negotiations, and gender equality as a component of peace and development. I suggest that gender inequality, in the form of a gender order, has historically shaped conflict in Mindanao. I review women’s participation in peace negotiations in Southeast Asia through the cases of Aceh, Myanmar, and the Philippines. Finally, using critical frame analysis, I look at how gender has been framed in the Bangsamoro Development Plan, a roadmap for sustainable peace of the proposed Bangsamoro government. I find that the gender order has shaped the roles men and women have taken in Bangsamoro history and that women’s participation does not necessarily translate to having gender on the agenda of peace negotiations. I underscore the relevance of increased women’s participation in peace and development processes and critically framing gender on peace agendas. I maintain that attending to the quality of gender discourse by (re)politicising “gender” to bring back its emancipatory aim is an aspect of a sustainable peace.
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Notes
- 1.
ARMM is limited in its scope and strength and thus, in developmental impact. The BBL sets up a Bangsamoro government with more economic and political powers that are expected to lead to societal development.
- 2.
From the North African Moors that invaded Spain in the eighth century.
- 3.
See Abinales 2010 for a critical analysis of the dominant historical discourse on the Mindanao conflict.
- 4.
4 Known as the Corregidor massacre on 18 March 1968. Up to 68 male Moro recruits of the top-secret, government-led Operation Merdeka were allegedly killed by GPH Armed Forces when they refused to pursue the operation that would kill their kin in Sabah. The operation was part of the GPH plan to forcibly take Sabah from Malaysia.
- 5.
Known as Tacbil Mosque Massacre, this is the strafing and killing of 1776 civilian Muslims in a mosque on 24 September 1974 in Malisbong, Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat. The perpetrators were the 15th Infantry Battalion, Armed Forces of the Philippines.
- 6.
MNLF alleged that the GPH has standing agreements made with their group that are being abandoned by way of the peace accord with MILF.
- 7.
The analyses and recommendations were formulated by thematic experts, validated at the ground level, and complemented by Community Visioning Exercises (BDA, 2015).
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Acknowledgements
The author thanks Tyrell Haberkorn, Tamara Jacka, three anonymous reviewers, and fellows at the 14th International Symposium on the Contributions of Psychology to Peace for their helpful comments on earlier versions.
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Jopson, T.L. (2017). Gender Justice: “Gender” in the Bangsamoro Development Plan. In: Seedat, M., Suffla, S., Christie, D. (eds) Enlarging the Scope of Peace Psychology. Peace Psychology Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45289-0_11
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