kababaihan-at-kapayapaan-issue-3

In pursuit of peace,truth and justice...SEC. TERESITA QUINTOS DELESPresidential Adviser on the Peace ProcessKeynote Address, Bangsamoro Peace ForumAteneo de Manila UniversityFebruary 26, 2015A MONTH AGO YESTERDAY, all hell broke loose at Mamasapano in Maguindanao and, with it, the hopes wewere nurturing for the timely passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law that would conclusively shift the MILF strugglefrom armed to electoral, from violent to peaceful. Or so it seems.Are we now consigned to picking up the bits and pieces of a Humpty Dumpty of a BBL; or are we tasked to dosomething else? I think you and I are on the same page when you call this afternoon’s activity a forum on theBangsamoro – in pursuit of peace, truth and justice. For the forcible deconstruction triggered by Mamasapanocompels us to a reconstruction, a recovery, a rethinking that must go deep and far and wide if we are to do justiceto truth and the pursuit of peace.Amidst the din and frenzy, the death and despair, the grieving and recriminations, we must go deep into a spacewithin ourselves—as individuals, as communities, and as a people, and face up to certain hard questions. We may nothave all the answers, but, as the poet Rilke says, sometimes the questions are more important than the answers.I propose three questions:First, what happened at Mamasapano and how do we make sense of it? Second, how has the fall-out fromMamasapano impacted on the GPH-MILF peace process and what are our stakes in it? Third, given the saber-rattlingand name calling, what is to be done?As we tackle these questions, may I further propose two guideposts? – Embrace history as our guide. Avoid dualism.First: What happened at Mamasapano and how do we make sense of it?By now we have a clearer picture of what happened during that longest dawn and day and night at Mamasapano. Wehave the cold statistic of 67 deaths, not just 44, of police commandos and Muslim combatants and civilians includingan eight-year-old child. Several bodies are probing the why and the wherefore—why things went terribly wrong, andwho are called to account.2 KABABAIHANatKAPAYAPAAN March 2015