kababaihan-at-kapayapaan-issue-3

The CAB, and later the BBL, has been subject to consultations and forums particularly in but not limited toMindanao. The private sector and big business, academe, religious leaders and officials both Christian and Muslim,and civil society organizations have weighed in on the peace process and the agreements they have produced. Allsigned documents were immediately posted online, widely covered by media, with infographics reprinted in majorbroadsheets. But the truth is that few of those who are talking loudly today took much interest in all these then.They say that peace is not an easy path; sometimes it’s like walking a tightrope. But there is no alternative to peace.War cannot end war. Religious officials, civil society leaders, business persons, academicians have spoken out wholive and work in Mindanao. They know how destructive war is, and how fragile peace is. That is why, to a person,they have issued calls for peace very early on when thick haze still hung over Mamasapano. They called for aresumption of congressional hearings on the BBL.Some legislators and politicians wish to demonize the MILF. But I can say,from working with the MILF in the past three years, that they have earnedthe trust and respect of GPH peace negotiators with a ceasefire that hasheld firm since the Al Barka incident in October, 2011. The trust of the AFPhas been won with successful joint operations against lawless elements andto rescue kidnap victims, and some occasional PNP officials who wanderedinto hostile territory, in central Mindanao. And most of all, they have wonthe trust and respect of the whole-of-government for choosing time andagain to stay on the table through the stickiest negotiations, shifting fromwinner-take-all talking points to joint and mutual problem-solving to movethe multiple tracks of the peace process forward – not just in pursuing thepolitical settlement in the autonomous Bangsamoro , but also in the deliveryof the Sajahatra Bangsamoro peace dividends, the crafting and adoptionof the Bangsamoro Development Plan, and the groundwork for the phasedand gradual decommissioning of MILF combatants in the context of thecomprehensive Normalization Annex.“I find it oddly strangethat it is legislatorsand politicians whohave not witnessed,or felt, first-hand thescourge and ravages ofwar in Mindanao whocome charging at ourpeace structures witha wrecking ball. ”To say so is not lawyering for them but speaking the truth in love, to borrowa line from scripture.I find it oddly strange that it is legislators and politicians who have not witnessed, or felt, first-hand the scourge andravages of war in Mindanao who come charging at our peace structures with a wrecking ball. What is it like to liveyour life forever on the run? What is it like to lose your home, and your wits, because bombs come raining from thesky? What is it like to force your adolescent daughter to work abroad because there is no decent work for bakwitsor semi-permanent refugees? What is it like to force your underage daughter to marry because there is no securityof home for her? What is it like to know that the little boy that you suckled at your breast will not grow up to learnreading and arithmetic and how to make a living from his talents and acquired skills? What he will learn best is howto point the gun and pull the trigger and, at what is supposed to be the prime of his life, he will wake up on manymornings with the knowledge that this is a day when he may kill or be killed.This is what war has meant in Mindanao – not for one, or two, or three, but for thousands, for tens of thousands, forhundreds of thousands, and during the episodes of all-out war, for half a million people, even a million, of its people:Muslim, Christian, lumad.That is why Mindanao people – children and bishops and ulamas and businessmen and women and teachers and NGOleaders – that is why their reaction to congressional freezing of BBL hearings is visceral, pained. Because they knowwhat the costs are, they know that war is infinitely costlier than peace.If speaking this truth labels me as lawyering for MILF, I do not mind. Better that than to shut up because it is not4 KABABAIHANatKAPAYAPAAN March 2015