kababaihan-at-kapayapaan-issue-3

Deles, Ferrer, Sema and Hataman: Standing up for the peace process“It has always been my job to give hope where there isnone,” Deles says. “When I was in Maguindanao recently,a stranger just came up to me and told me that sheappreciates what I am doing. It is really for them that I dowhat I do.”Women championing peaceOne marvels at the quiet dignity, grace, and stamina Delesand Ferrer have shown in the hearings conducted by bothchambers of Congress, and the media frenzy as they gothrough interview after interview in an effort to get peopleto understand the high stakes in the government’s peaceprocess with the Bangsamoro.One wonders if other people, men for example, were intheir position, would they exhibit the same level of passionand commitment that these women have shown? Orperhaps the better question is, if they were men, wouldthey have received the same kind of bullying these womenhave been unfairly treated to?“Definitely in judging, maligning, demonizing the peaceprocess… We have to admit there is a gender bias there. Ido not think we would have had that kind of viciousnessif it were men in our place,” the peace adviser laments.“Women are always tested harder than men but, I hope, wehave passed so far.”Indeed, if they could successfully end more than 17 years ofpainstaking negotiations with an armed group, definitelythese women peace champions can steer the peace processto rise above its present quagmire.Ferrer, in fact, foretold this in an early statement when shesaid, “We know there will be typhoons or flooding along theway. But if we don’t give up, and we stay together, maaabotdin natin ang inaasam na kapayapaan (we will definitely reachthe peace we have long desired),” she said.The peace imperatives nowThe Mamasapano tragedy is considered a major test for thepeace process. But what does it take to move it forward atthis juncture?Both Deles and Ferrer agree that exacting truth, justice andaccountability for those who have fallen in Mamasapanoare important, and it must be for the sake of all partiesinvolved in the incident. But the quest for elusive peacemust continue.“Let the blood shed at Mamasapano clear, and not blind,our vision in the quest for truth and justice,” SecretaryDeles said at a recent forum. “Let the sturm und drang ofthese days be as a refiner’s fire to purify words of theirdross.”She appealed: “We must make sense of Mamasapano bylearning the lessons of history; and by keeping our earsclose to the ground. War’s alarms ring in the halls ofCongress and in social media but not in the blood-drenchedfields of Maguindanao where people, and children most ofall, pay the price of the conflict.”Chair Ferrer notes that the only way forward is “to showthat this path to peace is viable and that it can accomplishthings that war has not accomplished… That is why wehave not wavered in our determination to see throughthe peace process because the other alternative is simplyunthinkable. That alternative will bring chaos.”She reminded the Filipino people of the aspirations that areat the core of the Bangsamoro peace process: “Stop the warMarch 2015KABABAIHANatKAPAYAPAAN7