The Women of the NAP
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Issue No. 2 September 2014 The Women of the NAP Inside: The Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict Peace work is never done Contents Editorial Board Chair Sec. Teresita Quintos Deles 22 Usec. Ma. Cleofe Sandoval Pennie Azarcon dela Cruz Jurgette Honculada Paulynn Paredes Sicam Editorial Staff Editor Paulynn Paredes Sicam 1 From the Publisher Thoughts from the Global Summit NAP WPS: National Staff 3 By CARMEN LAUZON- Jurgette Honculada Action Plan ensures GATMAYTAN Kris Lacaba protection, spaces for Jason Marges women, peace and 28 Peace work is never done security By MA. LOURDES VENERACION Carmen Mejia: A future for Photographers -RALLONZA rebel returnees Joser Dumbrique By JENNIFER SANTOS Ordonie Egon Layson Sidebar: Women, peace and security: A global Decimia Cabang: The Layout Artist perspective social/peace worker is in Mai Ylagan By MARICEL C. AGUILAR By SHEI DATINGUINOO 12 Balik Kalipay: Healing 32 Real women, real stories, real KABABAIHANat the wounds of war hope By JURGETTE HONCULADA KAPAYAPAAN There is life in lilies This magazine is published bi-annually by Sidebar: The five stages of By MELISSA S. CALINGO the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the trauma healing Peace Process Back to school, onward to Address Peace women in uniform opportunity 7th Floor, Agustin 1 Bldg. 17 F. Ortigas Jr. Road By AZENATH L. FORMOSO Ortigas Center, Pasig City Lina Sarmiento: ‘You are an instrument of peace’ Our lesson for today... Telephone +632 636 0701 to 07 By JENNIFER SANTOS Adapted with permission from the Department of Education Fax Corporal Anjanette +632 638 2216 Obligado: In the line of 36 Updates from the Peace Tables Website duty www.opapp.gov.ph News briefs By DIANA KATHRINA LEOMO 39 Connect with us! 22 The Global Summit: GPH 40 Gender and Peace Events peace.opapp delegation focuses on September 2014 - March 2015 @OPAPP_peace women’s role in peace process 41 Reflection: Brave Woman peaceopapp By KAREN R. DOMINGO By GRACE R. MONTE DE RAMOS [email protected] ON THE COVER: The four women members of the Executive Committee, National Steering Committee who implement the National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security: DSWD Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman, OPAPP Secretary Teresita Quintos Deles, Philippine Commission on Women Chair Remedios Rikken, and DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima. Photos by Joser Dumbrique, Ordonie Egon Layson, DSWD and the Senate Pool. FROM THE PUBLISHER WHEN WE DECIDED to launch Kababaihan at Kapayapaan as a regular, twice yearly publication last March, we knew it was not going to be easy. In pursuing a long elusive mandate to bring all internal armed conflict in the country to a just and peaceful closure, OPAPP has needed to focus on five peace tables, initiated but unfinished through the four administrations which followed Marcos, each with a multi-dimensional and complex history, which includes the multi-layering and morphing of interests and agenda as well as shifts in, even factionalizing of, leadership and their followings in the course of protracted and often circuitous, sometimes shattered, peace processes. Certainly, the work of OPAPP has been very much subject to stress, with twists and turns which are sometimes beyond imagining and have too many times caught even our seemingly best prepared selves by surprise. Surely, the pace and pressure of our pursuit of a just and lasting peace have hardly provided a conducive environment for the reflection and writing that a regular publication requires. And so it is with a sense of awe and immense gratitude that we find ourselves preparing to bring our second issue to press in time for release this September! Seeking to promote and enhance the interlinking of Kababaihan (women) and Kapayapaan (peace) through this magazine, we chose March and September as our publication months: March is National Women’s Month in the Philippines, expanded from the commemoration of UN International Women’s Day on March 8, while September marks National Peace Consciousness Month, expanded from International Peace Day marked by the United Nations on September 21. Six months apart, March and September constitute perfect bookends for our publication’s theme. This year’s celebration of the 11th National Peace Consciousness Month carries the theme “Nagkakaisang Bayan para sa Kapayapaan” — One Country United for Peace. The Philippines is diverse in so many wonderful ways. Despite our differences, our nation, communities, and families are united in our aspirations for peace, democracy, and a just and better way of life. This is our celebration and an act of faith. September brings remembrance of past milestones achieved along different peace tracks in our people’s journey towards lasting peace. This September, we join remembrance with firm resolve to ensure that the promise of every milestone achieved, whether in the past or those still to come, will be completed. Indeed, much more work remains to be done. With faith and persistence — at peace tables, in communities, crafting policy, building infrastructures, enhancing bureaucracies, weaving narratives of hope and inspiration — women work and persevere wherever needed to make the promise of peace come true. Happy Peace Consciousness Month! TERESITA QUINTOS DELES September 2014 KABABAIHANatKAPAYAPAAN 1 COVER STORY NAP WPS National Action Plan ensures protection, spaces for women, peace and security By MA. LOURDES VENERACION-RALLONZA One of the historic crimes committed against women is in the context of war and armed conflict — crimes that are perpetrated when governments are not able to protect their citizens, or when states themselves perpetrate violence. There are abundant stories of women experiencing violence and atrocities in armed conflict in different places at different times. Yet they are not known — their stories are dismissed, unacknowledged, because it is what happens during conflict and the victims are women who, in much of the world, are subordinated, dependent, voiceless. Thus, when the conflict ends and society tries to rise from the ashes of war, the women remain as they are: perpetually devoid of agency. Within this grim picture of reality came a glimpse of hope with the world’s belated focus on women in conflict situations. In concrete form, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), the most powerful organ in the UN system, declared that the situation of women in armed conflict and their vast potential to contribute to peace, are central to international security. The Security Council formalized this concern in a milestone resolution on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) known as the UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 in 2000. IN THE FIrst quartER OF 2010, Women (PCW) as co-chair, the NSC high-powered all-woman committee towards the end of the consultation is comprised of the Department of run by OPAPP Secretary Teresita and re-validation process of a National Defense (DND), Department Quintos Deles, PCW Chair Remedios draft National Action Plan (NAP) of Social Welfare and Development Rikken, DSWD Secretary Corazon on UNSCR 1325, then President (DSWD), Department of Justice (DOJ), “Dinky” Soliman and DOJ Secretary Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed Department of Interior and Local Leila de Lima. Executive Order 865 that created Government (DILG), Department the National Steering Committee of Foreign Affairs (DFA), National The Philippine National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NAP) on UNSCRs 1325 and 1820 (NSC WPS) composed of nine (NCIP) and the Office on Muslim was launched by a network of civil government agencies to implement Affairs (OMA). society groups and government the upcoming NAP. Chaired by the agencies in Miriam College on March Presidential Adviser on the Peace The NSC Executive Committee, 25, 2010. It was the first national Process (OPAPP), with the head composed of the OPAPP, DSWD, DOJ action plan on UNSCR 1325 in Asia of the Philippine Commission on and PCW secretaries, is today, a and the 26th in the world. 2 KABABAIHANatKAPAYAPAAN September 2014 The NAP consists of four pillars: protection and prevention, empowerment and participation, promotion and mainstreaming, and capacity development and monitoring/reporting. Complementing the government mechanism to implement the NAP is the civil society group, Women Engaged in Action on UNSCR 1325 (WE Act 1325), a network of 27 peace, human rights, and women’s organizations. OPAPP Undersecretary Gettie Sandoval, head of the technical working group, confers with Secretary Deles and PCW Chair Rikken. In November 2010, now under the new administration, the NAP develop a national action plan for its of OPAPP in 2009, was a peace and was further fleshed out with the operationalization on the country gender advocate. She immediately identification of implementation level. worked to secure Executive Order targets and indicators. “This isn’t 865 adopting the CSO-driven draft like a declaration only. These are Coronel-Ferrer’s response was: NAP, creating an intergovernmental concrete plans that will yield results. “There isn’t any.” body for its implementation, and This is not a plan that you will defining the relationship with CSOs as keep in your cabinet and leave to “There was no shortage of policies a ‘partnership.’” rot,” says OPAPP Undersecretary in the Philippines about women,” Ma. Cleofe Gettie Sandoval who, says Balleza, though there seemed to Secretary Deles returned to OPAPP as as head of the technical working be weakness in policy when it came its head in 2010. A leading peace and group,