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Conflict Resolution – the Philippines Experience

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Conflict Resolution – the Philippines Experience Conflict Resolution – The Philippines Experience A Comparative Study Visit Report 20th – 27th June 2015 Published by Democratic Progress Institute 11 Guilford Street London WC1N 1DH United Kingdom www.democraticprogress.org [email protected] +44 (0)203 206 9939 First published, 2015 ISBN: © DPI – Democratic Progress Institute, 2015 DPI – Democratic Progress Institute is a charity registered in England and Wales. Registered Charity No. 1037236. Registered Company No. 2922108. This publication is copyright, but may be reproduced by any method without fee or prior permission for teaching purposes, but not for resale. For copying in any other circumstances, prior written permission must be obtained from the publisher, and a fee may be payable.be obtained from the publisher, and a fee may be payable 2 Conflict Resolution – The Philippines Experience Contents Saturday 20th June – Arrive in Manila and Welcome Dinner .....5 Sunday 21st June – DPI Welcome Roundtable Meeting .............6 Monday 22nd June - Roundtable Meeting: The Role of International Contact Groups in Conflict Resolution ...............16 Monday 22nd June - Roundtable Meeting: An Overview of the Philippine Peace Process with the Office of the Presidential Advisor on the Peace Process ....................................................48 Tuesday 23rd June - Private Tour of the House of Representatives .....................................................................67 Tuesday 23rd June - Roundtable Meeting: The Role of Media in Conflict Resolution ..................................................................70 Tuesday 23rd June - Dinner Reception hosted by the Office of the Presidential Advisor on the Peace Process ........................86 Wednesday 24th June - Roundtable Meeting with the 6th Infantry Division of the Armed Forces of the Philippines .......100 Wednesday 24th June - Dinner Reception and Roundtable Meeting: The Role of Civil Society in Conflict Resolution .....130 Thursday 25th June - Roundtable Meeting: The Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) and the Ceasefire Mechanism ...143 Thursday 25th June - Roundtable Meeting: The Role of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission in the Peace Process .......158 Thursday 25th June, Roundtable Meeting with the Chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.....................175 Thursday 25th June: Dinner Reception and Roundtable Meeting: 3 Conflict Resolution – The Philippines Experience The Role of the International Monitoring Team in the Peace Process ...................................................................................190 Friday 26th June - Roundtable Meeting with the Government of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao ......................199 Friday 26th June - Farewell Dinner ........................................122 Appendix ................................................................................128 4 Conflict Resolution – The Philippines Experience Saturday 20th June – Arrive in Manila and Welcome Dinner The Delegation arrives in Manila and has their Welcome Dinner at The Peninsula Manila Hotel, Makati City 5 Conflict Resolution – The Philippines Experience Sunday 21st June – DPI Welcome Roundtable Meeting Venue: The Peninsula Hotel Manila With: Kerim Yildiz, DPI Director Eleanor Johnson, DPI Head of Programmes and Research Discussing the Comparative Study Visit agenda at the Democratic Progress Institute’s Welcome Meeting Democratic Progress Institute Director Kerim Yildiz welcomes the participants to Manila and discusses the key lessons to be learnt from the Philippines experience of conflict resolution 6 Conflict Resolution – The Philippines Experience Kerim Yildiz: On behalf of DPI I would like to extend a warm welcome to all of you who have taken time out of your schedule to be here with us. I know at the moment you must be quite busy. We are delighted to be here in the Philippines as we believe hearing from the politicians and the negotiators will be an invaluable experience for you. Many of you have been on our previous Comparative Study Visits to South Africa, Northern Ireland and Berlin and therefore have been able to see the huge benefits of listening to the experiences of other countries that are going through a peace process. This visit has had to be postponed twice more recently because of the elections in Turkey and so unfortunately we have come at a time when Congress is not sitting and therefore a lot of the statesman are out of the country. Eleanor will talk more extensively on the agenda shortly. I will first mention some issues that have been raised from my research into the peace process in this country and the extensive talks I have had with the actors in the Filipino peace process. It is different from other visits we have done in the past not least because it is so far away. We are very thankful for you all being here and we hope the trip will contribute to DPI’s work. I will give you a brief explanation about the state of the peace process here in the Philippines. In 2008 the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Government of the Philippines (GPH) resumed peace talks in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia when they were supposed to come together to resolve the issue. However, lawyers in the Philippines went to the constitutional courts to claim that the agreement was not constitutional so the agreement was blocked. Since 2008, and 7 Conflict Resolution – The Philippines Experience even before, there have been many negotiations and they have taken advantage of lessons from other countries and utilised the Chatham House rules, which must be paid attention to. We do most of our meetings with these rules in our mind. Although we are in the midst of waves in Turkish politics we are all interested in the solution process itself and that is why we do these activities. We have a smaller group with us than usual because in the southern regions there are security problems. The MILF have surrendered some of their arms but there are still negotiations with these groups and the process is not finished. I do not want to make you afraid but in the Mindanao region people are valuable because of kidnapping but we have taken all the necessary measures and protection will be provided by the Filipino army and the MILF. There will be no problems but they have asked us to keep the size of the group small. We will have free time for the rest of the day and I know you must be tired so I do not want to take too much of your time. Eleanor will now explain the agenda, venues and events. Eleanor Johnson: Hello everyone, I am going to give you an overview of the agenda which is in your packs along with background material on the speakers, venues and organisations. We will be in Manila until Wednesday morning when we will move to the southern region of Mindanao. We have a free day today and brunch is scheduled after the meeting and dinner will be over the road this evening at 19h30. For today you may like to visit the Ayala museum across the road which comes highly recommended and documents the history of the Philippines. Alternatively there is a great Green Belt shopping mall close by. 8 Conflict Resolution – The Philippines Experience Tomorrow we will be meeting with some influential speakers and key representatives of the International Contact Group (ICG), which I’m sure you are all aware of as Turkey is a member. The ICG is the first ever hybrid mediation support initiative whose members include Turkey, Japan, the UK, Saudi Arabia and four NGOs. We will hear more about international actors supporting the peace process from them. We will be meeting members from the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (CHD) which is an international NGO supporting the peace process and they will be hosting the lunch which will follow the roundtable. After that, we will travel to Office of the Presidential Advisor on the Peace Process (OPAPP) and later that evening we will be having a dinner with the Turkish Ambassador to the Philippines and representatives from the United Nations (UN). On Tuesday we have another early start for the House of Representatives (HoR). You will have heard about the landmark Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) which is currently being debated in the Congress as it is very current and in the news. You should have some of the technical information relating to the BBL in your packs and a full copy can be provided on request. Later on Tuesday we will be meeting with media personalities, senior columnists and journalists and will be discussing how media can influence and support the process. There will be a dinner with OPAPP that evening where you can ask more detailed questions On Wednesday we will be meeting early to catch our flight to Cotabato City which is located in the Mindanao region. We will meet the Generals of the 6th Infantry Division (6th ID) and will be 9 Conflict Resolution – The Philippines Experience having Round Table Meetings with MILF in their camp while we are there. We will be accompanied by local people from the CHD and we will be going directly to the camp guided by security. In the afternoon we will meet groups from the civil society to talk about their work in the Philippines followed by a dinner reception accompanied by CHD. Thursday is a busy day and we will be having meetings with the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) and Chairman Iqbal who you may have already heard about with his role in putting together the agreement and the drafting of the BBL. We will have a meeting that evening alongside dinner with the International Monitoring Team to hear about the role of third parties. There will be one more Roundtable Meeting on Friday morning with the Governor of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and then we will leave to go back to Manila and back to this hotel. We will have a lunch before an internal meeting which is very important for DPI to share your suggestions and feedback on the visit. There is opportunity to go to ‘Intramuros’ that evening, which is the old Spanish colonial town and many of you have been asking about it.
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