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Peace and Development in Mindanao, Republic of the Philippines the Long Road to Peace Through Trust

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Peace and Development in Mindanao, Republic of the Philippines the Long Road to Peace Through Trust JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development December 2020 PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT IN MINDANAO, REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES THE LONG ROAD TO PEACE THROUGH TRUST Naoyuki Ochiai PROJECT HISTORY SERIES No.2 Peace and Development in Mindanao, Republic of the Philippines The Long Road to Peace through Trust Naoyuki Ochiai 2020 JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development Cover: Sighning Ceremony on Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro on 27 March, 2014 (Photo by Juro Chikaraishi) The author would like to thank Drs. Robert D. Eldridge and Graham B. Leonard for their translation of this work. The views and opinions expressed in the articles contained in this volune do not necessarily represent the official view or positions of the organizations the authors work for or are affiliated with. JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development https://www.jica.go.jp/jica-ri/index.html 10-5 Ichigaya Honmura-cho, Shinjuku-ku Tokyo 162-8433, JAPAN Tel: +81-3-3269-2357 Fax +81-3-3269-2054 Copyright@2020 JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development. ISBN: 978-4-86357-088-7 Foreword This book is about peacebuilding in the conflict-affected Mindanao region of the Republic of the Philippines. It introduces how the Japanese Government and JICA was involved in peacebuilding there over more than two decades since 1996, the history between Japan and conflict- affected Mindanao, and the various problems facing the conflict-affected Mindanao region historically. The author, Naoyuki Ochiai, was involved in the peacebuilding process in various capacities, including as a JICA official and a member of the Embassy of Japan on the ground in conflict-affected Mindanao. He highly praises Japan’s efforts at peacebuilding there, and he himself was awarded the Yasuhiro Nakasone Award in 2016 by the Yasuhiro Nakasone Peace Institute (formerly known as the Institute for International Policy Studies). This is an award given to those who have made “meaningful achievements …which will contribute toward the realization of true peace and prosperity in the international community.” One of the reasons for his selection included the fact that “he prioritized close communication with the local people affected by the conflict and was highly praised by those people.” The experiences in international cooperation described in the book can be summarized in the following two very important points. First is the experience of a Japanese aid worker going in the area before a peace agreement had been reached (all that existed was a truce in the fighting) to give aid directly. In other words, Ochiai volunteered as a member of the international monitoring team while the military tensions continued to provide assistance on the front line, conflict-affected Mindanao. At the time, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had set the level of danger at 3 (advising those wishing to travel to the area not to go). Even as a JICA official, it was a place one could not easily go to. This book introduces in great deal what it was like to work on the ground in conflict-affected Mindanao as well as the difficulty of living there at the time. The second interesting point is that those being supported included anti-government forces. Ordinarily, Official Development Assistance, or ODA, is given from the Government of Japan to the government of the developing nation. The case of conflict-affected Mindanao is quite rare in that it included not only aid to government organizations but also i to anti-government forces as well. When “anti-government forces” is written, it is easy to imagine violent, terrorist groups, or other extremists. It goes without saying that JICA does not approve whatsoever of any violent acts, but at the same time, it would be naïve to suggest that such entities were mixed in. With that said, from the perspective of the anti- government forces, it was a fight for justice, autonomy, and the protection of their rights with ancestral domains, etc. Through the development of conflict-affected Mindanao, the Government of Japan and JICA were able to provide a place by which the anti-government forces and the Philippine government could work together harmoniously toward peace. This careful approach toward supporting the area and bringing about long-lasting peace is the real charm of aid and development work. This book is number 25 in our “Project History” series, and is the second English-language book in this series. The Project History series is dedicated to carefully documenting the individual facts of projects in which JICA cooperated on the one hand while seeking to recreate the history from a larger perspective at the same time. In addition, the individual authors include important messages in the text based on their personal insights and experiences. Several of the books to date have focused on peacebuilding, including book number 7 which deals with Afghanistan, book no. 8 (Sudan), book no. 23 (South Sudan), book no. 24 (Bosnia-Herzegovina), and now this one. With this collection of works, it would be interesting to conduct comparative research on cooperation in peacebuilding. I would be grateful if this book and others in the series can be of reference to the reader in order to help his or her understanding of and research into these issues. Akio Takahara Director, JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development ii Table of Contents Foreword i Prologue: Becoming Attracted to Mindanao xi Chronology xv Chapter 1: The Island of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago 1 Section■ 1: The History of Mindanao 1 The Introduction of Islam 1 Immigrants of Japanese Descent 2 The People and Religions of Mindanao 3 The Ancestral Domain Issue 4 Column Ñ Cotabato City and the Takumi Detachment 5 Section 2: The History of the Mindanao Conflict 7 The Moro National Liberation Front 7 The Final Peace Agreement with the MNLF 8 The Moro Islamic Liberation Front 9 Own Governments 10 The Bangsamoro Liberation Movement and the Meiji Restoration 12 Column ñ Ethnic Warfare 13 The Family Feud 14 Chapter 2: Toward a Peace Agreement 17 Section■ 1: Support Package for the Mindanao 17 Major Initial Support 17 The Influence of 9/11 19 To Jordan 20 Section 2: The Japan-Bangsamoro Initiative for Reconstruction and Development 20 President Sadako Ogata 20 From Jordan to Mindanao Again 22 A New Initiative 24 iii Section 3: The Mindanao International Monitoring Team 25 The Third Delegate to the IMT 25 The Composition of the IMT 27 IMT Head of Mission 28 The Samurai Colonel 31 Together We Make It Happen 33 The Invisible Power of the IMT 35 Section 4: The Government of the Philippines-MILF Joint Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities 37 The Effectiveness of Ceasefire Monitoring 37 MILF-CCCH Chief Secretariat Rasid 39 GPH-CCCH Chief Secretariat Sol 41 Section 5: The Start of Armed Conflict 43 The Memorandum of Agreement on the Ancestral Domain 43 Go Forward 44 The International Contact Group 46 Peacekeeping, Peacemaking, Peacebuilding 48 Section 6: Linking Those Fighting 49 Consolidation for Peace in Mindanao 50 COP in Hiroshima 53 The First High-Level Meeting between Philippine President Benigno Aquino III and MILF Chairman Al-Haji Murad Ebrahim 57 Chapter 3: Supporting the Transition to Peace 61 Section 1: SERD-CAAM Project 61 Section 2: CD-CAAM 63 Section 3: The Comprehensive Capacity Development Project for the Bangsamoro 65 The Formation of the New Project 65 Two Houses under One Roof 67 CCDP-B 69 CCDP-A 70 iv Section 4: JICA Cotabato Project Office 71 Unity for Peace and Development 71 Samrah “Sam” Karon-Patadon 73 Mary Bernadette “Badette” Suarez 74 Enjoying Isolation 75 Section 5: The Bangsamoro Basic Law 75 Chairman of BTC 75 A Parliamentary System of Government 76 The National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies 77 The Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society 80 HIROSHIMA 81 Section 6: Revenue Enhancement Assistance for ARMM LGUs 83 Non-Functioning Municipalities 84 Five Selected Municipalities 86 Immutability and Fluidity 87 Column ¡ Leader’s Decision 88 Section 7: The Peace Dividend Project (QIP) 90 Rapidly Delivering Peace Dividends 90 Community Centers 92 Students! Study Hard 94 Column ¿ The Power of Buildings 95 School of Peace 98 Section 8: The Upland Rice-based Farming Technology Transfer Program for the Bangsamoro (URTP-B) 99 Normalization 99 Farmer Soldiers 100 The Bangsamoro Development Agency 102 The Survey into Actual Conditions at Military Camps 103 The Philippine Rice Research Institute 105 Direct Negotiations 107 A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words 108 v A Relationship of Trust Between Teachers and Students 109 A Historic Moment 111 Section 9: The Market-Driven Local Industry Promotion Sub-Project for the ARMM 114 The Development of Local Industry through Agribusiness 114 The Sixth Industrialization Concept 115 ARMM Regional Secretary of Department of Trade and Industry 117 The Japanese Challenge 118 Section 10: The Armed Occupation of Marawi City, Our Withdrawal, and Reconstruction 123 Islamic Violent and Extremist Organizations 123 Evacuation to Manila 124 Remote Control 125 Strength Training 126 Returning to Cotabato, the Promised Land 128 Section 11: Under One Roof, A Home is Built 129 Farewell Cotabato, Until We Meet Again! 129 SERD-CAAM, CD-CAAM, and the CCDP 130 President Rodrigo Duterte 131 The BTA Swearing-In Ceremony 132 Where there is a will, there is a way 134 Chapter 4: The Role of Development in the Mindanao Peace Process 137 Section 1: On Support for Peacebuilding 137 Human Security
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