Environmental Peacebuilding: An Experiential Learning Paper on the Participatory Social Cartography Project for Marawi City and other Localities Affected by the Marawi Siege Atty. Michelle Angelica Go Assistant Secretary, Department of Environment and Natural Resources Republic of the Philippines Paper prepared for presentation at the “2019 WORLD BANK CONFERENCE ON LAND AND POVERTY” The World Bank - Washington DC, March 25-29, 2019 1 Copyright 2019 by author(s). All rights reserved. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial purposes by any means, provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies. Abstract The Participatory Social Cartography Project: Environmental Peacebuilding in Marawi City The Philippines was recently in the limelight as the site of violent conflict between government security forces and extremists affiliated with militant Islamic groups that resulted in deaths and displacement of people, and the total destruction of the commercial center of Marawi City, the Islamic City located in Mindanao which is the second biggest island of the country. Late in the evening of day 1 of the siege of Marawi, President Rodrigo Duterte declared a State of Martial Law in the Mindanao Group of Islands and suspended the Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus. The ensuing urban warfare between government security forces and the extremists lasted for 5 months which left the city in ruins, displaced more than two hundred thousand residents and killed hundreds from both sides, including those caught in the crossfire. The conflict directly affected a total of 305,642 individuals, including the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from ground zero or most affected area which is the commercial center of Marawi City. As the battle was winding down, the Philippine Government created a Land Resource Management (LRM) Sub-Committee under Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM) which was placed under the administrative and technical supervision of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary, charged with the broad mandate of managing all issues pertaining to land resource in Marawi City and other localities affected by the conflict. The present land administration system of the Philippines traces its roots to several centuries of Spanish and American colonial period systems, which studies have shown, were not rationalized even after gaining full independence more than 70 years ago which thus left serious structural and administrative defects. The result of the research conducted by the LRM Sub-Committee showcased this defective land administration system and confirmed that indeed, land, land resources and the environment form part of the root cause of the so-called ‘Moro’ people rebellions that started several centuries ago and was recently reignited by the extremists who used this conflict to push their agenda. 2 The LRM Sub-Committee is thus implementing the Participatory Social Cartography Project which basically is land, property and social data mapping of the 260-hectare ground zero or most affected area of battle-scarred Marawi City. The project is among several that were conceptualized under the ‘Environmental Peacebuilding’ framework with the strategy of leveraging on land, land resources and the environment and anchored on the broader twin goals of ‘Sustaining Peace’ and ‘Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.’ The concept of ‘Environmental Peacebuilding’ as intended by the LRM Sub-Committee, emanated from the realization that a war’s magnitude is not just measured by the death toll, but how the environment and the land and property rights of the war-torn communities are affected by the violent conflict which is further exacerbated by a defective land administration system. It is thus imperative that interventions for the recovery of those communities leverage on and address the impact of the conflict on land, land resources and the environment. The author hastens to add that design of the project was heavily influenced, among others, by key learnings of the Author at the 2018 Land and Poverty Conference. The experience of implementing the Participatory Scial Cartography Project, albeit still ongoing and still unfinished, validates the conclusions and recommendations of the World Bank and AusAID– funded Land Administration and Management Project (LAMP). During the third stage of the Participatory Social Cartography Project, the Author will revisit the LAMP’s proposed blueprint for reform of the country’s land administration and management system. With national attention still riveted to the ongoing rehabilitation and reconstruction of Marawi City’s ground zero or most affected area, it is hoped that having showcased the challenge posed by this Project, the critical next steps towards the implementation of the long-term roadmap will finally be undertaken by the leaders of the Philippine Government. Key Words: Environmental Peacebuilding Land, Land Resources and the Environment Participatory Social Cartography Sustaining Peace Torrens System 3 Siege of Marawi City and Declaration of a State of Martial Law Marawi, a city that is part of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) located in southern Philippines, made the headlines on May 23, 2017 when an armed local extremist group led by local residents affiliated with foreign militant Islamic groups, launched a siege against the city by burning and destroying a Catholic Church and government buildings, occupying the residential and commercial structures, closing roads and bridges and declaring the city as a new caliphate of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Group or ISIS, to which the government reacted swiftly. Late in the evening of day 1 of the siege of Marawi, President Rodrigo Duterte declared a State of Martial Law in the Mindanao Group of Islands and suspended the Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus. The ensuing urban warfare between government security forces and the extremists lasted for 5 months which left the city in ruins, displaced more than two hundred thousand residents and killed hundreds from both sides, including those caught in the crossfire. The conflict directly affected a total of 305,642 individuals, including the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from ground zero or most affected area which is the commercial center of Marawi City. Marawi City: The Jewel of Mindanao, Philippines Before Marawi City’s destruction, it was dubbed by visitors as the ‘Zurich’ of the Philippines because of its beauty which is framed by the impressive 170-hectare Lake Lanao, the largest lake in Mindanao and counted as one the ancient lakes of the world. According to scientists, Lake Lanao was formed through the collapse of a volcano and the tectonic movements of two mountain ranges in the area more than two million years ago. It hosts several endemic species of fish and is a major source of seafood for the residents of Marawi City and nearby areas. Its watersource enjoy a proteted area status as a watershed forest reserve. Creation of Task Force Bangon Marawi A little over a month after the start of the siege, even as the battle was still ongoing, President Rodrigo Duterte, who was so moved by the widespread destruction and loss of lives in the Islamic city, ordered the creation of an inter-agency task force composed of several national government agencies with the mandate of overseeing the recovery, reconstruction, and rehabilitation of Marawi City and other affected localities, to be officially known as “Task Force Bangon Marawi” (TFBM). TFBM performs its functions through five Sub-Committees (Reconstruction, Housing, Health and Social Welfare, Business and Livelihood, Peace and Order). 4 Creation of the Sub-Committee on Land Resource Management A unique feature of Marawi City and the other affected localities which form part of the Province of Lanao del Sur that was initially overlooked during the drafting of the administrative order that created the inter-agency administrative body tasked to oversee the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the area is the legal effect of seven Presidential Proclamations establishing layers of authorities over vast tracks of land, the most notable of which is the Camp Keithley Military Reservation which traces its legal moorings to the American Occupation period that commenced in 1898 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris between Spain and the United States of America which effectively ceded the Philippines to the Americans. Notwithstanding the clear intent of the various presidential proclamations to reserve specific areas for special purposes such as for military use, land titles were issued and thousands of families are either tilling the land or residing therein – a situation that is at the heart or the crux of the ‘peacelessness’ in the area. Camp Keithley Military Reservation in 1907 as shown by the plotting of the technical description of Executive Order 693 s. of 1907 issued by American President Theodore Roosevelt, and plotting of the technical description of the Political Boundaries of Marawi City on a Geographic Information System (GIS) using AutoCAD and Manifold, as displayed on Google Earth. Realizing that the rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts must be anchored on a clear understanding of the land and property issues, the TFBM Chairperson issued Memorandum Circular 5 No. 02 dated September 25, 2017 creating the Sub-Committee on Land Resource Management (LRM) headed by the Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)