The latest round of negotiations between the Peace Panels of the Government Republic of Philippines (GRP) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Malaysia broke the deadlock on contentious issue of ancestral domain and finally managed to settle the issue which was lingering on for more than three years. Now both parties are gearing up to resume the formal peace talks after an impasse of almost two years which could finally set the path to the signing of the Formal Peace Agreement between the GRP and MILF. After this crucial breakthrough, the GRP responded positively to the request submitted by the Chief of MILF Peace Panel to postpone the upcoming elections in the Autonomous regions of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) which was recently endorsed by the President of the Philippines. Both parties have not yet reached any agreement on the extension of the term of duty of International Monitoring Team which is going to expire in the end of August 2008.

Before the breakthrough, situation remained tense and beleaguered in the volatile parts of ARMM. There were numerous reports of the violation of ceasefire agreement from both sides. The fire fights took place between the forces of GRP and MILF in areas of Basilan, Aleosan Cotabato and Sarangani which resulted in the displacement of hundreds of families. The Mindanao Alliance for Peace organized peace rallies in the major cities of Mindanao which called for the resumption of the GRP-MILF Peace Talks. The Government of Brunei showed its willingness to lead and facilitate the Peace Talks in case of the complete pull out of the Malaysians from the GRP MILF Peace Process. The Malaysians have already pulled out 29 of their military peacekeepers from the International Monitoring Team in the month of May 2008.

The Government of Philippines appointed recently retired Chief of Army Staff as the head of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process. The head of the GRP Peace Panel negotiating with the MILF is also a former military General.

The security situation remained very tight in Sulu during the month of June especially after the kidnapping of media journalist and her two crew members along with the Professor of Mindanao State University Sulu who is well known Civil Society leader and a leading Peace Advocate in Mindanao. The kidnapping happened as the above mentioned group went to take video interview of the leader of Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) who according to the reports kidnapped the interviewing party even before giving any interview. The Professor was the Chairman of Mindanao People’s Caucus – one of the leading proactive Peace Network in Mindanao and a key partner of Nonviolent Peace Force Mindanao Philippines. The kidnappers released the kidnapped victims within two weeks and there were reports of ransom money paid to the kidnappers. On the instructions of the Government, Armed Forces of the Philippines launched major offensive in the hideouts of Abu Sayyaf group in one of the Municipalities of Sulu which resulted in the displacement of hundreds of civilian families. The kidnapping incident and military strikes afterwards further intensified the security situation and movements of civil society organizations in the troubled island of Sulu.

There were floods in some parts of Mindanao caused by the recent typhoon “Frank” which destroyed some villages and basic infrastructure in the remote areas and disturbed the livelihood of the people already affected by on and off armed skirmishes.

NP Work

NP Central Mindanao Team (CMT):
CMT in coordination with NP Main Office in Cotabato city held two community awareness meetings in Joint Monitoring Assistance Team post in Rangaban and Barangay Sambulawan. Participants of the meeting were briefed on NP’s work and its mandate in Mindanao Philippines.

The Rangaban meeting was attended by representatives of 6 Barangays: Nabalawag, Rangaban, Tugal, Mudseng, Lower Glad, and Barangay Ness, including the representatives of Armed Forces of Philippines deployed in Rangaban peace keeping post and representatives of the Malaysian IMT and the staff of the Rangaban JMAT post, as well as Barangay captains.

The second meeting was held in the Barangay hall of Sambulawan (Midsayap Municipality). NP main office linked up CMT with the staff of one of the key partners Bantay Ceasefire who went along with CMT to meet counsellors, women leaders, youth leaders, health workers and teachers in Sambulawan municipality. The participants of the meeting stressed the need to focus more on rumour control and asked NP and Bantay Ceasefire to do more proactive work to prevent rumours.

As mandated by the GRP MILF Joint Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostility, CMT maintained regular presence in the Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Post – Balanaken, and the Joint Monitoring Assistance Teams (JMAT) posts in Kuloy (Shariff Aguak Municipality) and in Rangaban (Midsayap Municipality).

The presence in Balanaken was briefly disrupted by a fire fight between two commanders of the MILF in Barangay Alung’anen area adjacent to the Balanaken joint ceasefire monitoring post. NP CMT called urgent meetings of local partners and local peace keeping groups to assess the situation and plan to assist civilians who were affected by the fight. NP CMT stayed in constant communication with NP Main Office which after verifying the information passed such to the secretariat of Joint Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostility (JCCCH). More than 4000 people were displaced because of the fire fight which lasted for three days. NP team along with local peace monitors regularly visited the locations of the displaced people and provided the details to ICRC and other relevant groups. There were reports of two civilian casualties who were killed when they attempted to flee the area by boat.

On the recommendation of NP Main Office, CMT held two consultative meetings with the key community leaders and representatives of local peace groups in the vicinity of NP field office to discuss possible scenarios based on the current conflict/violence situations. Both meetings analysed the role that civil society organizations and NP could play in case the current situation degenerates to a direct violent confrontation between armed groups. It was highlighted that there are no official evacuation centres within the Municipalities of Datu Piang, Datu Saudi or Midsayap. It was stressed that, in case of any violent confrontation, civilians should not be adversely affected and that a location/area needs to be identified where civilians can assemble as IDPs and such a place should be declared as a gun free-zone.

On the request of local Moro NGO-UNYPHIL’s, NP CMT compound was used by the UNYPHIL to conduct one day training on, ‘Basics of Human Rights’ and ‘International Humanitarian Law’. NP was requested to observe the proceedings of the training.

CMT in coordination with NP Main Office conducted an Early Warning - Early Response orientation to 22 members of the KFI- TIYAKAP Kalilintad group, a local partner organization with whom NP has a close working relationship. The orientation was the third one in a series of EWER trainings to build the capacity of local groups in maintaining peace in their own areas.

On the invitation of community members of Barangay Ganta which is an isolated and critical area, CMT participated in a workshop organized by Save the Children who presented their program EQUALLS 2 (Education Quality and Access for Learning and Livelihood Skills). NP has been maintaining regular presence in that area for almost last one year.

CMT paid regular visits to the offices of different authorities like Police, Mayors, AFP and commanders of revolutionary groups.

NP Sulu Team:

The Sulu Team in partnership with the Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS) organized the second of the four Grassroots HR training. The first training was organized in Indanan municipality on the 18th of May in Barangay Batu Batu of Indanan Municipality. This second training was carried out on the 15th of June in Barangay Taglibi of Patikul Municipality. The training was attended by more than 35 participants from more than 18 barangays of the Municipality. The trainings helped to consolidate the community based human rights structures in the critical areas which are highly exposed to human rights violations. The trainings in partnership with CBCS were planned in coordination with NP Main Office and the secretariat of CBCS.

In order to further strengthen, formalize and clarify areas of partnership and cooperation, the NP Sulu team on behalf of the Main office attended a joint planning session with the Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS), Bangsamoro Lawyers Network (BLN) and the Jaga Lupa Sug (grassroots HR organization). The meeting was called in order to clarify areas of cooperation and complimentary points for the above mentioned organizations to work together with common objective but different roles that complement each other. For example, NP was requested to help with capacity building for Grassroots Civilian Peacekeeping, accompaniment of HR workers and Early Warning System while the BLN was tasked with HR violations cases documentation, training facilitation for HR workers and filing/prosecution of cases. The CBCS on the other hand will deal more with programmatic issues related to IDPs situation documentation, organization and strengthening of the component units of the consortium. A second meeting has been fixed for the 22nd of July where these roles and plans will be further refined and articulated with the ultimate objective of ensuring a common understand of the roles of each organization in the Civilian Protection issues in the conflicted afflicted areas of Sulu and Basilan.

The Sulu Team conducted meetings with the ICRC Delegates in order to further strengthen the relationship between NP and the ICRC while also exploring further areas of cooperation. The first meeting was with the ICRC Economic Delegate from Davao who was interested in knowing what are the economic implications and needs of the IDPs. The second meeting was with the ICRC Security Delegate who was interested in learning from NP how the team operates in Sulu and how safe it would be for the ICRC team to operate and live within Jolo Township proper. They also expressed their strong appreciation to the NP Sulu team for detailed information sharing regarding the situation of Civilians affected and displaced by conflict in Basilan and Sulu.

In order to strengthen the contacts with the Local Government Unit, the Sulu Team paid a courtesy call to the Chairman of the Area Coordinating Center, which is the overall body supposedly charged to coordinate the activities of the various civil society Organizations in Sulu and military formations including the US Armed forces in Sulu. The team briefed the Chairman of the ACC in detail about the work of the NP Sulu Team on the ground and the partners with whom NP works. The chairman expressed her desire to send some of her staff members to attend the next HR training that NP along with local partners will be organizing in the coming month. She further expressed her office’s desire to partner with NP in order to ensure more funding is channelled to the grassroots from the international community and foreign donors.

The Sulu Team also met with a Church leader who is also a member of the NP Advisory Board and has been appointed in the Independent/Composite Panel of Enquiry that was set up by the Governor of Sulu to conduct an independent and impartial investigation into the events that led to the death of 8 civilians in Ipil village of Maimbung Municipality. The team had a very long discussion with the Church leader regarding the conduct of the inquiry and shared the concerns of the families of the victims.

In furtherance of the NP Mindanao Project’s goal of ensuring the setting up of an Early Warning System/ Early Response Network in Sulu, the Sulu team met with the members of the Suara Mahardika Radio Club. This Radio Club has members all over the 18 municipalities of Sulu who share information of events and happenings in their respective. The team explored the possibility of using or including the information sharing platform provided by the club in facilitating the setting up of the Early warning system. The members of the club requested for more time to discuss amongst themselves while also requesting NP for further meetings in order to further clarify EWER.

On the request of one of the key Partners, NP Sulu Team in close coordination with NP Main Office provided accompaniment and presence to the family of Professor Octavio Di Nampo. Prof. Octavio is the Chairman of the Mindanao People’s Caucus (a Mindanao wide organization and one of the major partners of NP Mindanao). He is also the Chairman of Tulung Lupa Sug (TLC), an organization that specializes in Rido settlement in Sulu. Prof. Octa is also a member of the NP Advisory Body in Sulu. At various times during the kidnapping saga, his family came under direct pressure from different sides as some elements were trying to cast the net of suspicion on Prof. Octa by accusing him of being a collaborator with the ASG in the kidnapping and also telling his family members that Prof. Octavio had been released but has gone into hiding. Based on this immense pressure and atmosphere of fear that his family was undergoing, the MPC requested NP team to provide logistics, presence and accompaniment for the family. The team in close coordination with NP Main Office and MPC representatives fulfilled these requests throughout the period the kidnapping saga lasted.

NP Cotabato Main Office (CMO)

NP CMO remained intensively occupied in supporting and facilitating the work of both the field sites through physical presence and direct communication and helped the teams to layout the strategies and work plans in accordance with NP mandate and current scenarios.

The Project Director and Communications Officers visited both field sites and met the partners and local authorities. NP CMO facilitated planning meetings between NP CMT and one of the partner organization UNYPAD to jointly conduct Community based human rights trainings in the areas of coverage of NP CMT office. The priority areas and Core team were identified through strategy and planning meetings conducted both in NP Main Office and CMT premises. At a larger scale, the Project Director and Communication Officer maintained regular communication with the key network partners in Mindanao launching Mindanao wide Human Rights Networks.

The Project director and Communications Officer met the head of Peace Panel of Moro Islamic Liberation Front along with a key partner and updated him on NP work in Mindanao. The head of Peace Panel appreciated NP presence in Mindanao and endorsed NP to work on human rights issues along with local partners. He categorically requested NP to keep the Peace Process authorities fully aware of NP activities in Mindanao.

The Communication Officer maintained regular contacts with the Joint Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (GRP & MILF) as well as International Monitoring Team to coordinate the peace keeping activities between NP field sites and Ceasefire bodies. The Communication Coordinator supported the teams in verifying the information from different contacts and vice versa.

The Project Director and Communication Coordinator met several times the Advisory Board members, updated them on NP work and sought their advices on programmatic interventions. The Advisory Board Members and Ceasefire structures strongly recommended NP to bring more Civilian Peacekeepers as soon as possible. NP CMO and partners shared action plans on Human Rights structures and Early Warning system and Early Response in Mindanao.

On the request of key network partner, NP CMO produced a Statement on the kidnapping of Prof. Octavio and media crew. Prof Octavio was holding the office of the Chairman on NP network partner and he was the Advisory Board member of NP Mindanao Project. NP statement categorically condemned the kidnapping and asked for the immediate unconditional release of all the kidnapped victims. The statement was issued to uphold the professional integrity and character of Prof. Octavio as a leading civil society leader and Peace Advocate.

The project director maintained links with the key authorities and various international groups and donors working for peace in Mindanao. The CMO relayed relevant information to key Mindanao Protection Network and updated them on regular basis with the happenings on the ground.

The Project Director went to New York to be part of the NP presentation team who gave briefings to the representatives of the UN member states in the event organized by the Canadian Mission to the UN and also presented NP Sri Lanka and Philippines work to the Peace and Securities funders groups, NP Advocate Team Members and individual donors. The Project Director spent few days in Minneapolis and presented NP work in various forums organized by the NP USA office and also gave interviews to electronic, broadcasting and print media.

Written by: Atif Hameed, Project Director