Since we have returned from Mindanao, many people including my friends and family have asked what people in the Philippines think of the conflict, or what did I think of it? So, every time I have thought about all that we heard and learned in Mindanao about the conflict, I am left wondering what were people really trying to tell us? Or in other words what they wanted us to hear and what did I really hear. I know it may sound a bit unclear now but I want to hash this out using some examples of different people we met.
One of the first organizations that we met in Mindanao was a government development agency. This agency is responsible for coordinating incoming socio-economic projects, with a focus on infrastructure and thus acquiring investments to build that infrastructure. They provided us with a great deal of statistics on the development and international investments taking place in Mindanao and the various programs that are being put in place currently. As a bureaucratic government agency, what did they want to us hear when they presented this information to us? They wanted us to know that Mindanao is an investment haven and that the national mentality was shifting from combat to peace building, with a focus on the building. As they are a development agency, it is clear why they would want to focus on the success of their various development projects and convey a sense of security to future investors. However, we are not investors, just students, thus the pitch was not exactly successful on us. What I heard at the end and wrote down in my notes was that there was a serious effort made to brush the conflict and its unseemly end products under the rug, because inflating your short comings to outsiders will not exactly help you gain future investments.
We also met an Islamic cooperative that focuses on peace building, livelihood and capacity building at the local (barangay) level in the Maguindanao region. They work on various small-scale programs to increase food and physical security through improved governance. The individuals that are part of the organization participate in various training programs offered by NGOs on peace building. We were informed of various aspects of daily life that have been improved because of the improvements in governance, such as agricultural practices, education programs and conflict resolution methods. The group present wanted us to hear and understand that they had the situation under control, they had figured out a way to address the problems they face. However, after our group had questioned them on health and women related issues and the lack of attention paid to these very important aspects of peace and capacity building; I left with a very different understanding from the intended. I understood that the paradigm of what is needed for peace building and governance was determined by a the male faction of the group, this meant that issues that were of concern to women would not be considered important in terms of livelihood and capacity building. It led me to question every time I heard the words peace building and conflict resolutions, that is to say peace building according to whom? And conflict resolution according to whom?
