Category Archives: Maggie

Philippines in the Future

My friend is starting a term with the Peace Corps in the summer, and found out a short time ago that he will be going somewhere in the Philippines. When he first told me, I was so excited to hear the news, not just because the Philippines now hold a special place in my heart, but for all the other reasons like the opportunities and experiences he’ll have. Hearing him talk about the excitement of going to the Philippines for the first time made me want to go back all the more.

I know that I’ll be studying and working in the US over the next year or so, for various logistic reasons, but I can’t shake the feeling that I want to go back to the Philippines. Not only do I want to return to Mindanao, but I want to be able to explore further the rest of the country, learn the language better, and see more of the people and culture in which we were more or less dumped earlier this year. I think I certainly have a much better handle on the Philippine culture than others I know, and even myself just a few months ago, I know that there is so much more that I still have yet to learn and I hope to have that opportunity in the future, and hopefully soon.

Not the last time.

Not the last time.

The experience of preparing for, going to, and reflecting on the Mindanao trip has basically consumed my life for the past few months, and I feel a certain level of investment of which I am not yet ready to let go. I’m still on the edge of my seat about what will happen in the peace processes, the multinational corporations, the tri-people, the peace education system, and all the people of Mindanao, and – even if it doesn’t happen for some time – I’m making a point that is won’t be the only time I visit and learn about the area.

What makes a mediator

Toward the end of our trip, when we were traveling through the northern part of Mindanao in Cagayan de Oro, we started to see a slightly different side of the conflict than we had been hearing so much about in the beginning. While the central and southern parts of Mindanao so heavily stressed the problems and negotiations between the MILF and the government, the establishment of the Bangsamoro with the BBL, and the Christian-Muslim divide, in Cagayan de Oro we heard much more about the tensions with the New People’s Army (NPA – the active Communist armed group in the Philippines), as well as mining and other international companies that were exploiting the natural resources in the area, at the expense of the local populations.

While we had heard about these aspects of the conflict earlier, it was very interesting for us to see where peacebuilding efforts were being concentrated depending on where we were on the island. Balay Mindanaw, an NGO based in Cagayan de Oro which mediated the negotiations between the government and the Revolutionary Workers’ Party, barely mentioned the MILF in our afternoon visiting their organization. Instead we heard from them about the GPF-RWP negotiations, and about the process of mediating a negotiation process that the organization had not previously been trained to handle.

DSC_0320Something I found fascinating during that afternoon was that, for exactly the reason that Balay Mindanaw had no mediating expertise, is why the parties wanted them to conduct the negotiations. Even though the employees did go through training to learn about the theories and techniques of mediation, their appeal was their inexperience, their ability to bring a fresh and less biased perspective to the negotiating tables.  While I thought that, on one hand, this was a very logical and understandable concern for parties in a conflict to have, it did raise one question for me…how is that bias going to play a role in my future career?

Looking at the MILF through a different lens

I’m currently taking a course with Dr. Iyer titled Non-State Armed Actors, in which each student focuses their studies of all the themes covered in class through the lens of one group. Of course, my non-state armed actor is the MILF, because I clearly have not spent enough time trying to figure the MILF out, now I need to do it from an organizational standpoint. In all seriousness, I think it’s been really good for me, because not only do I now know so much more about the general conflict, but I also find that I understand better the role of the MILF, what it wants, and how it works.

But a few weeks ago I was speaking with a friend and he asked me a question that I’m still grappling with: what am I going to do with all this information? I’m not going to be able to return back to the Philippines any time soon, and while the purpose of the class is to learn more about engaging with armed groups, I’m certainly in no position to be the person to try to engage with the MILF.

The flag to be used for the creation of the MILF's autonomous region, the Bangsamoro.

The flag to be used for the creation of the MILF’s autonomous region, the Bangsamoro.

However, I think that, where this information can come in useful is a little closer to home, and a little more forward looking. After talking with all of my friends who participated in the trip to Los Angeles, I could hear all the similarities between the conflicts in both areas. Both are areas have experience serious violence between the government and local armed groups (whether the MILF or the gangs), as well as among the populations, and both are grappling with the challenges of trying to crawl out of a conflict that has lasted so long but has only at certain points in time exploded into full-blown war.

Unlike Mindanao, I go back to LA, my hometown, multiple times a year. Also unlike Mindanao, I have a base there, a connection and a belonging, although not in the conflict-ridden areas (fortunately). And while LA is a very classic example of inner-city violence, it is certainly not the only city in the US in such a predicament. Can I apply the ideas and theories that I’ve learned in this class in a different sense? Obviously the MILF and the Crips and Bloods are not analogous completely, but that’s the point of what we’ve been learning – each group, each context, each conflict requires its own analysis and understanding in order to be able to engage with the actors involved if any lasting peace is to ever be achieved.

How to catch their eye

On one of the first days that we were in Mindanao, we traveled through the capital of Davao City, which still experienced alienation from the actual conflict that we were there to study.  However, the second day in Davao we visited the Alternative Forum for Research in Mindanao (AFRIM), which is one of a few organizations trying to combat that reality. They work with partner communities as part of a few key projects like Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding which provides updates of what is happening with the MILF and Bangsamoro, Gender and Rural Development, Small- and Large-scale mining awareness and advocacy, and a partnership with the Department of Education to empower teachers in the peace education mandate. Basically, they reported on all the major aspects of the conflict that we wanted to understand.

The thirteen of us sitting in the very small conference room at AFRIM in Davao City.

The thirteen of us sitting in the very small conference room at AFRIM in Davao City.

I remember very specifically that the woman we were speaking with said the biggest challenges they faced as a data collecting and publishing organization was in convincing the people of Davao to care about all the peace and development issues that so heavily plagued the central part of Mindanao. Later on in the meeting, another employee explained to us that the mining in the area were part of the transfer of coal companies from the US and Europe to Asia, in a Global north to south movement. After the West “learned” its environmental lessons, Asia was now just coming to the point where the same lessons would need to be learned.

I remember walking out of that meeting feeling so surprised to hear that these were the problems facing Mindanao, and in a larger sense, Southeast Asia. But then upon further thinking, this is exactly what we see so often here at the MIIS campus, where it’s a challenge to keep Salinas, just a short drive away, in the mentality of the student and faculty body. I’ve mentioned this question in past blogs, especially since our recent presentation, but how do we get people to care about the livelihood of others when other matters, no matter what they be, are more enticing? Who is going to listen to these stories or be able to take any action here from our end in the US if the people in Davao don’t listen or care?

A Taste of the Philippines

Last week, driving home from working in Salinas, I more or less demanded of my two friends and coworkers that we stop at a market in Seaside that I had explored previously with another friend, which was of the Filipino and Indian persuasion. Walking in to this market was – fortunately – nothing like walking into the few markets I’ve seen in Monterey. Rather than big, fluorescent-lighted aisles and more options than I know how to process, there are just six aisles of dried goods, canned goods, snacks, and paper products in this dimly lit store, with an area toward the back with a  refrigerated section and a few tables of vegetables, fruit, and whole, dead fish. It was great, and much more resembled markets that I’m accustomed to shopping in from living in less affluent areas.

At first sight I had just been excited to see a market that sold curry and strawberry Hi-Chews (both a challenge to find in downtown Monterey), but as I walked up and down the aisles, I found myself squealing with delight as I passed by names that had so recently become familiar in my vocabulary. Words such as rambutan, pancit bihon, hopia, ube, halo halo, lined the cramped shelves and I scrambled to take pictures without seeming too strange to the store owners.

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So I walked out of the store with an achy nostalgia, a package of ube hopia and Philippine dried mangoes. Both were annihilated within 24 hours, even though every bite was followed with the traveler’s standard and pestering complaint of, not as good as the real thing. But it was the closest I was going to get.

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Such irony! I remember very clearly being in the trip, toward the end, and thinking about what I would’ve given to be back in the US with all the familiar foods I grew up with, and now I’m back in the US and I get a craving for pinakbet or mangosteen. Sure, none of the experience has to do with Mindanao’s conflict or peacebuilding process, but food! It plays such a strong role in our memory, that it’s very possible I will remember the all bananas and black rice long after I remember other details of the trip.

Peacing Out

After our presentation last week, I’ve been thinking a lot about my specific topic of interest for the trip, which was zones (or sometimes spaces) of peace, or more specifically the relationship between zones of peace and development. Although I had done a fair amount of research before going on the trip about the different ways that zones and spaces of peace were formed, and how much they depend on development projects and funding to survive, there’s nothing like seeing something firsthand to really understand how it works for the people who live there. And of course, what we saw was that each zone or space of peace had its own way of navigating that dynamic through the three that we visited on the trip.

First we visited a zone of peace in Tulunan, called Nabandasan. This zone of peace populated mostly by Christians was unilaterally declared by the local government, it has established restrictions on military presence in the area, and had experienced some improvements since the declaration, but still desired more development.  The town had implemented the Department of Education’s peace education directive, and women expressed that they had more freedom to work and gain their own income, but the distance to schools and clinics were still far enough due to the village’s isolated location that development challenges were still present.

Then, we were taken to a sitio that had established itself as a space of peace in Pikit called Baruyan. Here, as opposed to Nabandasan, the population was tri-people (a more equal mix of Christians, Moros, and Lumads), and the space was created through negotiations between the local government and the MILF, which still allowed military detachments within the region and created a local policing force, but civilians were not to have guns. Baruyan, though, had pretty extensive development projects established, including socio-economic projects, scholarship programs, and had networked not only with other local spaces of peace, but had national and international support.

Getting a tour through Baruyan in Pikit.

Getting a tour through Baruyan in Pikit.

Last, we visited the zone of peace of Bual, which was mostly Moros but also had a significant Christian population. Having seen and heard about the zones of peace in other parts of Mindanao, in 1998 Bual’s community declared itself a zone of peace, and two prominent NGOs in the area, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Kadtuntaya Foundation Inc. (KFI), aided in the establishment and training of local officials. They had rules including non-display of arms, and had created Barangay Peace Action Teams (BPATs) to keep the area and population secure. Most of the development projects have been with the help of CRS and KFI, although USAID has also put in support.

With a plethora of options in creating and organizing zones/spaces of peace, it seems that each town faced its own advantages and challenges. One similarity, though, that we observed was that, the establishment of a zone/space of peace does not serve the function of stopping the violence. It was very curious indeed to see, against what I had understood from my readings, that all of the barangays we visited still experienced violence from time to time, whether it was from the Communist New People’s Army in Nabandasan, the MILF in Baruyan, or rido (tribal conflict) in Bual. The dynamic that instead changed, was that the local population was unified enough to flee together. That was something that I hadn’t necessarily been expecting, but knowing about zones of peace, I understand better that they can’t really stop violence altogether, but rather they serve as more innovative ways to avoid or deal with violence.

Spreading the word

This past Thursday, our group presented on campus to our school community about what we learned in Mindanao. We worked with Dr. Iyer’s other immersion course which traveled to Los Angeles, and put together a creative presentation to share about the major themes that were present in both of our trips, such as the cycle of violence, displacement or homelessness, the role of women, education, etc. While I knew that the two conflicts do really share a lot of dynamics, I was nervous about the execution and cohesion of a presentation that incorporated both of our trips, and how the delivery would be received by the audience, many of whom were people I’d be blabbing to offhandedly about Mindanao for months at this point.

But Thursday night arrived, we presented, and at the end we had time allotted for questions from the audience. I have to say that I was blown away by the questions posed, and so relieved to see that our presentation had not fallen on deaf (or bored) ears. Instead of the generic questions about favorite moments or biggest challenges, we were asked specifically about everything from how we get our information after coming back, to how to better get out the word about systemic dynamics of conflicts such as these, in which people live daily but don’t realize the influence of the structures surrounding them. For me personally, it felt reassuring to know that our words were being enthusiastically heard and understood, because I’m quite accustomed to eye rolls and insincere “uh-hum’s” when trying to talk about such topics.

The only thing, though, is that I’m still asking myself, And now what?. I helped in sharing of stories that we heard to an eager, but quite small, audience. It was a Thursday night event and afterwards we all went out for a drink, and the next morning everyone went back to work, including myself. Did we make an impact? If not on the audience, then at least on ourselves? We may have had our presentation that was supposed to culminate, in a way, the contribution of our information to the MIIS community, but I’m still itching to talk about Mindanao all the time. And shouldn’t we continue to raise awareness about these two conflicts that so greatly plague the people who live in them, but that the rest of the world seems more or less content to ignore?

Back to Square One

In our daily meetings throughout Mindanao, I remember very distinctly that, no matter if we were talking with indigenous CSOs or the military, Christian priest or Muslim NGO, cautious hope was the common denominator in the people’s expectations.  I had read beforehand only about conflict, bloodshed, displacement, and suffering, but when we actually heard the perspectives of people on the ground, they seemed to be strongly hoping for the turn in the road. Through the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law— the BBL— the peace processes would be reinforced and more efforts toward institutionalizing peace could be realized. Sure, almost everyone recognized the possibility that violence would erupt again, but the hope prevailed that the BBL would bring more good than bad.

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A bright moment at J. Marquez School of Peace, the first school to implement peace education into its curriculum in Mindanao, as part of the extensive efforts to bring lasting peace to the island.

 

But then January 25th happened. In a region close to where we had traveled, called Mamasapano, shots were fired between the AFP and the MILF, plus the BIFF (Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters).  44 Special Action Force persons and 18 MILF members were killed, and the peace process between the two parties came to a jolting halt. Even key proponents the BBL and the negotiations, like Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, recognized the massive impact that the Mamasapano incident would have on the outcome of the peace process.  All of a sudden it looked like, even if the BBL did pass through the Congress, it would be diluted to the point of impotence, further distancing both the MILF and the government from any lasting peaceful reconciliation.  And this is not the first peace negotiation to end in violence: it seems that Mindanao has been on a pendulum that swings every 3 or 4 years between negotiations on one side and violent outbursts on the other.

So I find myself wondering what the feeling is now among the same people to whom we talked. If we went back now, since the Mamasapano incident, how would our trip have been different? How would people have spoken to us about the violence and the peacebuilding efforts? Are people still hopeful? Or has that hope been squandered just like previous negotiations that have crumbled in the Mindanao cycle of violence and negotiations? And looking at the larger picture, if we can recognize that this cycle exists in which negotiations are not successful and violence is continually resorted to, how can that cycle be broken?

Extra Extra

I like the news. I like reading the paper with breakfast or while watching TV (one of the habits passed down from my parents that I love). I liked reading the news so much as a teenager that, when time came for college applications, the only thing I could think to do was choose a Political Science major, mostly because I liked the news.

Eight years later, I sit at my desk and find myself wanting to hit the news in the proverbial face. How can it be this hard to find consistent news on Mindanao?! I was prepared for a bit of a challenge finding information when I was explaining to my friends and family here where Mindanao was (even the most ardent news readers hadn’t necessarily heard of it), but with the extended efforts I’ve put forward, it’s still a frustrating experience to find the same four articles, most of which are from media I’ve never heard of and are littered with errors or ads, citing the same four sources. I find facts, but with little context and little trust on my end.

Peruzing a local paper

Peruzing a local paper

I am very aware of my bias of favoring more big-name (and pretty liberal in the US sense) news media – the LA Times and the NY Times were my favorite news sources. So I tell myself that, just because I’ve never before read InterAksyon (related to Philippine News Channel 5, based in Quezon City near the capital Manila), doesn’t mean I shouldn’t believe the information any less than I’d believe the papers I can buy here at Starbucks. If anything, they’re the only ones reporting, so if I don’t read them, I got nothing. But I’m still wary: they much know better than would an outsider news source because they’re more familiar and involved, right? Or does being based in Manila provide such a strong bias that they can’t report what’s really happening? We frequently saw or heard that the stereotypes run strong between “imperialist” Manila and “those crazy terrorists” in Mindanao. So where can I turn to if I’m more than 7,000 miles away from the source? InterAksyon is just one example of the online news sources that I’ve read through, there are certainly also news sources based in Mindanao, but still, it’s difficult to know who’s writing the news.

I’ve asked myself similar questions when I read about American news, but here I have such a stronger base of information and background that I’ve become more comfortable navigating my way through the news and where it comes from, to the point where I do it naturally. But when trying to keep up-to-date on what’s happening in Mindanao, I simply don’t have that, and I flounder. Reading about the question of passing the BBL, the armed violence, and the government-MILF negotiations has turned into a maze that I’m constantly trying to solve.

Reverse culture traffic bumps

In the couple of weeks since coming back to the US, it’s been quite an adjustment back to my regular routine of classes, work, and my reflections have evolved dramatically from what I was thinking and was feeling while I was in the field.  Even the basic parts of my day, including my appetite, sleeping patterns, and ability to focus on my classwork, were a struggle to reclaim, lacking the intensity of our jam-packed days in Mindanao that kept me on my toes the entire time I was there. I’ve multiple times found myself walking in downtown Monterey or sitting at home, and I will lose myself thinking about a particular meeting or person I spoke with, to the point that I forget what I’m doing or where I’m going.  I think mentally I didn’t process everything that we had seen and heard in terms of the conflict, nor had I even processed all of the daily cultural differences between the Philippines and the US.

The first example that comes to mind is about the bananas. On a daily basis, I ate at least one or two bananas of various types—big, little, green, yellow, boiled, candied— and coming back to the US I’ve had a pretty strong aversion to the fruit that was previously one of my favorites.

Bananas for sale at a local market in a village outside Cagayan de Oro.

Bananas for sale at a local market in a village outside Cagayan de Oro.

Also, after spending two and a half straight weeks in 95°F weather sweating half my body weight, I came back to Monterey where the average temperature has wavered between 45°F and 60°F, and I spent the first two weeks here wearing at least two more layers than everybody else.  Lastly, in the Philippines, the terms “sir” and “ma’am” are used in almost epidemic quantities. On maybe my third or fourth day there, I started to pick up the convention in my attempts to be polite, and then I accidentally brought the habit home.  The word “sir” was no big deal, but I was definitely received with raised eyebrows upon calling a couple of women “ma’am” when I was clearly not trying to be facetious.

All of these are such small details but they overwhelmed me as I was trying to fit back into my life of classes, work and California. There are some parts I miss, others I don’t, but either way I certainly felt the impact of traveling halfway around the world and back in a matter of three weeks, and I’m feeling relieved in having passed through the transition phrase without too many bumps.