Have
CSOs in Mindanao reduced themselves to being cheering squads for the GRP-MILF
in their talks?
Before
answering that question, let me say that I am sharing this reflection as I am
also part of Civil Society, defined by Wikipedia as “…
the aggregate of non-governmental organizations and
institutions that manifest interests and will of citizens. Civil Society includes the family and
the private sphere, referred to as the "third sector" of society, distinct
from government and business…”
Thus,
whatever I say here is not plucked from thin air, but based on personal
experience. I may interchange CSO, NGO,
international organizations, to mean one and the same in this article. There are things we are uncomfortable doing as
individuals but are compelled to do collectively within the NGO culture. It may or may not be applicable to some; but
then again, real and true only from my own perspective. It may strike sensitivities; but I believe
that only sincere introspection would straighten this evolving reputation of
CSOs, on whether we “manifest the interest and will of citizens".
Whatever
is factually incorrect in this article is solely my responsibility.
Where
we are – Conflict Affected Mindanao or CAM (to separate us from the rest of the
island that did not experience the types of wars we went through), NGOs have
mushroomed to a thick alphabet soup after the signing of the GRP-MNLF Final
Peace Agreement in 1996. That time it was still considered scandalous to spend money on car rental where the
same amount could have already built a small house for one bakwit family.
Donor
money required local partners to be able to implement projects. There was a mad rush to form cooperatives without necessarily cooperating. Suppliers and service providers were screened
supposed to be for best value at lowest cost.
Track records were retrofitted to suit donor requirements. Insiders saw the opportunity to incorporate
some business entity overnight. Capacity
building took the form of being able to package oneself professionally rather
than the capacity to build desired, long-lasting outcomes. The uncomfortable term was “donor-driven
advocacy”, where as long as one is adept at using technical terms like
proposal, outputs, outcomes, commitment, challenges, strategic planning, graphically describing how conflict-ridden is
a place, putting in figures whose only modicum of truth is that it was provided
by local government units – funding is assured.
But
by what standards should CSOs be measured up in their respective advocacies,
mandates, vision, mission, goals and objectives? (The immediate thing that comes to mind is
the Culture of Peace Framework of Dr Toh Swee Hin. Dr Toh introduced Peace Education to the
Philippines in the 80s; and since Notre Dame University saw the horrors of the
70s war, it was the only taker then).
Promotion
of the Culture of Peace was also a major component of the SPCPD-NEDA-UN-MDP
(which became GRP-UN-MDP
and then ACTFORPEACE
or
A4P). A handful of peace-building
frameworks were also tried by others but as to what was the most effective among
these there should be good documentation somewhere.
It
seems like everybody was in a hurry to let both combatants and victims go from
arms to farms, bala to pala, bullets to ballots, be good business managers, politicians, effective organizers, entrepreneurs,
institution-builders, birth-spacers, peace-builders – within a time frame
shorter than what the war itself took.
In
between, there were still wars, smaller ones.
This time it was mostly between the GPH
(from
GRP it became GoP then GPH) and the MILF and its spin-off, the BIFF. While many among us have become experts in mouthing
peace slogans, there was still a huge disconnect between the peace as
envisioned compared with what was happening.
The peace process is often used as an excuse not to implement laws
against narco-politics, gun proliferation, bad governance or the lack of it,
logging, mining, smuggling, etc.
As
there has been no war the scale of the foiled 2008 MOA-AD, there is an
uncomfortable acceptance that, yeah, maybe this is peace.
But:
hasn’t it also been said that peace is not just the absence of war? While Culture of Peace and Peace-building
have become buzzwords for a time within the development circles, it seems it
has become a very rare word these days. Maybe
it has become boring.
To
compare with Dr Toh’s Peace Framework:
1.
Dismantling the Culture of War;
2.
Living with Compassion and Justice
3.
Promoting Human Rights and Responsibility
4.
Living in Harmony with the Earth
5.
Building Cultural Respect, reconciliation and
solidarity
6.
Nurturing inner peace
Dismantling the Culture of War. Offhand, one aspect that CSOs can be
commended for being successful at is promoting the mantra of NO TO WAR. Everybody hated war so much it had to
stop. Everyone seems to be tired of war:
rebel, soldier, victim, survivor, humanitarian worker, bystander. Even children paraded (or were made to
parade?) bringing placards. Maybe the
only ones who are disappointed that the war stopped are those who cashed in on
donor money intended to help the victims.
Living with Compassion and
Justice. There
seems to be one NGO each for any sector, for any cause. NGOs for women, for children, for the youth,
the elderly. (Wait: Since the family is
the basic unit of society, are there NGOs focusing on families?) They are
vulnerable groups and they need special protection and attention. But through the years Conflict-Affected
Mindanao (CAM) has been through this cycle, were studies ever conducted on the
levels of self-esteem of war-affected individuals, much less their
psychological and mental health? Psychosocial
interventions sound sexy, but what is it really?
In
the early years of rebuilding from war, I got my first thought-provoking
comment from a combatant: “You (foreign agencies) just come here with your
bottled water.”
While
cries for justice are common, compassion is almost not discussed: Compassion is
feeling for the other, being one with the other. How can one indeed, while helping a
war-ravaged community build say, a water system, brandish innocently, bottled
water? How can one discuss food security
to a community and splurges on the latest foodie craze upon returning to the
city? Can communities really warm up to NGO
workers who visit them in fancy cars and yes, fancy outdoorsy clothing
and gadgets?
Promoting Human Rights and
Responsibility. CAM is beset with
violations, human rights and more. But
surprisingly, documentation of violations of the rights of indigenous peoples
seems to be on the radar of CSOs only very recently. Forgive
the bias, but I just knew about IP issues in Maguindanao only at the time I got
involved with them -- just this couple of years. Everybody was just
too busy making itself visible to the next big donor only a few souls saw the
need to bring to the arena this group whose issues were always shoved under the
rug because they did not have guns to catch attention.
Living in Harmony with the Earth. Consumerism is an environmental issue. Never in the history of CAM had business been
brisker hereabouts. Rarely can you now
find trainings conducted by CSOs that do not involve at least two snacks and
one meal per day. These heavy meals have
to have soft drinks or flowing coffee and all together cost more if catered
than bought straight out of a store. And
yes, those disposable cups and styro boxes, plastic straws, spoons and forks;
plastic folders and ID cases; kits that accumulate thru months and years of
rehashed seminars & workshops.
Hotels, restaurants and catering services are flourishing it’s a wonder
that conflict actually continues to be the
motivation for aid, er, investment.
Rarely can you now find workshops or trainings where participants bring their own
ballpens and baon, thanks to NGO
culture. Talk about self-reliance.
(Let
me digress a little. There was light
talk among colleagues shortly before the CAB was signed. The exchange goes something like this, “Of
course, other cities will support the CAB.
Don’t you notice that after the GRP-MNLF Peace Agreement was signed,
that was also the time Davao, Gensan, Marbel and Cagayan de Oro boomed? Donor
money did not circulate much here in Cotabato City. People from here preferred to have their
seminars there so that they can go site-seeing, shopping afterwards; and if
they’re male, be educated on how red-light districts operate!”)
While
some CSOs advocate for environmental protection, there’s not much they can do
with conflicting national and local policies towards granting mining &
logging permits to big companies; a government as primary endorser of chemical
inputs and seeds that can’t produce its next generation; and the welcoming of
bananas and African palm to maximize cheap labor from unschooled constituents.
Building Cultural Respect,
reconciliation and solidarity.
A fellow worker from one NGO texted me: “Settlers should just leave it
to the Maguindanaons and the Teduray, Lambangian and Dulangan Manobo to settle
their conflicts within themselves.”
It came as a surprise as I never thought being a settler is
actually an issue against giving assistance towards the marginalized.
So I asked: “Does your suggestion also apply to other CSOs/NGOs whose
staff are settlers helping in the conflict-affected areas of Maguindanao?”
Let
me just leave the long exchange at that.
I
thought: what should the Maguindanaons get that the Lumads are not entitled to in
this whole context of CSOs providing support to the marginalized, the
vulnerable and the weak? What purpose
then, would CSOs have if they do not represent the marginalized, the vulnerable
and the weak? Had the Maguindanaons really
helped the Lumads in their vulnerable state, would the latter have asked for help
from outside? Going further, had the
MNLF or the MILF resolved its conflict with the government, would it have asked
help from third country facilitators?
And so on and so forth.
IPDEV
made an assessment of the NGOs/CSOs assisting the Lumads or non-Moro IPs in the
ARMM (80 bgys in Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur). There are those who claim to be tri-people;
but gravitate towards assisting mostly the Muslims and the Christians. Only one is purposely for the Lumads. Not to put fault on these NGOs, but maybe
that’s just the way things are: the dominant culture always surfaces. But the discussion is evolving – a
realization that there are not only three peoples in Mindanao.
Nurturing inner peace. What if CSOs teach and practice that if a
person is at peace with himself, the world would be one unpeaceful person
less? CSOs are no different from any
other social grouping. They too have
their share of office dynamics, organizational cultures and sub-cultures,
intra- and inter-organizational friction, personal and relationship struggles, credit
and billing concerns that tarpaulins now compete with epals, transparency and accountability issues.
Why are CSOs putting labels on
each other if they don’t agree with each other’s ideas? Calling each other spoilers, evil whisperers,
traitors, etc? With the internet and virtual
warriors on Facebook, labeling and name-calling has multiplied exponentially over time.
It is said that in peace, the
process is as important as the goal. Does unpeaceful language really have a
place in a peace process? Did their Culture of Peace or lessons on
Peacebuilding fly off the window if we CSOs got any at all?
This language, this war of words –
belie our causes.
October 2012 and March 2014. The
Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) and the Comprehensive Agreement on
the Bangsamoro (CAB) respectively, are signed.
Nobody was quite prepared, aside from the peace panels, on this major
development in the peace talks.
I
still maintain that no amount of consultations will promote understanding on
what is going on. Consultations,
roadshows, caravans have become a one way traffic of disseminating information it doesn't look any different from an election campaign. Aren’t these just good excuses to spend money? Better than spending it on war, so they
say.
On
second thought, had combatants been sent back to school or given some catch-up
educational program to resume what they have left off when they joined the
revolution, would they have been PhDs, Doctors, Engineers, Scientists, Managers
etc many times over by now, after 17 years?
Had the money spent on checklists of trainings (menu-type choices) been
spent instead on elementary schools (okay, basic education – Reading, wRiting,
aRithmetic), shouldn’t it have been less difficult now to explain concepts like
power sharing, wealth sharing, transitional mechanism, demobilization,
self-determination, self-reliance, dignity of honest labor, industriousness –
that whole spectrum of values because they know how to read and write in
English, Filipino and their mother tongue?
Some
CSOs are aggressively campaigning for people to say YES to the Bangsamoro Basic
Law. No problem. But do they really expect results without people really understanding the issue in the first place? Saying yes without
understanding just to please both panels? That’s not very democratic – that’s
coercion. This way CSOs lose their
independence towards being the arbiter, the neutral ground, ensuring that both
sides are true to their word.
And
oh, by the way, people in the CAM are not only composed of the GPH and MILF. By being cheering squads only to the two
panels, we CSOs have failed to “manifest the interest and will of
citizens" and lost the opportunities to bring the other affected peoples
to the peace side of the fence.
Sayang.
*
* * * *
Cotabato
City
2
May 2014
Aveen Acuña-Gulo has worked with the United
Nations under different programs since 1998 (IOM, UN-MDP, UN Volunteers,
UN-World Food Programme). She is
currently the Project Manager of IPDEV, a three-year EU-assisted project for the
recognition and empowerment of indigenous peoples in the ARMM. IPDEV is
implemented by the consortium of Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Institute for
Autonomy and Governance and Development Consultants. The views expressed
here are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the EU, KAS,
IAG and DEVCON.
She wrote a column “The Voice” for the Mindanao Cross from 1991-2006. She likes to challenge stereotypes.
“Don’t worry about my opinions,” she says. “It won’t make a dent to the conventional."
