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Philippines and
Colombia: Their conflicts and their efforts towards peace
Colombia and the Philippines have so much in common. Apart from being Spanish colonies in the past, having a presidential system and with newly installed presidents, both have strong varied ethnic and linguistic peoples and communities but with centralized governments. Furthermore, both countries have long histories of internal violent conflicts characterized by strong inequity, unequal distribution of land, discrimination of indigenous peoples, lack of institutional development set up by the state, militarization and the presence of diversified armed groups as well. No doubt that both countries have made efforts in peace negotiations with rebel groups, set up government peace panels and have let the international community play roles, though in varied levels and intensity. These are among the shared general concerns observed and learned by a Philippine delegation composed of 10 people who went to Colombia for a weeklong study or exposure from June 6 to 13, 2010. The delegation is on a Peace Practitioners’ Exchange Program which was crafted by non-government institutions both from Colombia and Philippines and supported by a London-based organization, Conciliation Resources, that serves as an international institution looking at peace negotiations and processes and promoting conflict resolutions and other peacebuilding initiatives in various countries.
This program aims to improve peace practices through sharing and learning between peace initiatives from the Philippines and Colombia. This venue serves to provide peace practitioners the opportunity of research and learning from peers in a different country with common challenges. It has three parts. The first was when the Philippine delegation went to Colombia. The second part is the Colombian delegation’s turn to come to the Philippines, which is about to close as of this writing. The third will be the production of the outputs of the whole delegation after having been to the other country. At the onset, each delegate has identified a specific research theme she or he wanted to focus on during and after the visit – land issues, human rights, peace negotiations, security, civil peace society groupings and the like. The Filipino delegation has acknowledged that in both countries, civil society organizations are strong and dynamic yet diverse but play special and crucial roles in peacebuilding, conflict resolution and peace negotiations. While they concede to this, the peace movement in the Philippines has more democratic space to advocate and influence key stakeholders to push for social, economic and political changes as well as promote for peacebuilding approaches. Though there has been exhaustion for some time brought about by the frustrations in the negotiations in the past administrations, the new Aquino Presidency somehow brings a positive look in the continuation of the peace talks with a newly designated head of the government negotiating team from the academe and civil society. In Colombia, there was a long lull of formal peace talks between the Uribe government (since it came to power in 2002) and the rebel groups. His government has been winning in marginalizing the rebels in far-flung areas and in dividing public views to sympathize with the government. Civil society groups have been frustrated in this situation given too that the Armed Forces of Colombia has been very militaristic in dealing with the people in general and with activists in particular. Both the armed forces of the government and the rebel armed groups are not abiding by the International Humanitarian Law. Colombia is globally known for its abductions, extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances and torture.
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Helping Build Empowered and Sustainable Communities in Mindanao. Helping Build Peace.