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Peace Journeys: A Personal Appreciation

A review of the Balay Mindanaw publication, “Peace Journeys” by Edicio dela Torre
A review of the Balay Mindanaw publication, “Peace Journeys” by Edicio dela Torre

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“Journey” is a key word in the vocabulary of Balay Mindanaw and Kaloy Manlupig. It is an apt title for this collection of peace building stories in Mindanao.

We can apply to peace building the aphorism that “success is not a destination, but a journey.” Especially in Mindanao, it is difficult to say when PEACE, in big capital letters, will finally be achieved through the grand highway of peace talks and peace agreements among the principal parties. But these inspiring stories of peace building tell us that there are many paths to peace, and more important, that there are more and more companions who are joining the journey.

It has been more than a decade since I first got to know Balay Mindanaw’s work. I was introduced to its “Trinitarian” vision of Kaangayan, Kalambuan, Kalinaw. Equity, Development, and Peace.

In fact, a double Trinitarian vision, since the second part is “Sa Mindanaw, sa Pilipinas, sa Kalibutan.”Read More »Peace Journeys: A Personal Appreciation

Terminated Peace Talks, Intensified Armed Conflict: What is to be done?

Terminated Peace Talks, Intensified Armed Conflict: What is to be done?[1]

By Soliman M. Santos, Jr.

Naga City, 27 May 2013

(On the 55th birth anniversary of the late Jesse M. Robredo)

For all intents and purposes, the peace negotiations between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), as we have known it over the years since 1992, have effectively come to an end, at least under the current Aquino administration which still has three years left in its term. Well, that is just as well. Late last year, I had already personally gone on record through a 10-page article saying that it was better to just drop the charade of peace talks that were going nowhere due to their extremely tactical dynamics.[2] In the ensuing blame game that is still part of those counter-productive dynamics, the GPH is being blamed by the NDFP for unceremoniously terminating the talks purportedly to seek a “new approach” thereto. But under the circumstances, the GPH can be given some credit for this bold, if belated, move of dropping the charade even at the propaganda/public image risk of being blamed as responsible for terminating the talks.

But really, this peace process should no longer, even if it still could, continue to be conducted “in the old way” (to use revolutionary situation phraseology) that has made it a process of “perpetual division between the Parties.” The test of the pudding is in the eating, and the taste of the pudding has for the most part been bitter, sour and stale. A break or real vacation from this status of belligerency (or strategic stalemate), as it were, in negotiations should prove salutary in the medium to long term, if it becomes an occasion for all concerned to take serious pause and rethink things.Read More »Terminated Peace Talks, Intensified Armed Conflict: What is to be done?