Interview with Joeven Reyes, Director at Sulong CARHRIHL
Following years of conflict, the Government of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front – Philippines (NDFP) have been working on establishing channels for peace negotiations over the last two decades. The New Peoples Army (NPA) has since 1969 been fighting a Maoist, nationalist and anti-imperialist revolution. Attempts to negotiate an end to the communist insurgency (represented by the NDFP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army), have been on and off for almost 30 years.
In 1992, all parties agreed to a four-point negotiation agenda; in 1998 they settled the first point on human rights and international humanitarian law. Whilst these peace efforts have not resulted in a final agreement in the recent years, both sides currently seem willing to consider the resumption of peace talks.
Can you tell us a little bit about Sulong CARHRIHL’s role in the peace process?
Our role as a civil society organisation is two fold – the first being the engaging of the civil society and civil society organisations, especially communities and local actors affected by the armed conflict. The second is that we are continually arranging dialogues and engagements with the Government, and the NDFP in pushing for the peace talks between the two of them.
We are also providing a space for possible engagements of civil society groups and the negotiating panels, because the peace negotiations have always been high level, so there isn’t really a place at the table for the communities.
They do not have that connection or a direct dialogue with the panel, so there’s this big gap between what is happening at the negotiating table and what is happening on the ground. This is where we come in.
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Can you expand on what you can do to get these communities heard?
In an effort to getting the communities heard, we started working closely with our network members. Since most of our network members are situated in conflict-affected areas, it was an obvious choice to start from there. Now we are focussing also on territorial cluster formations because we want to help our partners to create a support system from within themselves, within the communities.
This is important because Sulong CARHRIHL as a national organisation will not always be there, so this is especially relevant with immediate situations when encounters are happening on the ground.
We are now also providing study sessions to have deeper discussions on the major agreements and on the substantive issues of the peace process.
Lastly, we are trying to develop and strengthen the capacity of our partners in responding to situations of military encounters and responding to human rights and international humanitarian law violations as expressed in the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (CARHRIHL) as an agreement.
For instance, we are going to have an upcoming island-wide training and monitoring on action response. But this time, it is not just focusing on fact finding missions and providing immediate assistance – now we will focus more on para-legal and psychosocial first aid, and we’re also partnering with the Philippine National Red Cross in responding to immediate situations of military encounters.
What can you tell us about the effects of the conflicts on women, indigenous people (IP) and youths?
Of course, the impacts of the conflict and the effects have been intense, particularly for IPs. For one, this is because conflict activities – mainly military activities – have always been conducted in far-flung and remote areas, and it is usually in these areas where the indigenous people’s communities live.
This is where their ancestral domains are. So, the magnitude of their effects is one of the key results of the conflict analysis done as part of the Capacities for Peace Project (C4P).
As you can imagine, it was a real challenge when we had the C4P training because it really opened many people’s understanding of the conflict dynamics, and made them consider taking a less violent path of going into dialogues. We encouraged people to really engage with each other, rather than arming themselves.
The arms struggle has been affecting almost all parts of people’s lives – on a political, economical, social and cultural level, and of course security wise – but this has been true for women in particular.
In the Davao region, women are forced to leave their homes to protect themselves, especially younger women. They go to cities such as Manila and seek jobs, but it then turns out that they will be forced into prostitution.
Recently, we have had cases of gender-based violence, particularly rape cases. This is quite alarming for Sulong CARHIHL because this has not been happening in the past years, so we ask: how come it is happening now? We know this has happened in the other regions, but knowing our culture as Filipinos, many of the women tend to be silent about it, especially the IPs.
This is because they have a culture where, when you have been the victim of violence, and particularly rape, you will be ostracised from your community, from your family, and the next generations of the victim will also be ostracised too. For instance, we have this person who is a very successful lawyer, but the community won’t accept her because her grandmother was a victim of rape a long, long time ago.
With regards to the IPs, they are caught up in another conflict: while the Government recruits them to become part of para-military groups, armed groups recruit them to join the New People’s Army. Whenever military encounters are happening, it is the IPs who are on the front line.
There are members of the same family who find themselves in the front line, cousins, uncles, killing each other - not because they want to, but because they were recruited by the opposing sides. In addition, the IPs have always been driven away from their ancestral land, which is the reason why some of the IPs have taken to more extreme solutions, like arming themselves.
Lastly, what messages do you have for people like you who are working for peacebuilding in their region?
A message - that’s hard, that’s the hardest part!
I think one important thing is to really be open about possibilities. Although now it seems that there are less opportunities for both parties to open up talking to each other, one never knows about the possibilities. One needs to look for challenges that could help build capacity. Write them down! Find the right formula for really engaging both parties, because I think innovative ways are just around the corner. We might not be able to see them for now, but they are there, waiting.
One needs to remain on top and really support an engaging dialogue. That’s very, very important.