WAGING PEACE 2005 brought together peace advocates from different parts of the country engaged in the major peace processes involving the National Democratic Front, (NDF), the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), and the forces in the Cordilleras. 5 15 Read more…

This book is a collection of essays on peace and politics for concerned citizens and peace advocates undergoing challenges in this century. The essays address the obstacles of the people who aim to make a difference in this period. The book touches on relevant issues such as the reality of conflicts and possibilities of change in different parts of the globe. It also includes issues on human rights and militarization.

This book is a gathering of essays on conflicts and change. The author collected these essays as a reflective reading for further equipping Filipinos especially the youth and individuals engaged in peace- building. The first section explores approaches in understanding conflict and change in today's world while in the succeeding section, the book looks into local and international peacemakers working in areas such as the Central America and South Africa for a sustainable peace. In the last section, the book focuses on Southeast Asia with a different approach employed so as to transform the conflict situation.

This book holds the story of a great man's long journey fighting dictatorship for a "democratic space." The book was inspired from Gasty's diary during his first four months of his backdoor exit in early in 1980 as a fugitive from the martial law justice. Friends, colleagues, allies acquaintances and kin contributed story of their memories of Gasty from his childhood till death. Thus the book is an aide memoire of a man's life lived struggling for our nation for the future.

This book began for me at the wake of Senator Lorenzo M. Tañada in the summer of 1992.  Having paid my respects to the Grand Original, I was just leaving when Lita D. Ortigas sprang up from the shadows and engaged me in conversation.  As we shared her first pangs of widowhood, inevitably moving on to Gasty memories, she suddenly asked whether I’d be interested in turning his diary into a book.  We were both in a mood of loss for ourselves and the country.  It seemed a fortuitous time and place to be asked this.

Paulyn Sicam, also a friend of Gasty, had already begun interviews with his family, UPSCA contemporaries, younger colleagues and staff at AIM.  The original plan was a collaboration between her and Gasty’s closest “disciple,” AIM professor Eduardo Morato, Jr. Meiling’s sudden shift from the Chronicle to the Commission on Human Rights on top of Ed’s heavy loads at AIM plus a slew of NGO and government consultancies had by then kept the project at a standstill.

They had initially intended to “annotate”  Gasty’s autobiographical diary, scribbled in his fine hand during the first four months of his backdoor exit in early 1980.  Reading this diary, I relived Gasty’s journey as a fugitive from martial law justice.  Shedding not a few tears as I read sealed a commitment to see the book, a book, to print.  Not only were the roots of Gasty’s  lifelong odyssey well worth contemplating, their fruits had already begun rippling significantly through the Philippines’ transition from dictatorship to “democratic space.”

But the diary broke off sharply upon Gasty’s arrival at the San Francisco airport in June 1980.  I had a “technical problem’ on my hands – how to do full justice to the whole journey of his life in the significant historical period in which it climaxed and ended?  A playful solution emerged – why not a “duet”  between this Master and his posthumous student?  Gasty could tell his own story in this trademark succinctness from Chapters 2 to 8, as I tried my darndest to set it in its historical context from 1980 to 1990 in Chapters 1, 10 to 13.

All this took a year in library research over a hundred interviews with friends colleagues, allies, acquaintances, and kin from childhood t death.  Gasty knew an awful lot of people, all with fems to contribute, Lita his sensitive, articulate grieving wife, and Teresa Ortigas, his incomparable mother were my steady guides into this man’s life story.

They also reviewed draft chapters with some of his AIM colleagues and closest NGO allies.  In this and more ways this is their book, too.  Our common hope is that “A Revolutionary Odyssey” will be a permanent reminder of Gasty Ortigas’ enduring value to humanity – an essential part of which was his irreplaceable gift of revealing a people’s greatness to themselves.

This book is the product of a gathering of citizen peacemakers held in the Philippines in 1993 wherein papers and presentations that discusses concrete approaches in bringing about peace in countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Europe, were laid down for round table discussions. The book also emphasized the role of healing and reconciliation in every post-war societies. Lastly, this book rounds out the final statement drafted by the International Colloquium on Peacemaking.

This is an issue paper prepared for the National Steering Committee for the National Preparatory Conference of Philippine NGOs on women and development. It addresses that peace does not only mean the absence of war. The paper refers peace in two aspects; the case of negative peace and positive peace. The paper elaborates women as victims of war, the role of women in peacemaking in the Philippines and the alternative perspective for peace. The paper enumerates the feminist agenda for peace.

This book is a compiled summary of events and policies significant to the settlement to the communist insurgency. A collaborative efforts of the following organizations: Coalition for Peace; Education for Life Foundation; Gaston Z. Ortigas Peace Institute; Institute for Popular Democracy; Mennonite Central Committee- Philippines; National Council of Churches in the Philippines; Leandro L. Alejandro Foundation; National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace; Peace Studies Institute, Philippines; and Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement.

The current national peace process began with the ouster of  President Ferdinand Marcos in the February 1986 popular uprising.  Corazon C. Aquino, who assumed the presidency of a divided nation, needed to consolidate her tenuous hold on power.  The incoming administration had inherited an economy devastated by strongman rule and marked by crippling dependence on foreign aid and investments.

This situation brought to focus the need to address the indigenous communist movement, which thrived especially in the Philippine country-side.  According to military estimates, the communist led New People’s Army (NPA) had 23,200 regulars and operated in 65 out of the country’s 74 provinces.

Among Aquino’s first official acts was to call for a ceasefire and negotiations between her government and rebel forces.  Aquino’s peace talk offer to the communists was an implicit recognition that the cooperation of the underground group was necessary to achieve the goals of national reconciliation and reconstruction.

The unprecedented talks between the government and the communist-led National Democratic Front (NDF), which began in May 1986, broke down in January 1987.  Since then, armed confrontations have resumed.

Nevertheless, the first attempt at negotiating a settlement to the communist insurgency left an indelible mark in the country’s political processes.  Several initiatives were taken to find a just and peaceful solution to the 24-year old armed conflict.  These efforts were made not only by the key protagonists䀬 but mainly by “third-party” non-governmental organizations and institutions.  While such efforts have so far been unsuccessful, popular pressure from these third parties at different levels has repeatedly prevailed on both camps to keep the peaceful option alive.

In 1992, newly elected President Fidel V. Ramos, Aquino’s former defense secretary, vowed to heal the nation’s wounds through national reconciliation.  This posture led to a flurry of efforts to once more lay the groundwork for negotiations between the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)-NDF and the government.”  The Hague Declaration,” signed by government and NDF representatives in The Netherlands in August 1992, committed both parties to peace talks and represented a major breakthrough.

This Summary of Events provides a consolidated review of events and policies significant to the process of negotiating a political settlement to the communist insurgency.  It begins with the installation of the Aquino presidency in February 1986 and ends in the early months of the Ramos Administration in December 1992.

This succinct review presents a third-party approach to the peace question.  It aims to provide information to peace advocates, researchers and other concerned parties of different political and theoretical persuasions.  By documenting and tracing the unfolding peace process in the Philippines, it hopes to help identify opportunities and problems in the pursuit of the objectives of a just and negotiated peace.

This book also lists initiatives undertaken by private groups other than the parties in direct, armed conflict.  For purposes of the book, we have generally termed these groups as the “third parties.”  The third section contains a general chronological listing of major events from 1986 to the fourth quarter of 1992 affecting the peace process.

This publication documents the two-part Public Forum organized by the Gaston Z. Ortigas Peace Institute held on 2 June 1995 wherein a group of women from diverse conflict areas gathered together to share each experience in achieving their ultimate goal. 

It has been an honor for Gaston Z. Ortigas Peace Institute to have served as the convenor of the International Consultation of Women as Peacemakers:  Towards Beijing and Beyond.  We have been truly privileged to have had the awesome  and enriching experience of having brought together women peacemakers from diverse conflict areas of the world to share experiences and to explore together the gender-based dimensions of peacemaking and conflict resolution towards the formulation of the common framework and agenda on women and peace.

Why a Consultation on Women as Peacemakers?

There were three sources of impetus that made this consultation both necessary and possible.  The first was the event of almost two years ago, of the International Colloquium on Peacemaking (that Ed Garcia earlier referred to ) where for the first time in the Philippines, and perhaps in the world, gathered men and women citizen peacemakers from countries wracked by protracted political social and ethnic conflicts.  Seven, or about a third of this group, were women.

In the lively and often intense and passionate exchanges that took place during that meeting, the voices and perspectives of the women peacemakers were very strongly articulated.  They raised questions about the gender dimensions of both war and peacemaking.  These women lamented the reality that men dominated the key decision-making processes and structures that determined the outcomes of the waging of both war and peace despite the important roles and contributions assumed by women to build the national groundswell  and capacity for peace.  They more bravely explored the questions and dilemmas arising from post conflict settlement phase when former enemies and protagonists in violent encounters needed to share a common platform and to forge a common agenda, requiring  difficult process of forgiveness and healing.  The women participants were more ready and willing than their male counterparts to bring the discussion to personal levels, both around the conference table and during break time, as they were not ashamed to reveal the pain, the questions, the tears arising from war but also their joy in getting to know each other and in bonding together.

Past, Present and Future Sources of Impetus

It was out of this experience that the resolution emerged “to harness the effective work done by women peace advocates in different parts of the globe.”

The second impetus arose from the upcoming Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing ’95, that has been generating unmatched energies and excitement among women from all parts of the world as an opportunity to reassess our situation and revitalize our strategies for action.  It was important to contribute to a strengthened call in Beijing towards the increase commitment of all nations and institutions to peacemaking and the promotion of women’s participation in all peace processes: local, national, and international.

These two events, one pushing us from the past and the other beckoning us towards the future, set the stage for the holding of this international consultation.  And still, I think for many of us who have spent the last days together here, as well as for others who could not leave home for reasons of work and family demands, there was a third driving force for making this meeting happen.  I think that we were all also responding to a deeply felt personal imperative to move towards greater wholeness and personal empowerment for peace, feeling a personal need to bring the different threads of our life together, being women, being peacemakers; to face and grapple with our  internal demons and dilemmas, waging peace in situations that sometimes seemed just crazy with war; to claim our right to personal nurturing, strengthening and care in the light of our persistence in maintaining the integrity of the personal and the political in our life.

Four Days of Charting a Path to Peace

And so the consultation has come to pass after a difficult process of gestation and preparation.  The first four days of the consultation were spent in a closed circle of discussion and shared reflection, with the first two days given to a sharing through regional panels on our diverse histories of violent conflict and peacemaking.  From our sharing on what women were going through in our different countries, we tried in the next two days to explore our questions and our proposals to understand how women can more effectively chart and pursue a path to peace that will really make a difference for all the peoples of the world.  Always we sought to root our discussions in our concrete situations and experiences waging peace on the ground.

Still, in faithfulness to our personal imperative, we nourished ourselves and built sisterhood not only over the extended  discussions over the conference table but also in the spaces that were there for informal sharing and conversation between and after sessions, in the adoption and learning of some Filipino NGO home-grown rituals for marking consensus – Isang bagsak! – as well as for mid session energizing and in a wildly successful “city tour” that brought the discourse out to the middle of the city.

Fifth Day: A Broadened Exchange on Women and Peace

Today, on our final day, we have organized this two-part public forum to enable broadened encounter and exchange with the wider public and constituency for peace.  The morning session provides the space for each of our international participants to  give their message on women and peace coming from their distinct situations.  After their individual addresses, we will be presenting he consultation statement.  The Women Peacemakers’ Manila Declaration which was adopted after nine o’clock last night and a starting list of some of our planned actions.

During the afternoon session we would like to give more time to furthering the discussion and exploration of the relationship between gender and peace.  Three of us will initiate the forum with our reflections on whether or not gender has made a difference in the waging of war and peace in our respective countries.  It is our hope that these initial presentation will spark a lively discussion that will be joined in by al of us here.

The second part of our public forum or afternoon session constitutes the first of a series of four for a or discussions which GZO-PI will be organizing on a quarterly basis until mid-1996 around the general theme of Culture, Violence and Peacemaking.  After this forum on gender and peace, the other three for a will tackle the issues of ethnicity, religion and identified community organizing framework, as they apply in the Philippines.  We hope you will be joining us for these other three for a as well.

This book is a collection of Eulogies and Homilies for Gasty Ortigas, a man who puts every small man on the pedestal. On the last part of this book are published articles by Gasty Z. Ortigas as part of remembering.

Dawn Over Darkness is a continuing dialogue with the people engaged in the creation of paths to peace in the Philippines. Hopefully, it will provoke further questions.  I trust that it will result in a better understanding of the obstacles to peace and a deeper commitment to improve the lives of the majority who are powerless and poor. In the hands of those who work for peace and justice, it may be a tool for more effective peacemaking. 

When the ceasefire broke down and the peace talks were called off in February 1987, most Filipino were disheartened.  The guns which exchanged fire for seventeen years had been stilled for merely sixty days.  Most Filipinos, in fact who had yearned for a just and lasting peace were saddened.  They had hope that problems dealing with the roots of the conflict would be discussed around the negotiating  table until an acceptable solution was reached.  Setting deep-seated differences by force of armed might had transformed town and countryside into fields of battle.

Ordinary citizens and members of people’s organizations who had gathered in movements like the Coalition for Peace realized that if a durable peace were to be achieved then it had to mobilize people to articulate their aspirations for such an objective.  They also recognized the need to forge more imaginative and creative forms of struggle.  For a people who had grown weary of bearing the brunt of war, it meant continuing to work for justice while embarking on a sustained effort to make the peace process viable.  It was thus essential to build a broad and committed constituency for peace.

Even before the imposition of martial law in the seventies a number had already been involved in advancing causes which were critical factors in the peace process: agrarian reform workers’ participation, human rights and civil liberties and national sovereignty.  A growing number had also opposed the presence of nuclear weapons and foreign military facilities in Philippines territory which were perceived as both provocative and unsettling.

After the fall of the dictator, the efforts to promote a comprehensive peace took on a more immediate relevance.  As democratic institutions were being established, many realized that it was equally important to create the conditions for a durable peace such as the respect for human rights, people’s participation, and steps towards social transformation.

There were numerous difficulties, of course.  Obstacles were placed by people on both sides of the barricades.  There were those who wanted to preserve their wealth and privilege at all costs.  Others favored the resolution of the conflict by the force of arms.  Violence and human rights violations continued to be perpetrated while injustice and inequality continued to characterized the daily live of many Filipinos.

Yet necessary steps had to be taken to prevent the further deterioration of the situation and to create conditions favorable to negotiations at a more opportune time.  There were thus exploratory experiences with “peace zones,” people’s peace councils and limited ceasefires during religious festivals in a number of areas.  Serious discussions on the elements of the conflict took place, while approaches to conflict resolution were discussed.  The inevitable  public pressures for peace and justice had emerged to become a force the combatants on different sides had to  contend with.

In December 1988, an International Conference on Conflict Resolution in the Philippines was convened with the collaboration of institutions engaged in the effort to find lasting solutions to social and ethnic conflicts.  International Alert and the International Peace Research Institute of Oslo (PRIO) worked jointly with the Coalition for Peace the Churches the academe the government and diverse sectoral and people’s  organizations that include those in Mindanao and the Cordilleras.  It was in conjunction with this conference that I began work on this present publication.

Dawn Over Darkness has a peculiar history.  It took shape as I reflected on the problems that were encountered during the peace talks and the aftermath of the ceasefire breakdown.  Together with the members of the participants in the peace process, including members of the negotiating panels of both the Government and the National Democratic Front (NDF), members of the military, and the people’s organizations who were involved in the process.

I consulted people who experienced similar situations of armed conflict in period of transition from dictatorial rule in Third World countries.  It was during this time as I did further research that I got in touch with former colleagues in the international human rights movement who now were engaged in efforts to understand and help resolve social and armed conflicts; in particular I met with Martin Ennals of International Alert and Eduardo Mariño who was then with the Human Rights Institute in Oslo, and other peace researchers and practitioners.

The idea of an international conference on conflict resolution in the Philippines then evolved which led to the preparation of a paper for the peace gathering.  With the support of President Jose Abueva of the University of the Philippines and Jimmy Abad, UP Vice President for Academic Affairs, I worked on this project during the summer both at the Department  of Peace and Conflict Research in the University of Oslo which organized a course on peace research at the University of Oslo.

After the Manila conference hosted by Father Noel Vasques of the Ateneo Center for Social Policy and Public Affairs, the project was completed by doing further research and updating the sections on the socio-economic situation and the human rights situation in the country.  They touch on the causes and the consequences of social conflict today.  Colleagues from the Ateneo de Manila University, Benjie Tolosa and Jun Andal Contributed to the reflections on the national economy, while Ed Maranan of the UP Asian Center contributed to the section of human rights.

Enriched by the exchange of view and insights which took place during the international conference, I put together my reflections on an agenda for conflict resolution in the Philippines which is included in the concluding  part of  this work.

Our efforts for peace do not take place in a vacuum or in isolation.  I believed therefore that it was important to reflect on the international conjuncture that somehow manifested and atmosphere conducive to peace.  While peace was breaking out in different part of the world, we seemed to be marching to the beat of another drum, out of tune with the global refrain.  In the book’s epilogue, I share my thought on different developments in the international front.

This modest volume, however would not have seen the lights of day had the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines (AMRSP), the ICM Sisters and the National Secretariat of Social Action, Justice and Peace (NASSA) not encouraged and supported the effort.

Since 1983, the year of Ninoy Aquino’s assassination, I had been requested to provide reflections on current developments in the national situation as a contribution to the annual gathering of the major religious superiors of men and women in the Philippines.  I have found these occasions both instructive an inspiring since one comes in touch with men and women directly involved with social realities.  Oftentimes, their commitment leads them to speak with a prophetic voice on the concerns of the voiceless majority in our midst.

I also had the opportunity during this period to address members of different religious congregations in an attempt to help provide a framework or at least furnish elements for political discernment in eth light of one’s faith.  This endeavor brought me to the houses of different congregations such as the CFIC Franciscan Sisters, the OFM Franciscans, the Sisters of the Holy Spirit the Assumption the Benedictine and the ICM congregations, the La Salletes the Christian Brothers, the Jesuits the Dominicans the Redemptorists, the Columbans and a number of schools which these religious congregations run.

Discussion with priest and lay workers in different dioceses such as Infanta, Quezon, Iloilo, Bacolod, Davao, Naga, Tacloban, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Cavite, and Nueva Ecija, among others  also provide me with insights into different situations which Church people in diverse place faced; experiences which generated ideas for possible responses.

Dawn Over Darkness is a continuing dialogue with people engage in the creation of paths to peace in the Philippines.  It does not pretend to have the final answer.  Hopefully it will provoke further questions.  More importantly, I trust that it will result in a better understanding of the obstacles to peace and a deeper commitment to improve the lives of majority who are powerless and poor.  In the hands of those who work for peace and justice it may be a tool for more effective peacemaking.  The most important thing, ultimately is never to lose hope.  Our people shall live in freedom in justice and peace, just as surely as dawn always overcomes the darkness.

This book tells the story of one man's participation in that effort to draft a constitution responsive to the aspirations of the people. It gives us a glimpse into the thoughts and convictions that guided one of the farmers of the basic charter. 

Helping to draft the fundamental law of the land never figured among the thing I thought I would venture to do in life.  I belonged to the parliament of the streets, participated in civil disobedience campaigns, protested against repressive martial rule, and experienced detention for objecting to unjust laws.  I had spent more than two decades literally on the other side of the barricades.  Moreover, for a man  with no great relish or fervor for parliamentary procedures, working within a constituent assembly was farthest from my mind.

But the events of February 1986 upset the timetable of some and overturned the plans of others.  They derailed the dreams of a despot and toppled the tyranny of his rule.  They brought to power a new leadership borne on the shoulder of the people.  They heralded, or so it seemed, the promise of a new order.  The expectations of the many centered on the possibilities for change: a better life for a greater number.  For parents concerned about the future of their children, the days after February 1986 arrived like dawn after the darkest night.

I still remember the moment when the call to serve in the 1986 Constitutional Commission came.  I was at home quietly reading when I was told that some forty-eight men and women were designated to help draft the new Charter.  I was among those named.  Aware of the awesome responsibility and the difficulties of the task, I felt hesitant.  Nevertheless, I responded to the summons as I realized the singular challenge and recognized a situation that seldom comes in one’s lifetime.

Dismantling a Throne of Bayonets

At the same time, I was acutely aware that drafting a constitution was a necessary political task.  Moreover, if it was to be in any way meaningful, it had to be a collective effort.  I had no doubt from the outset who the major co-authors were in this historic undertaking.  The people made the political upheaval possible;  consequently, they seemed equally destined to author the basic document that could provide the passage from dictatorship to constitutional democracy.  I was merely a voice that would attempt to articulate the aspirations of the many, not the few.

The experience of prolonged martial rule was a national trauma.  It relied on the force of arms rather that the rule of law.  It was a permanent state of siege that rested on a shaky throne of bayonets.  When the dictator fell, the regime’s panoply of emergency legislation, based on the logic armed might and arbitrary rule, was  likewise put into question.  People demanded that it be dismantled and overhauled.

Taking Steps to Resolve Deep Divisions Among Our People

The task of writing the basic Charter thus provided a rare opportunity.  It was possible, at least in theory, to empower the majority of our people who were powerless and poor.  For a long time, the country experienced deep divisions between a few who controlled political power and economic wealth, and a large majority who were deprived of a just share in the rewards of their work and of their right to effectively participate in  decisions which affected their lives.  This was a unique chance to rectify a historical injustice.  But, unless the basic issues were addressed, social unrest would inevitably prevail.

I had no illusions.  The problems we faced as a people were complex and enormous.  It would take more than a political upheaval and a basic document to change the structures of society which had caused social injustice and resulted in economic inequities.  Vital social change takes years, if not generations.  But, at least, a first step could be taken; and the task began.

I sat down in the constituent assembly with clear but modest objectives.  I wanted to participate and respond to the need of the hour by advocating three major issues: democratization, social justice and sovereignty.

Building the Future from the Ruins of the Past

The struggle against martial law taught me the value of human rights.  The doctrine of national security as embraced by the guardians of public order, had been designed to guarantee the security of the State; instead, it resulted in the people’s insecurity.  The civil and political rights of the people were violated with impunity.  The politics of fear prevailed.  The politics of exclusion, but not of participation was the rule, not the exception.  I realized that the passage to constitutional democracy had to be built on the basis of respect for the rights of citizens, particularly their right to organize and to participate.

The majority, in general experienced a limited form of democracy.  A few vied to rule while the many were effectively excluded from their fair share of wealth and power.  They were deprived of their birthright as citizens to determine their own future and of their rightful claim to the fruits of the land.  I recognized that popular participation, people’s organizations and the respect for diverse political beliefs were the essential ingredients for an authentic democracy.

Yet, political democracy cannot survive unless the imperative of social justice is addressed.  A political system built on the rule of the majority cannot exclude that same majority from the rewards of  their work.  The task at hand, I believed was to transform the rewards of economy that bred inequality and deprivation into one that promoted social justice and self-reliance.  Development based on justice, I was convinced, remained a viable formula for a durable peace.

At the same time, decades of political subservience and economic dependence resulted in the loss of self-determination.  The concrete issues of foreign military bases and foreign debt loomed large in the national landscape.  I was certain that the policy of mendicancy which had characterized successive governments had to be transformed into a national policy of dignity and sovereignty.

These were some of the main ideas which I brought to the session halls of the deliberative assembly.  I now bring them together in this volume entitled, Imperfect Document, Unfinished Quest.

Formulating a Common Vision

Before the Commission sat down to begin its work on the draft Charter in the morning of 2 June 1986, I remember gathering a small staff of seven young men and women, most of whom I spent time with in the university campus or in the parliament of the streets, a number of whom shared similar aspirations and the same commitment.

Reminiscent of brain-storming sessions or the “pulong-bahays” we had organized during the period of struggle against the dictatorship, we exchanged thoughts and debated ideas, worked out plans and deliberated on strategy.  We came up with a common stand that somehow summed up what we had fought for in years past.

In a sense, it embodied causes advance or principles pursued since I became political involved in the early sixties.  It became a framework which guided me in determining priority issues that I defended or advocated during the countless sessions that it took the Constitutional Commission to finish its assigned task.

The ideals proclaimed in this draft statement of 2 June 1986, reproduced separately in this book and entitled “ A Filipino Vision: Charting Our Alternative Future”, served as the common vision which inspired this present work.  It is a source of pride for me to say that I worked hard striving to enshrine those aspirations in our basic Charter.

I have to admit, however that the document which eventually emerged from the deliberative body was somehow different from what I or others would have preferred or desired.  This I explained in my final vote on the new Constitution.

Nevertheless, such is the nature of deliberative assemblies where agreements are worked out.  An imperfect document of accommodation is sure to be forged.  This does not mean, though that the struggle ceases.  This in fact is one reason that the quest is unfinished and our endeavors need to be sustained.

Sharing a Personal Testimony

This book neither aims to be a comprehensive commentary on the Charter nor does it aspire to be a legal text.  Constitutionalists like Fr. Joaquin Bernas, SJ Prof. Jose Nolledo and former Sen. Ambrosio Padilla have written commentaries and review primers for students and teachers of law.  Mine is a work with a far more modest goal.

One of the book’s objectives is to share with the readers insights into the political positions I took during the drafting of the Constitution, on issues that I considered most significant.  It is a faithful rendering of some of my contributions to the plenary debates during the deliberations in the constituents assembly.

I did not record in this volume the thoughts  I shared in various committees of the Constitutional Commission of which I was a member.  Moreover, I did not touch extensively on the other equally significant issues like education or the devolution of power to the different regions.  The division of labor among like-minded colleagues gave us an opportunity to concentrate on specialized areas.

The reader may or may not agree with the ideas I have espoused.  What is important is that ideas are freely discussed and political debate  is encouraged.  Where and when the Charter is found wanting, it is my hope that some young reader may find himself or herself sufficiently enraged or so moved that he or she will vow to work to someday improve the provisions that must be amended and to rewrite the lines here recorded.

No Constitution is definitive; neither can it be perfect nor ever final.  Its primary purpose is to define the limits of power.  It establishes the structures of government and specifies its powers.  It guarantees the basic rights of citizens against the excesses of the State or the possible abuse but those in power.

Moreover, it provides the sovereign people the power and the process by which to change that same basic document.  Ultimately, it sit eh people who must put pressure on their leaders to ensure that laws are enforced, rights protected, freedoms upheld, and the interest of the Filipino people at all times defended.

This is surely not the last work on the subject.  It is merely one view articulated within the halls of the Constitutional Commission.  My previous experience as a member of various people’s organizations and as a militant in the parliament of the streets provided a certain vantage point perhaps normally not present in traditional parliamentary debates.  In an authentic democracy, a clash of views and difference in backgrounds are necessary and healthy; in fact, they can be creative.  This I believe.

What I found particularly enriching in the experience of helping to write the Constitution was the exposure to and the exchange with a wide range of constituents who differed not only in regional origins and cultural traditions but also in social classes and political ideologies, languages and religions, personal preferences and approaches and even temperaments.  Such is the diversity of the Philippines; such is our strength as “ a nation of nations”.

Rethinking the Process of Drafting the Charter

It would be worthwhile to rethink the process adopted in drafting the fundamental law of the land.  In my view, the rush to finish a draft document in a record four months and a half probably militated against the elaboration of a charter that was more responsive and relevant to the demands and needs of the majority.

In the first place, amore representative body able to articulate the aspirations of the disadvantage who compose the majority in our society was truly necessary.  Secondly, the draft document, once done, could have been more thoroughly subjected to public scrutiny and debate, and submitted to the people for further deliberations and possible improvement.  It was for these reasons that I found the public hearings and the nationwide education campaign on the Constitution most instructive and inspiring.  The draft document could have been further revised and rewritten by the members of the Commission after they had listened and learned from the people, “chastened” by the experience of democratic exchange.  The final draft may then be submitted to the people for ratification in a plebiscite.  But there were other reasons and better minds which prevailed; and the rest is history.

Discerning an Invitation to Involvement

More than half a century ago, a constituent assembly was convened to draft the 1935 Constitution.  Nearly two decades later Claro M. Recto, one of the leading framers of that historic document wrote; “…Our Constitution, or any constitution for that matter, does not and cannot work miracles.  Its lofty declaration of principles, its wise commands and injunctions are not the open sesame to all the promised treasures of a republican regime, nor a magic formula which by mere fiat  will  restore youth and vigor to a  decrepit polity.  It is an instrument, noble, it is true, in its origin and purpose but a very human thing; and it can only attain validity and dynamism with popular consciousness, faith and militancy.”  Recto added: “…a constitution is only as good as the men who enforce it, and the men who obey it and respect it…”

In another memorable text, Recto wrote: “…the Constitution is not, and should not be an idol under strict taboos.  It is not and should not be , a strait-jacket for the growing and developing nation which it was made to serve.  The Constitution itself outlines the procedures for its own amendment, and is thus expressly devoted to the principle that it is neither inviolable nor permanent, but a working instrument ot secure the general welfare of the people.”

Imperfect Document, Unfinished Quest is a modest undertaking.  It shares with the readers, especially the youth whom I trust will make time to leaf through these pages, an experience both unique and worthwhile.  I hope that reading through this text will prove to be rewarding and fulfilling.

The manuscript deals with the major themes which have become part of my core vision as a Filipino: human rights and popular participation; social justice and sovereignty.  Since the political ideas and the excerpts reproduced in this work now from part of the official proceeding of the 1986 Constitutional Commission, this book may also be read as a historical document, especially by students of politics and law, and observers of the national scene.

This publication may also serve as a political analysis and social critique.  But most of all, this work may perhaps best be appreciated by the patient and sensitive reader who sees between and beyond the lines, and thus discerns in it a personal testimony meant to be an invitation to involvement.

The Sovereign Quest offers us several interesting possibilities that could be studied further, or at least gives us lead to possible other uses of the bases. For the most part, this work will serve us in the task of charting an alternative, our sovereign future

Perhaps the single, most important issue in our country today is that of the US military bases in the Philippines.  In my testimony before the members of the Constitutional Commission, I made clear my position as follows:  In decisions regarding the from of government or other questions, we could make mistakes but not on an issue upon which the survival of our people depends.

For nearly four decades, I have been engaged in the campaign against foreign military bases on our soil.  Together with kindred nationalists such as Claro M. Recto, Jose W. Diokno, J.B.L Reyes described as a “sovereign quest.

Today it is clear that our sovereignty and independence have been impaired by the presence of the US military bases. No longer is there any need to argue this point.  At the same time, as long as the bases are here, the US will have reason to interfere in our internal affairs.  This is one of the clearest lessons we have learned from the dark years of the Marcos  regime.

In the past decade and a half, we saw a dictatorship seize power, destroy constitutional government, and deprive an entire country of its freedom and democracy, all with the blessings and full support of the United States.  This proves the hypocrisy of the American claim that the bases are here to defend the cause of freedom and democracy.

What recent history has painfully taught us is that as far as the US is concerned, the bases exist not for our protection but to serve US military and economic interests.  What is should also have taught us is that the bases are a very costly proposition for us.  Far from being an economic boon, they are turning our to be an added economic burden.  Certainly they have cost us at least a great bulk of our foreign debt which the past president, while he was in power, was able to accumulate with obvious US support, but without the consent of the Filipino people.  The annual interest on the debt which we now have to pay is still costing us millions of dollars every year.

The figures cited by certain quarters to prove how much economic good the bases bring to this country  dwindle in comparison with this economic cost, which does not even include the social and political cost of the bases as clearly pointed out in the present work.  Whatever dollars and cents these bases may be bringing to the country should also be measured against the social costs – the diseases, including AIDS, the smuggling, the drug trafficking along with the drug addiction problems, the gambling the prostitution, the dollar black market operations, and the budgetary cost of having to deal with all these problems.

Considering all these real costs and the questions of sovereignty and national survival, we agree with the writer who said “that for those who wish the bases removed, it would be cheap prostitution of principle and a dereliction of national safetu to change one’s opinion if the price is right.”

Thus, those who wish to tie the bases issue to a higher economic yield or  to the debt question should be reminded of Jose W. Diokno’s caveat:  “ There is no price tag to our right to survival and dignity.”  If we truly love our country and are deeply concerned over our people’s welfare and safety, there can indeed be no price tag on the onerous bases.  Neither rent, nor aid or any other form of manna from a country which had already betrayed us in the past, nor even lucrative bases contracts, can  square accounts with us :  the derogation from our sovereignty the impairment of our independence, and the damage to our culture.

The presence of the US military bases attests to the burden of our colonial past.  Their presence is a constant reminder of our servile posture in international relations.  Too often our decisions have sub served the ends of US positions.

Moreover, in this nuclear age, our right to survive as a nation is jeopardized and is in constant threat.  Now is the time for us to come together as one people in a sovereign quest.  We may differ in our ideas and views even in our ideology, but in the matter of the foreign military bases – we must be united.

At this time, what all Filipino must bear in mind are Recto’s word of wisdom, uttered nearly forty years ago:

We must… foreswear allegiance to any foreign power, and cease to fight the battles of one or the other of the super states beyond our borders.  Whatever our economic theories, social grievances and political beliefs and affiliations and whatever the future has in store we must stand united. (Our Mendicant Foreign Policy April 1951).

Professors Ed Garcia and Francisco Nemenzo could not have chosen a more apt title for this work than.  The Sovereign Quest.  Their Approach to an old question is simple refreshing.  They have marshaled their arguments with academic flair and uncommon vision. This study is admirable coherent, convincing  and compelling.  Accordingly, it clarifies the context of current debates on the military bases and the expiry of the RP-US agreement in 1991.

But when all is said and done, what it all comes down to is simply that the bases are not negotiable.  Therefore, we should prepare early for the effects of their withdrawal, the effects especially on our economy, weakened as it has been by our enormous foreign debt.  Studies should be undertaken towards this end.  The Sovereign Quest offers us several interesting possibilities that could be studied further, or at least it gives us leads to possible other uses of the bases.  For the most part, this work will serve us in the task of charting as an alternative, our sovereign future.

This I believe.

Senator Lorenzo M. Tañada

23 March 1988

The focus of this study is policy, both on the part of the peace zones (PZs) and the broader peace movement as well as on the part of the government.  This is not about experiences and lessons in creating and sustaining PZs, although the related literature on this was part of the background material for this policy study.  Nor is this a study on he effectiveness or impact of PZs, of which it is said “there is little research.”  Recent developments during 2000-04, like the mushrooming of various forms of PZs especially in Mindanao on the positive side but also some distortions of the concept on the negative side, indicate a need for setting proper policies on PZs, starting with clarity on the very concept itself, towards a policy environment what would safeguard and nurture the growth of PZs in quantity and quality.

Introduction and Background

The focus of this study is policy, both on the part of the peace zones (PZs) and the broader peace movement as well as on the part of the government.  This is not about experiences and lessons in creating and sustaining PZs, although the related literature on this was part of the background material for this policy study.  Nor is this a study on he effectiveness or impact of PZs, of which it is said “there is little research.”  Recent developments during 2000-04, like the mushrooming of various forms of PZs especially in Mindanao on the positive side but also some distortions of the concept on the negative side, indicate a need for setting proper policies on PZs, starting with clarity on the very concept itself, towards a policy environment what would safeguard and nurture the growth of PZs in quantity and quality.

The catalyst for this policy study came in September 2003, about 15 years after the first PZ was declared in Naga City and where the author had a role as a leader of the local peace coalition Hearts of Peace (HOPE) which was the main advocate of the Naga City “Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality” (ZOPFAN).  On 2 September 2003, a unit of the New  People’s Army in Camarines Sur launched a tactical offensive against the Philippine National Police (PNP) Substation No. 6 in the mountain barangay of Carolina in Naga City, killing one policeman.  The next day, City Councilor Gabriel H. Bordado Jr. made a privilege speech which described the attack as a “ breach” of the city’s declaration as a Zone of Peace and appealed to the NPA “to give peace a chance.”

The NPA-Camarines Sur spokesperson Ramona Caceres responded through the media by saying that the ZOPFAN has no force and effect as all conditions of the peace process rest on the agreements signed in the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front (NDF).  She further said that the ZOPFAN fragments the organizational and military unity of the revolutionary movement and cannot be adopted by the NPA in Camarines Sur.  Notwithstanding this negative response, at least the issues were joined.

At around that time too, there were already a couple of other PZ stirrings elsewhere far North and far South in the Philippines.  Indigenous elders of Mountain Province were clamoring for the declaration of the whole province as a PZ, after military operation that claimed ten lives from both the AFP and NPA in July 2003.  The province already has a long-standing successful PZ in Sagada town which, like Naga, was one of  the pioneer PZs of 1988.

Also, the government through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and NGOs led by Tabang Mindanaw had proposed a PZ in Barangay Inug-og which could expand to other parts of Pagalungan, Maguindanao and Pikit, North Cotabato which make up the so-called Buliok Complex, which was until recently the site of the headquarters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) before the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) attacked it on February 11, 2003.

So, in September 2003, it was thought that it was perhaps time to revisit and even revive the Naga ZOPFAN, and relate this revisition with a review of the related literature and developments of the other PZs which have since emerged in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao as part of the broader peace movement, process and constituency.  More importantly, this revisitation and review was hoped to lead to the development of policies for a possible PZ movement and even some form of institutionalization, whether at the local or national level, which would ensure the integrity of peace zones as people-initiated, community based assertions to secure some degree of peace from the armed conflict and create spaces for tolerance and dialogue between the warring parties.

As it turned out, the Naga ZOPFAN revisitation was only a small part of the ensuing policy study.  The bigger part, reflecting the reality on the ground, invovlec the overwhelming number of some old and mostly new PZs in Mindanao.  And so, by the time the first draft of this policy study was ready in early December 2004, it was only appropriate that it was presented as a work in progress to the Tabang Mindanaw “Panaw sa Kalinaw” (Journey in Peace) conference of 2-4 December 2004 in Davao City where there was significant participation of PZ leaders, builders and advocates from Mindanao, Visayas and Luzon.  It was an occasion for mutual “sharing, learning and reliving of hopes and commitment for peace,” in line with the theme and spirit of the conference.  We can say that this policy study contributed to as well as benefited from the discussions at that conference.

A book of personal and collective efforts taken during the Marcos dictatorship and the people's participation in the process of ousting the government until its democratic transition. The author shared not only his own experience but the experience of all the Filipinos and the structures crushed and abused by the dictator. The book also discussed the dilemmas during the period of transition, from authoritarian rule to democratic rule.

After the experience of February 1986 which saw the collective effort of a people bring about the downfall of a dictator, there was much hope that at last we could begin to rebuild our society from the ruins of poverty and injustice, dictatorial rule and foreign domination.  Because the Filipino people accomplished the over throw of the dictatorship in a largely peaceful fashion, there were expectations in other parts of the world as well that desired change could take place with a minimum of lives lost and at the least social cost.

Violence, however, has characterized the history of our people.  It has been inflicted to a large extent, on the majority who are poor, and are without power and voice.  They have experienced not only the direct violence of armed conflict or state repression but also the destruction by death-dealing structures in society.  For the most part, they have suffered the consequences of a situation which sadly favors the few, and blatantly deprives of their rights the many.  In the countryside, peasants have been dispossessed and left without land; in the urban areas, picket lines have been dispersed, dwellings in urban poor communities demolished.  Consequently, we have witnessed a protracted fratricidal war between opposing social forces divided either by economic interests or ideology in different periods of our history.

Violence, at the same time has become such a permanent feature of our political landscape that we have often taken it for granted.  When over 140 people were killed in the 1988 local elections, political observers noted that compared with past electoral exercises the “body count” which accompanied our electoral count decreased and thus showed an “improved” situation.  What we fail to see is that political killings are not acceptable in a democratic society.  The fact that political murder and other forms of violence do take place does show that there remains much work to be done to create the kind of society we want and deserve.

The Filipino Quest: A Just and Lasting Peace is a modest contribution to this task of creating a different order.  It is note merely an exercise in academic analysis; it is part of the effort towards charting an alternative future.  In this anthology are recorded the events which unfolded before audiences who were active participants in the process of social  change.

The essays share a common theme: the people’s participation in the process of bringing about a just and lasting peace.  If the power of the people resisted and defeated a dictatorship, it can equally be called upon to build something new from the ruins of the past.  To do so, the power of the people must be harnessed and sustained.

The period of transition provides a context for discussing the dilemmas of developing  societies in their passage from authoritarian rule to democratic participation.  Among the themes tackled in subsequent sections are the protection of human rights in a society in conflict, the creation of a just and humane society and the pursuit of self-determination.  The book concludes with reflections on the people’s quest for peace.

The work for peace involves a complex and difficult process.  This present work does not cover all the ground nor does it attempt to tackle all the issues related to peace.  This undertaking is a contribution that hopefully others will complete.  What is important is that efforts are serious and aspirations for enduring peace undimmed.

Peace is possible.  Although the funs are not silent and the atmosphere of intolerance is prevalent, I do think the quest is difficult but not doomed to failure.  That it will be misunderstood, yes it will be; that it will be long and arduous, just as it took nearly two decades of  resistance to oust authoritarian rule, yes it will be, but to say it is impossible, no it is not.

People have the right to peace.  Yet to uphold this right, a permanent campaign for peace must be waged by people who refuse to accept a society ever torn by armed conflict which essentially is a war among brothers and sisters.  The sooner we realize that we share but one land and one future, the surer we can avert disaster.  If we are to resolve our differences, the sources of our division must be clear and the nature of historical inequities understood.  To achieve a lasting peace in a divided society, the leadership and citizenry must summon the political will to empower the people and not deprive the majority of their fair and just share in society.

There is no painless path to change, but neither is the force of arms an assurance that change for the better will take place.  What I have tried to do through these pages is share with you a way of thinking, of looking a t where we are, of understanding where we have been of exploring alternative paths that could lead us to a different but viable future.  I am convinced that we are capable of a new creation.  What we are finally looking  for in human history, as one sage put it, is not a solution but the creation of as new man, in a new society.

Alert pursued its pioneering work in the area of building peace some twenty years ago.  Among its early endeavours in the mid to late-80s were modest peace efforts in Asia, such as the formation of a Sri Lankan working group committed to a peaceful settlement between opposing factions in the prolonged armed conflict in the country; the launching of the Waging Peace conference in the Philippines that has since become an annual event bringing together peace advocates from different islands; the work in Fiji to help prevent ethnic violence and develop a more democratic constitutional framework; and the hosting of an international consultation on Tibet to focus on the issue of self-determination.

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The Landmine Monitor Report 1999: Toward a Mine-Free World contains information on every country of the world with respect to landmine ban policy, use, production, transfer, stock-piling, mine clearance, mine awareness, and survivor assistance. Landmine Monitor Report 1999 also includes appendices with reports from major actors in the mine ban movement, such as key governments, UN agencies and the ICRC. 

This publication presents the highlights of the discussions, summary conclusions and recommendations of the “Engaging Non- State Actors (NSA) in a Landmine Ban, A Pioneering Conference” held in Geneva, 24-25 March 2000. The Conference was pioneering in its efforts to bring all parties to start off the process of dialogue for a truly universal mine ban. 

Executive Order No. 115: Providing For The Mechanics And Operational Structure For The Localization Of Peace Efforts