‘Best kept’ secrets in Maguindanao

COTABATO CITY—One of the “best kept secrets,” at least from the national media, arising from the 2009 Maguindanao massacre is the creation of the “Good Wednesday Group for Peace.”

After the slaughter in Ampatuan town of 58 people, 32 of whom were journalists, in this province, “everything in Maguindanao changed,” said Lt. Col. Benjie Hao, one of the founders of the “GWGP.” One of these changes was within the military, since its provincial leaders were accused of deliberately turning a blind eye to the tensions rising before the incident, and of being slow to respond once the killings were known.

As a consequence, there was a reshuffle in the leadership and in key positions of the 7th Infantry Division, with a new commander, Maj. Gen. Anthony Alcantara, assigned to oversee the implementation of martial law in the province imposed soon after the massacre, as well as to “bring back normalcy” in Maguindanao.

Colonel Hao was in charge of civilian relations at the time, and his orders were to strengthen the links with civil society. “The only information I was provided was the name of an NGO, Balay Mindanaw,” noted Hao.

Still, with the help of Balay Mindanaw, Hao was able to establish contacts with different civil society organizations, including those from the Bangsa Moro and indigenous peoples, although there was a lot of skepticism and tensions from all sides.

Their first general meeting was held on March 6, 2010, a Wednesday afternoon, with a blistering exchange of ideas, plans, suspicions and accusations taking place. Later, when someone proposed a name for the group, the “Good Wednesday Group for Peace” (the meeting took place during Holy Week) emerged. It was agreed to keep the group amorphous and “leaderless,” with the members moving as the spirit guided them.

As Hao explained it: “It was the beginning of a process of opening spaces (and of) providing opportunities for partnerships.”

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Soon after its founding, GWGP faced its first major test. The national elections were taking place in May, and the group embarked on a voters education drive. At the same time “peace dialogues” were conducted with civilian volunteer organizations, otherwise known as armed militias, from whose ranks came the perpetrators of the Maguindanao massacre and those implicated in previous cases of election-related violence.

GWGP formed a “quick-response mechanism” for the day of the voting, with civilians and military forming a network of information about brewing tensions and conflicts or incidents of election-related violence, such as the disappearance of PCOS machines. They even launched a photography competition, with budding photojournalists urged to take pictures of the voting and document violations taking place. The winning photos were later exhibited.

The result, according to some studies, was a “significant reduction” in election-related violence in Central Mindanao, although even the GWGP will admit that “some problems remain.”

Among these are the prospects of sustainability for the fragile coalition, organizational development, and the deep-seated social and cultural problems that lie just beneath the surface, as exemplified in the current stalled peace negotiations between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Still, argued members of the military and civil society, “some perceptions have been changed and we now have the space to discuss our problems.”

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Notable among the civilians present at the dialogue with visiting Colombian women were two Moro women, both of them belonging to the large Ampatuan clan. Zorayda, a barangay chairwoman, said that “all members of the family are also victims” of the massacre. And through membership in the GWGP, she said, she hoped to prove that “the entire clan is not to be condemned.” “We are also good citizens,” she protested, “we stand with the GWGP and we hope to build our lives again.”

“It is not a joke being an Ampatuan these days,” remarked Shaharazad, a cousin of Zorayda’s. “We want to represent the other face of the clan, the law-abiding face.”

Brig. Gen. Rey Ardo, the present commanding general of the 7th ID, recognized that a “holistic effort” is needed not just in their counterinsurgency efforts, which he clarified the military undertakes only in support of the local government and police, but also in what one of his officers described as “not waging war, but winning the peace.”

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Playing a crucial but low-key role in maintaining the peace holding in Mindanao is the International Monitoring Team (IMT), backed by six foreign parties and invited by both the Philippine government and the MILF peace panels to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire while negotiations are ongoing.

Originally formed simply to “verify, validate and report” any violations of the ceasefire to the chairs of both panels, the IMT, said team leader Maj. Gen. Datu Mahdi bin Yusof of Malaysia, has “morphed into a bigger organization” that now also monitors the safety and security of civilians, responds to “basic human needs” of internally displaced people (also known as evacuees), ensures compliance by both sides with international humanitarian law and human rights treaties, as well as embarks, with support from the Japanese government, on grass-roots development programs.

Mahdi, who is the sixth IMT head of mission, made clear that while their mandate is renewed year by year, “the IMT cannot go on indefinitely.” But while the negotiations (now at an impasse) are proceeding, the IMT is doing its share in building up civil society and organizing local communities to strengthen local capacity.

“Even after our mandate is no longer needed,” he said, “what will stay on are the four NGOs implementing the civilian protection component.”