Dealing with the past

Davao City—Here today, two Germany-based international organizations, the Forum ZfD (Forum Civil Peace Service) and the GIZ-CPS, or the Civil Peace Service (global program) commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), are collaborating on a conference titled, “Transitional Justice: What’s next for the Bangsamoro?” The conference will run from Feb. 7 to 9.

According to the spokespersons of the two organizations, 200 participants have been invited to participate in the conference. Top regional officials will be among those expected to give key messages and updates on the existing Bangsamoro peace process that led to the creation of the new Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Civil society leaders, human rights, peace activists, and researchers have also been invited to share important inputs on the concepts, theory, framework, and practice of transitional justice here and in other parts of the world. Speakers from the Western Balkans, Nepal, and Cambodia have confirmed to share their experiences of dealing with past atrocities and how these had been addressed or not in their respective countries.

The conference aims to create a groundswell of support to push for a systematic and comprehensive transitional justice process in the Bangsamoro. Such a process will help facilitate ways to address deep-seated grievances and historical injustices, massive human rights violations, and marginalization through land dispossession among the peoples in the Bangsamoro region and beyond. Among these are the victims and survivors of emblematic massacres (Palimbang, September 1974), the burning of whole villages (Jolo burning in 1974), and incarceration and torture of alleged insurgents or rebels subjected to inhuman treatment like the infamous water “cure” (a misnomer; it was not a curing process at all), and electric shocks through the victim’s body.

Narratives of a violent past from the surviving family members of these victims are included in the reports of the Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) that was created in 2014 as part of the Annex on Normalization of the Joint Normalization Committee (JNC). The JNC is an important provision in the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro that ended long and tedious peace negotiations between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Government of the Philippines (GPH). On March 27, 2014, the heads of the peace panels of the GPH and the MILF signed this agreement on behalf of their principals.

But after the TJRC submitted its reports to the national and regional government representatives, and to two Philippine presidents—Benigno Aquino III and Rodrigo Duterte—nothing much was done to create a national TJ mechanism. The TJRC reports concluded with a strong recommendation to create immediately a national Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Board that will operate independently of the Office of the President, and will also be provided adequate government funding for its management and operations.

Extant literature on transitional justice includes dealing with the past as an accompanying framework. It addresses impunity and provides justice and reparations to victims of massive human rights abuses in the past. These were wrought by elements of state military forces, the grim reapers of souls, during martial law years.

Dealing with the past is needed to repair the present—a shaky and insecure one, in a country led by the son of the one who spawned a whole regime of impunity during the dark years of martial law. Repairing the present through building better structures of governance, rule of law, respect for human rights, and recognizing important and significant contributions of all diverse peoples in this country are requisites for building durable peace. Uplifting the lives of weaker members of society—like the poor, marginalized, and largely excluded—through a well-crafted affirmative action program planned with them rather than for them, will also contribute to a stronger political entity where impunity will be a thing of the past.

But do our national political leaders have these in mind? I seriously doubt it. Current reports on the usual anomalies including the overpricing of government-procured equipment like cameras (it was laptops just a few years ago) show that corruption is a sustainable practice among government functionaries and executives as well.

Are we bracing for another dark chapter in our history? God forbid.

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