building bridges for peace - Philippine Coalition for the International

BUILDING BRIDGES FOR PEACE

Copyright © 2010 Philippine Coalition for the International Criminal Court

All or portions of this resource book may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means provided that the source is acknowledged.

ISBN 978-971-93746-3-3

PHILIPPINE COALITION FOR THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURTRoom 100-C Philippine Social Science Center (PSSC)Commonwealth Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines 1101Phone: 63-2-4566196Telefax: 63-2-9267882Email: [email protected]: pcicc.wordpress.com

Editorial Team

Rebecca Desiree E. Lozada, Editorial ConsultantAmy Tejada, Design & LayoutRaul Romano Villena, Cover Art

Loretta Ann Pargas-RosalesDanny CarranzaVing O. DillaFlores ZacateCandy DiezBae Rose D. UndagGloria Ester M. Catibayan-Guarin

This publication was made possible with the support of Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e.V. (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations).

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CONTENTS


BBP: THE BASIC DESIGN

CONSTRUCTION SITE IN BONDOC PENINSULA: Breaking feudal structures and holding on to land rights

CONSTRUCTION SITE IN MOUNT BALATUKAN: Working with Higaonons in their struggle for ancestral domain claims

PERSPECTIVES AND POINTS OF INTERSECTION

ANNEX

ONLINE RESOURCES

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BUILDING BRIDGES FOR PEACE: The Basic Design

The Philippines has been a battlefield for over four decades. There is no region, north to south, untouched by war—sometimes all-out-war, often wars of low intensity. Peace negotiations between the government and the armed group of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the secessionist groups in Mindanao have stalled numerous times as a result of violations of ceasefire agreements and agreed conduct of talks, and the failure to come to mutually agreeable political concessions.

BBP staff and friends in Lucena City, Quezon

6 BUILDING BRIDGES FOR PEACE

This was the situation when the Philippine Coalition for the International Criminal Court (PCICC) was organized in 2000. It is the situation now. The Coalition has for the past years advocated for the imperative of rule of law and for putting in place mechanisms for attaining justice for the most atrocious crimes—genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The advocacy engaged government and Philippine society through lobby work, information dissemination and training and public actions.

In 2009, PCICC opened up its work through the Building Bridges for Peace (BBP) project undertaken from April to December 2009 with funding from Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e.V. (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations).

The BBP project aimed to initiate a change process in areas that have been experiencing political conflict between the government and armed resistance groups and the attendant underdevelopment.

Finding the model The Building Bridges for Peace Project was partly conceived from the experience at the Judicial Summit on Extra-legal killings and Enforced Disappearances convened by Chief Justice Reynato Puno on July 16-17, 2007. The summit addressed the alarming number of summary killings and enforced disappearances victimizing

suspected communists, radical left groups and suspected members of petty crime gangs.

The military, in cooperation with the national police, was considered the prime suspect in the political killings. The Arroyo government never admitted to this as official policy, but blamed the killings on lost command units and, more frequently, on the ranks of the CPP as a manifestation of ongoing internal conflict. The Kahos1 killings of the mid-eighties were often cited as basis for alleging the continued murders of political activists and their leaders in the first decade of the 21st century. Petty criminals, meanwhile, were the targets in highly urbanized and populated cities like Davao City, Cebu, Digos and Dumaguete. It was an open secret that local mayors with armed private armies kept the peace in their turf through policies and practices that glossed over due process and respect for human rights.

1 KAHOS stands for Kampanyang Ahos. Kampanya means campaign and Ahos means garlic, which according to Filipino folklore keeps evil spirits away. KAHOS is the acronym for the CPP campaign where leaders of the party reportedly ordered mass killings of suspected intelligence agents within the Party ranks.

Meeting with Quezon Governor Rafael Nantes (center)

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The Judicial Summit drew leaders from all sectors of society ranging from top military and government leaders to all the political shades of the Left and grassroots leaders in the broad political and civil society movement.

One significant feature of the Conference was the openness with which dialogue was conducted through workshops presided over by justices of the Supreme Court. State impunity and command responsibility were among some controversial issues addressed. The Rome Statute and alternative solutions to internal armed conflict were likewise discussed in candor. There were differences of perspective but also the recognition that no one sector had a monopoly on the solution to the problem of armed conflict that had obstructed peace and development for generations.

Participants from the Philippine Coalition for the International Criminal Court (PCICC) were gratified that the Summit approved in plenary, with some reservations from the military and police, their submission of a resolution to support the ratification of the Rome Statute as an important

step in restoring the rule of law and laying the foundations for lasting and meaningful peace.

Getting the foundations up BBP came to life soon after the Judicial Summit. PCICC decided to embark on the project to create a social and political space for multi-lateral dialogues on conflict and peace among various stakeholders within the pilot areas; to promote and explore mechanisms that uphold human rights and international humanitarian law; and to build confidence, respect and trust among the community actors by collectively engaging in activities that address situations of conflict such as strengthening and/ or creating monitoring mechanisms and immediate security measures for the communities.

In this new endeavor, the project team was armed with the following starting points: • That political roots of conflict would remain

unresolved unless these were addressed multilaterally by the various stakeholders listening to each other and seeking to understand each other in honest dialogue; and

BBP assessment meetingQuezon Police Superintendent Alex Orfanel at a multi-sectoral meeting


• That the Philippine Charter2 and international standards on human rights and international humanitarian law would provide the parameters in defining and regulating the direction of dialogue.

Two communities welcomed the Building Bridges for Peace project. Both communities bear the brunt of decades of turbulence and upheaval in the Philippines as well as changes and paradoxes ushered by the 1986 People Power Revolt in EDSA.3

The community in Bondoc Peninsula4 in Quezon comes from towns where local mayors continue strong linkages to hacienda owners who have been defying, with the force

of their private armies, agrarian reform laws from the period of the Marcos dictatorship to the present. These conditions cultivated the grounds for peasant unrest, with many farmers joining a guerilla movement under the leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines. With the EDSA Revolt that ousted the Marcos regime, grassroots organizations that fought the dictatorship shifted to a paradigm underscoring mobilization of resources for the enforcement of agrarian reform without the use of arms. This development exacerbated rather than relieved tensions in the area.

2 Article II, Section 2, 1987 Philippine Constitution3 February 22-25, 1986 marked the People Power EDSA Revolt expressed in the gathering of millions of people in Epifanio

de los Santos (EDSA) Highway and in other urban centers of the country. The four-day people’s uprising ultimately led to the ouster of the late Ferdinand E. Marcos who was flown out of the Philippines into Hawaii in an American plane under orders of the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

4 This is a peninsula that stretches southward in the province of Quezon. It has been known as a stronghold of the New People’s Army whose underground resistance has obstructed the development of foreign investment projects in the days of dictatorial rule.

Misamis Oriental GovernorOscar Moreno

9BUILDING BRIDGES FOR PEACE

The community from Balatukan Mountain Range5 of Misamis Oriental consists of the Higaonon people. The first Revolutionary Regional Command of the New People’s Army was established in the place they call home. The tribal community has provided the rank and file of the New People’s Army (NPA) but their longing to claim their ancestral domain rights has yet to be fulfilled.

These communities have long histories of struggle. PCICC can only hope that the chapter with the Building Bridges for Peace project would mark a breakthrough for the advancement of their rights and for justice.

5 The Balatukan Range Natural Park is a recent protected area through a presidential proclamation because of the rich biodiversity of its mountain forests. Within these thick forests was established the CPP headquarters where the National Democratic Front won the hearts and minds of the Higaonons when they distributed lands to the community and promised them a better life.

Talking peace and development at the National Defense College of the Philippines

NDCP President Commodore Carlos Agustin (Ret) facilitatesdiscussions on BBP’s engagement with government agencies.

Commodore Mariano Sontillanosa (AFP-Ret) orients BBP’s Etta Rosales on NDCP’s modules on peace.

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CONSTRUCTION SITE IN BONDOC PENINSULA: Breaking feudal structures and holding on to land rightsBy Danny CarranzaBBP Project Officer, Quezon

Who would have thought it would break the ice to ask, “How many of you are hiding from the law?” Building Bridges for Peace dialogues in Quezon were often detailed and strained. So it was during a discussion on criminal cases levelled by landlords against tenant farmers, until the provincial director of

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the Philippine National Police asked how many in the room were facing arrest. The room fell silent. The chief of police then stood up from where he sat on stage and looked at the exhibit on the wall. Laughing, those facing charges raised their hands. The dialogue started in earnest.

Bondoc Peninsula in the province of Quezon was chosen for the BBP project due to the high-profile and intense land-related conflicts in the five southernmost municipalities of the area, namely: Mulanay, San Andres, San Francisco, San Narciso and Buenavista.

Feudal structures characterize Bondoc Peninsula. The biggest haciendas in the area are Hacienda Villa Reyes (estimated at 8,000 -12,000 hectares), Hacienda Uy (est 3,000- 3,500 ha) and Hacienda Matias (est 2,800 ha).

Two decades ago, a study found the land ownership pattern to be highly skewed with only 1.1 percent of the population owning 44 percent of the most productive agricultural lands, estimated at around 80,000 hectares. (Asian Institute of Management, 1989) Tenants, landless and lacking in other sources of livelihood, were the poorest sector of Bondoc Peninsula. Up to

the late 1990s, they depended on exploitative sharing, normally 60-40 or 70-30 in favour of landowners, to survive.

The feudal structure spawned a strong armed insurgency in the early 1980s1. The New People’s Army successfully recruited tenant-farmers into its fold by promising to implement agrarian revolution through free land distribution and to change the sharing system through “tersyong baligtad” (reversing the sharing 2 to 1 in favour of tenants). This did not make a big impact but over time other forces came to play slowly breaking feudal structures.

Ironically, land conflicts today are spurred by the growth and success of the struggle for land rights. Reform-oriented tenant organizations have been invoking state laws and engaging dynamically with the state to claim their rights and democratize land ownership. For their struggles, they have earned the ire of both landlords and rebels – the landlords for obvious reasons, and the rebels for their abandonment of armed struggle.

Nature of conflict In 1988, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) was enacted and began implementation in the country. The law covered landholdings that were excluded in previous

1 Col. Nestor Castillo of the Southern Luzon Command said there were “between 300-500 fighters for the New People’s Army, and that they were well-armed”. Steven Erlanger, New York Times, July 15, 1990.

Hacienda at San Francisco,Bondoc Peninsula

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legislated land reforms, including the vast tenanted coconut haciendas nationwide and in Bondoc Peninsula, in particular. The new law was complemented by a comprehensive project, when in 1989, the Bondoc Development Program (BDP), a 15-year bilateral development cooperation between the Government of the Philippines and the Federal Republic of Germany was started in the area. Originally a road infrastructure project, the project was reformulated after being severely criticized both here and abroad as a counter-insurgency project. The reformulated project was more responsive to the social conditions of the area and included such programs as basic health services, farming systems development, coastal resources management, and, the most controversial of all, agrarian reform. BDP’s agrarian reform program enabled tenants to contest the landlords’ imposition of the sharing system.

Agrarian reform, in spite of the law and the BDP, was not self-executing. From the mid-1990s, agrarian reform gradually gained ground when BDP contracted community organizers to organize, educate and mobilize potential

beneficiaries of agrarian reform. In 1998, as a result of continuing organizing activities, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Bondoc Peninsula (KMBP) was established. It was, by far, the biggest and most important pro-reform player that emerged in the area through the BDP and community organizers partnership. It had 48 hacienda-level chapters with five municipal-level chapters in the southernmost municipalities of Bondoc Peninsula. It had a base of 3,800 family members when it was established. And with the help of external allies, it was able to make agrarian reform and human rights issues as national level concerns.

Dialogue in San Francisco

San Francisco farmers prepare for installation


became a realistic option for the landless tenant. Sustained organizing resulted in a critical mass of support for CARP implementation over time.

From late 2001, however, this support started to weaken and the pace of agrarian reform slowly went into a state of paralysis, as reformists within the state got out of public office. This was heavily influenced by the presidential regime transition, where most of the appointees for DAR

Secretary were either half-serious on agrarian reform or perceived to be working for real estate developers. The continuing anti-reform initiatives of landlord-warlords and the armed New People's Army (NPA) and rampant human rights violations also discouraged sustained rights assertion. The failure of the state to match the anti-reform initiatives resulted in the paralysis of reform.

In September 1999, KMBP recorded its most important breakthrough when 55 tenant farmers of the biggest landlord in the area were reinstalled on the land they were cultivating before they were forcibly evicted by armed goons, their homes bulldozed, and the land fenced to deny them access. The re-installation was widely covered by national media and highlighted agrarian reform in Bondoc Peninsula as a difficult but successful undertaking:

“In this breakthrough, successful agrarian reform was made possible through collaboration, cooperation and partnerships of various agencies of the government, civil society and farmers’ organizations. The support that was given to the DAR (Department of Agrarian Reform) by the Task Force Bondoc Peninsula members particularly the DOJ (Department of Justice), DND (Department of National Defence), and the PNP (Philippine National Police), was hailed by national media, describing the event as a ‘shining example of what could be achieved if different agencies and organizations would only work together to carry out a priority government program.’”2

Reforms gained ground through the combination of dynamic interaction and social pressure from below and reformist state initiatives from above. The government's agrarian reform program

2 Excerpt from Hon. Wigberto E. Tanada’s keynote address delivered at the First Multi-Sectoral Seminar Workshop on Agrarian Justice on November 8, 2005 at the Development Academy of the Philippines, Tagaytay City. The former Senator is currently chair of the Agrarian Justice Foundation.

Security forces in Lucena Citygets a briefing on BBP actions


The mass movement of peasants became vulnerable to attacks but continued their initiatives. The land reform struggles in specific haciendas were motivated by the internal context facing tenants – their desire to get out of poverty and oppression, an appreciation of the 1988 agrarian law that recognized land rights that hitherto never existed in their reality; and, the successes and breakthroughs of agrarian reform that made the legal, peaceful option, a realistic option.

The peaceful initiatives, however, invited aggression and violence from anti-reform actors. The violence from non-state armed groups have

resulted in five killings so far: three were executed by landowners’ goons and two by the NPAs. The physical harassments have displaced more than a hundred families. The struggle for land reform produces internally displaced persons not because of the ongoing armed conflict in the countryside, but as a consequence of their vulnerability to anti-reform actors.

The NPAs reject reform initiatives for slowing down the armed revolution. They have been known to maintain an unholy alliance with some hacienda owners with haciendas serving as both political and economic base of the armed group. Tenants believe that for as long as they work with the legal system, the NPA will continue to take an adversarial stance against them, making them strategic targets for attack. Dioscoro Tejino, former president of the federation of landless tenants in San Narcisco who has been in hiding since 2004, survived an assassination attempt carried out as a punishment for being an agent of “AFP-CIA psychological warfare.”3 In a news item in 20044, Ka Roger Rosal, spokesperson of the New People’s Army, affirmed the death sentence against Tejino. Flight became the only option for Tejino to evade the death sentence.

Aside from physical harassment, anti-agrarian reform landowners in Bondoc Peninsula have used the criminal justice system to harass land rights claimants by filing various criminal cases.

3 Statement of Maria Theresa De Leon Command in 2004.4 Philippine Daily Inquirer, January 18, 2005.

Third dialogue

Officials of the departments of justice

and environment at the second dialogue

Atty. Mabel Arias of the Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services (IDEALS) explains that the right of farmers to harvest coconut and engage in other farming activities are viciously misconstrued to be criminal offenses such as estafa or qualified theft.

The criminalization of agrarian reform cases sets the pre-condition for human rights violations. There have been instances where combined contingents of police, army and armed goons made arrests at unholy hours (12 midnight to 3 am) sowing fear among farmers facing charges and the community as a whole. In addition, farmer-victims suffer short or long periods of detention, hide and avoid arrest, and divert scarce resources to cover the financial requirements of defending themselves in court. Criminalization also undermines the peaceful efforts of the peasant movements and constricts the space for their democratic participation.

The assault on the tenants in Bondoc Peninsula increased dramatically as a result of ineffective agrarian reform law implementation. The failure of the government to settle conflicting claims and fast-track agrarian reform implementation results in prolonged tension because it paralyzes reform

as the government is unable to issue the proper tenure instruments to farmers − Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) or Homestead Patents in alienable lands, Community-based Forest Management Program (CBFMP) in timber/forest lands. Likewise, it makes actual occupants vulnerable to the continuing imposition of exploitative sharing and criminal cases because they are not holders of legitimate/legal tenure instrument from the government.

This resulted in the disenchantment of tenants in the work of government institutions and cynicism on the capacity of the state to respect, protect and fulfill their rights. This is the reason why, in spite of memorandums from the DAR higher officials, many cases of leasehold have not been implemented, or in spite of repeated memorandums from the higher DENR office expansive public lands have not been delineated by their respective local level offices. Even when legal questions with respect to the rights of farmers are settled, the disconnect between what is promised at the national level and what is happening at the local level remained.

Bondoc Peninsula farmers resorted to using various forms of public actions to push the government to act. These kinds of pressure actions, however,

Etta meets Quezon media

Plenary workshop of first dialogue


make them vulnerable to police action that could result in violence and human rights violations. In May 2009, for instance, Bondoc farmers occupied the ground lobby of the DENR Central Office in Manila to put pressure on the agency to realize its commitments. A police contingent was called in by the DENR and the near-confrontation that ensued could have resulted in the violent dispersal of farmers. This assertion also translates on their ground-level initiatives. Boycott of share payment is one such initiative, as a form of defiance of tenants to the imposition of illegal sharing system.

Activities of the BBP The Building Bridges for Peace Project helped break the near-paralysis of agrarian reform in the area. BBP interventions facilitated positive interaction among peace and reform-oriented state and non-state actors towards the pre-eminence of the rule of law, effective implementation of agrarian reform and respect for human rights and international humanitarian law of the vulnerable tenants.

The multi-stakeholders dialogues allowed conflict-affected tenants and duty-bearers including the security sector and human rights and peace advocates to come together to collectively analyse and formulate solutions to long standing problems of the farmers.

Three multi-stakeholders dialogues were conducted in the course of the project implementation. The first dialogue held on July 6-8, 2009 enabled the conflict-affected tenants to voice their grief and frustrations over the way the government had been handing their cases and demands. They processed and presented a total of 19 specific issues related to human rights violations, public and private land reform implementation and criminalization of tenant farmers seeking land rights.

This dialogue gathered for the first time in almost a decade various agencies at the local and national levels, including the Office of the Governor, DAR, DENR, and security sector representatives. Respected individual advocates also participated, including the former chair of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), the president of the National Defense College of the Philippines, and the Bishop of the Diocese of Gumaca, among others. Non-government organizations and farmers’ organizations were present in the dialogue. Bishop Buenaventura Famadico delivered a strong message asking the government to respond to violence and criminalization of the farmers, while former OPAPP Chair Oscar “Ka Oca”

Oscar “Ka Oca” Santos (left), former head of OPAPP, goes through plans for Quezon with Danny Carranza


Minamahal kong mga kapwa anak ng Diyos,

Nilikha ng Diyos ang mundo upang tayong kanyang mga anak dito ay tumira, magtanim ng makakain, at pamahalaan ito nang sa gayon ay mabuhay tayo nang marangal, masagana at mapayapa. Ito ang kalooban ng Diyos. Sa iba’t-ibang kadahilanan, hindi ito nangyari. May mga anak ng Diyos na sa kabila ng kanilang pagtitiyaga ay hindi pa rin nila natatamasa ang dapat na mapasakanila.

Yan ang dahilan kung bakit tayo ngayon naririto. Nais nating itaguyod ang plano ng Diyos para sa kanyang mga anak. Nais nating ang karapatan na ibinibigay ng batas sa mga nagbubungkal ng lupa ay magkaroon ng katuparan.

Matagal na nating pinangarap ito. Noon nagtatanong tayo, May maaasahan pa ba tayo sa pamahalaan? Hindi kaya nakalimutan na tayo ng mga ahensya dahil tayo’y maliliit na tao lamang? May kakayanan at pagnanais kaya na ipagtanggol ng pamahalaan ang ating karapatan? May mga naniniwala na ang pamahalaan ay inutil o walang malasakit sa mga maliliit at ang

napapansin lamang ay ang mga may pera at may kapangyarihan, na ang pamahalaan ay pinupugaran ng mga tao na ang ninanais lamang ay ang kanilang pansariling kapakanan. Kaya naman sila ay sumanib na o nakipagtulungan na sa ibang armadong grupo na sa kanilang tingin ay may malasakit sa kanila at may kakayahan na sila ay ipagtanggol. Masisisi ba natin sila?

Pero narito tayo pagkat hanggang sa ngayon ay hindi tayo bumibitaw sa ating paniniwala na may mga kawani ng pamahalaan, sa Department of Agrarian Reform, sa Department of Environment and Natural Resources, sa Military, sa Departamento ng Hukuman at Pamahalaang Panlalawigan, Pambayan at Pambarangay at iba pang ahensya na handang tuparin ang kanilang tungkulin na maglingkod para sa ikabubuti ng marami. Nakikita natin ngayon na ito ay nangyayari.

Hindi rin ito magaganap kung wala ang mga taong mula sa kanilang pagnanais na maglingkod, kahit hindi sila kaanu-ano o wala silang pakinabang na makukuha sa usaping ito, ay naglalaan ng kanilang sarili maabot lamang ang pangarap ng ating mga magsasaka.

Nariyan ang Quardds (Quezon Association for Rural Development and Democratization Services), ang Building Bridges for Peace Project at iba pang nagnanais na maibalik ang katarungan, kapayapaan, at masaganang pamumuhay bunga ng sipag at tiyaga.

Pagpalain nawa tayong lahat ng ating Poon Lumikha na nagnanais maisakatuparan ito. Ipagdasal din natin ang mga may lupa upang sila ay matutong magbahagi ng galing sa Diyos upang tayong lahat, may-lupa at magbubukid ay magkasamang mamuhay nang mapayapa bilang mga minamahal na anak ng Diyos.

Buenaventura M. Famadico Lingkod Obispo ng Gumaca

Magkasamang mamuhay nang mapayapa


“We have a problem with the implementation of the leasehold.” “Why?” “Nobody knows the exact procedures.” “How long does the concept of leasehold exist?” “More than twenty years.”

As a European lawyer who came to Bondoc Peninsula to observe agrarian related difficulties, the first thing I had to accept was that any comparison to a situation in Europe is completely impossible. It starts with the inadequate infrastructure and ends with a different understanding of the rule of law. Add to that criminalisation, physical harassment, murder, private armed groups and political power relations, you will find a situation that is far from being resolved any time soon. When I am asked for the main difficulties, I never know where to start. It may be the traditional feudal relations that have not been overcome. It may be related to extreme poverty or poor education or something about the culture and traditions. I still cannot answer the question sufficiently. The only thing I am sure about is that Bondoc Peninsula deals with a systemic failure of public power and there are only a few people who fight a long and hard struggle every day to overcome the problems. For me the Building Bridges for

Joint processing of issues

Peace (BBP) Project staff definitely belongs to these people.

Bondoc Peninsula is remote and hard to access. The farmers cultivate land that do not belong to them and pay two-thirds of their income to landowners. The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program provides two possibilities to change the situation. Tenant farmers could file for CLOA (landownership) or apply for leasehold (sharing system in favour of the farmers). However, administrative procedures are not transparent and it takes ages before anybody is provided with a title that guarantees his rights. A perfect example for the administrative failure is the case of San Francisco where leasehold was granted, revoked, granted, revoked … Some of the beneficiaries have now waited for close to four years for the implementation. To facilitate their efforts, the BBP initiated dialogues among all stakeholders – farmers, government officials, police, landowners, etc. Most of these dialogues end with compromises that unfortunately are rarely realized due to technical problems none of the governmental officials anticipated during the meeting. The results make it easy to feel that some officials are really unwilling to speed up the process. Since implementing land reform almost always concludes in fallout with the landowners, those who inhabit political power are understandably reluctant to act. However, as government officials, they have the duty to implement the law and agrarian reform polices. The obstacles do not end with technical and administrative difficulties and reluctant government officials. The farmers’ struggle is accompanied by violence and criminal charges. Five farmer leaders have been

killed in San Narciso in the last 10 years. No one wanted to assume leadership immediately after the last murder in 2008. The person who finally dared is now facing death threats from the private security guards of the landowners and the local rebel group. The investigating authorities are not interested in agrarian reform cases and are not giving him any support. None of the murder cases in San Narciso concluded with a conviction. Most of the suspects are still located in the area and working for a mayor-landowner. Witnesses have been threatened and attacked. Some have left the area, leaving behind their homes and means of livelihood. The government’s Witness Protection Program is unfortunately more concentrated in the legal issues than the actual threat. If there is no case there is no protection. Relatives of the victims who are threatened but cannot contribute to the prosecution are not included in the program. People who could testify cannot be protected if the case is dismissed due to lack of evidence. Failure of investigations in San Narciso is closely related to the strings between landowner and rebel groups. As soon as the NPA is supposed to be involved in a crime, the PNP refers the case to the AFP who then reacts with counter-terrorism measures instead of proper murder investigations. To establish a working justice system in Bondoc Peninsula, it would be necessary to extend human resources, to increase salaries and to assure some independence from local power relations by putting people from other places in particular positions. Officials unwilling to implement agrarian reform are found in all branches of government, even in the judiciary. Methodically landowners press charges against farmers for alleged qualified theft. The accused are farmers who follow their normal harvest routine but dared to file for a land title or leasehold. Sometimes they


Workshop reporting

Santos asked the government agencies present to ensure the delivery of their commitments to promote genuine peace.

In general, the agencies committed to act on the issues and encouraged farmers to continue their peaceful engagement. They also opened their local offices to continue the dialogues.

Quezon Governor Raffy P. Nantes expressed full support to agrarian reform implementation. He also committed to mobilize the Provincial Peace and Order Council as a mechanism for farmers in ventilating their issues and resolving land disputes. The security sector expressed support to agrarian reform implementation upon the request of any implementing agency.

The second dialogue was held on October 19-21, 2009. This dialogue focused on public land laws/reform and included discussions on public land policies and updates on the activities undertaken by the DENR in response to the issues of the conflict-affected farmers. The Regional Director and the local DENR head (Community Environment and Natural Resources Officer or

CENRO) informed the participants that there is an ongoing national delineation of forest/timberlands to account for existing timberlands in the country. This national project complements ongoing local DENR activities to delineate boundaries of contentious public/private lands in the upper side of south Bondoc Peninsula. The DENR also committed to fast track the processing of Community-Based Forest Management Program applications and the continuing documentation of several untitled lots involving influential claimants. In this dialogue, the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) committed to fast-track the filing of cases to cancel titles in timberlands.

The third dialogue, on November 24-26, 2009, focused on private land issues and the actions

are arrested during the harvest, sometimes they are not aware of the complaint and when ordered for inquest, suddenly find themselves in prison. Those arrested have to pay huge amounts for bail. Arrested farmers have had to borrow money and lose even more of their independence. The Building Bridges for Peace Project initiated by the Philippine Coalition for the

International Criminal Court tried to facilitate dialogues between the main stakeholders (non-state armed groups). I encountered their efforts several times. They would insist on single issues (like the leasehold implementation in Matias property) as well as create awareness to common problems. On several occasions governmental officials told me that they did not know about certain difficulties until they have been informed

by the BBP. Farmers had the chance to present their point of view and describe their experiences, which was of particular interest for the security forces. In my opinion, BBP proved in less than a year that a joint processing of the agrarian issues including all parties could be possible.

Tanja FlorathInternational Peace Observers Network


that were undertaken by the DAR. This dialogue was more reassuring in terms of policy framework with respect to the rights of farmers in private lands because of the recent passage of Republic Act 9700, otherwise known as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reform (CARPER) Law. The DAR officials present during the dialogue reiterated that coverage under land reform will proceed in areas that are not exclusively devoted to livestock production and that leasehold will also be implemented in these areas. With respect to specific actions on issues, the local DAR also reiterated its commitment to support the implementation of leasehold in the Uy property. DAR explained that it was not able to fulfil its original commitment to execute leasehold because it is continually exploring dialogue with the concerned landowner. The DAR also committed to install evicted Matias tenants once the Writ of Execution has been issued. The Motion for the Issuance of the Writ had been filed earlier, through BBP coordination with NGO and farmers involved. The officials of the police and the military

reiterated their support for the implementation of the CARPER and other activities to resolve land-related conflicts in the project area.

Municipal/Community-Level Dialogues were held in-between the three rounds of dialogues. Part of the BBP's target is to provide a venue for the actual enforcement of land rights of conflict-affected farmers in the most contentious landholdings of the project area. This is to ensure a peaceful transition in reform implementation in conflict sites. The first was on the implementation in the Uy property in San Narciso where the most violent incidents of human rights violations had taken place. The second was on the peaceful installation of evicted farmers in Hacienda Matias, another hacienda where violence took place immediately after the tenants petitioned for land reform in 2005. The third was a dialogue between the Mayor of San Andres and the tillers of Villa Reyes. The dialogues at the local level were conducted on September 14, 15, and 29, 2009, in San Narciso, San Franciso, and San Andres respectively.

These dialogues were attended by representatives of the Office of the Governor, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the local PNP, Quezon Association for Rural Development at Democratization Services (QUARDDS) staff, members of the International Peace Observers Network (IPON)

A farmer illustratesthe progress of land reform

BBP meets with Mayor Ernani Tan of San FranciscoMayor Sonia Empresa of San Andres speaks at a dialogue


and the seven farmer-beneficiaries of leasehold. The BBP was represented by its Quezon Project Officer and other staff members while DAR was led by its provincial head, Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer Joel Diaz.

In San Narciso, the landowner, Mayor Allen Uy who is the incumbent mayor, was not present. She was represented by the Executive Secretary, Mr. Dante Veluz, who explained that the mayor was in a meeting with the congressional representative of the area. The PARO explained that they were mandated to implement leasehold and expressed hope that no untoward incident will happen during the farmers’ implementation of the same which was scheduled in the first week of October. Mr. Veluz gave the assurance that the landowners will respect the rights of farmers.

In San Francisco, the dialogue was attended by more than 100 farmers. Government agencies present included the Municipal Social Work and Development office and the Interior and Local Government, aside from the DAR, the police and the military. Some institutional concerns surfaced in the talks when the DAR legal officer explained that the leasehold implementation needed a writ of execution, and without which, the DAR would not be able to install the farmers. This was not raised as a pre-condition in the previous dialogue. A further inquiry at the DAR national office revealed that a writ of execution is not necessary in leasehold implementation. It turned out that only the other case involving maintenance of peaceful possession would

need a writ of execution. The confusion arising out of the Matias dialogue showed the need to strengthen the institutional capacity of the local DAR officers in interpreting and implementing the law. The BBP needed to intervene to clarify the situation and status of the cases as well as interpret the legal rights of the farmers.

In San Andres, the dialogue was attended by Mayor Sonia Emprese. It was an occasion where the local executive and the affected tenants levelled off on the issues in the community. The mayor expressed regret that she was uninformed of the magnitude of the cases confronting the farmers. The mayor assured the farmers that she will help them in resolving their problems, even if the landowner is considered to be her political ally.

Activities with provincial agencies, the Provincial Peace and Order Council Because the legal issues and situation confronted by rights holder have become so complicated, it was necessary for follow-through dialogues to be conducted to flesh out details of issues and commitments of particular agencies. Two follow-through dialogues were facilitated by the BBP Project. These were conducted with the DAR and the DENR on July 13 and 14, respectively. The farmers and QUARDDS representatives raised various policy and operational issues regarding land reform in the talks. BBP documented the proceedings for documenting and monitoring concrete commitments of the said agencies.

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During the dialogues, the BBP Project Director approached the Provincial Peace and Order Council to ask them to play a vital role in effective law enforcement in the province, especially because the security sector is an active member of the body. The PPOC had never been fully engaged by the rights holders in the project site and their NGO partners. Two meetings were conducted by the PPOC as a result of the BBP dialogues. These meetings discussed the specific concerns of farmers with regard to security and the role that the security sector will play in the installation of Matias farmers and in the leasehold implementation in the Uy property.

Legal conference & judicial commitment Early efforts of farmers to decriminalize agrarian reform cases succeeded in amending the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program through Section 19 of the CARPER which instituted the referral system. This means that at all levels of prosecution, the prosecutor or the hearing judge should refer the case back to the DAR once it is alleged that the case is agrarian in nature. But the number of cases remained high. According to the testimony of farmer-leader Maribel Luzara, KMBP members are facing with more than 300 criminal cases. She also said that in their campaign for voluntary surrender in May 2006, they put pressure on the government to release at least PhP 1.1 Million for their

temporary liberty. Bienvenido Mahilum, the Vice President of Samahan ng mga Magsasakang Petisyuner sa Lupain ni Domingo Reyes, confronts the highest number of criminal cases with 21 counts of qualified theft. Between 2004 and 2009 there have been over 200 cases of qualified theft filed against farmers, and bail set was at a very prohibitive cost of PhP 60,000 for each count of qualified theft. The repression extended to the farmers’ support groups. One community organizer of QUARDDS has been charged of trespassing.

In response to the continuing criminalization of agrarian reform cases, the BBP organized a two-day conference of agrarian reform advocates on December 3-4, 2009. The two-day dialogue was co-organized by QUARDDS, KATARUNGAN, Rural Poor Institute for Land and Human Rights Network (RIGHTSNet) and the IDEALS. The said conference was also attended by representatives of the Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA), the Agrarian Justice Foundation and the KMBP.


During the dialogue, the farmers reiterated a previous request to bring the “Justice on Wheels” to the Bondoc Peninsula and try cases inside the haciendas that are centers of criminalization of land rights claim. The discussions revolved around the types of cases faced by farmers, the high cost of bail and the failure of the courts to determine the agrarian nature of a case filed. The farmers also bewailed the seeming unfair treatment of cases they filed at the prosecutor’s office, which have allegedly remained unresolved to this day. The lawyers on the other hand, shared their experiences in handling farmers’ cases. Atty. Jae dela Cruz lamented that criminalization reflects the failure of the justice system in serving justice to the poor. She also emphasized the need for legal and community organizing strategies to complement each other to make legal support most effective. Atty. Sherwin Gatdula shared his experiences in successfully handling agrarian reform case. Based on the experiences of lawyers, it became clear that the referral system needs to be mainstreamed in the judicial system though specific guidelines to the courts and the prosecutors nationwide to decriminalize agrarian cases more effectively.

Hon. Midas Marquez, spokesperson of the Supreme Court and Deputy Court Administrator at that time, agreed to come up with a Memorandum Circular addressed to all judges of the regular courts to observe the referral system. The representative of the Department of Justice (DOJ) also committed to issue an Administrative Order for prosecutors.

Results and Commitments1. Multi-sectoral support to the resolution of

land conflicts. The activities of the BBP have opened up concern for the land conflicts in the area to a wider constituency to include human rights and peace advocates, local government officials and the security sector. The said sectors have agreed to support the resolution of land conflict as a way of achieving peace in Bondoc Peninsula.

2. Government's renewed effort to document public and untitled lands. After years of inertia, there is a renewed effort to delineate contentious public lands. A new local DENR official is perceived by farmers as more responsive to their issues and has started reaching out to farmers in the community as a way of better understanding the problems confronting them.

Supreme Court spokesperson Hon. Midas Marquez


3. DAR commitment to cover the remaining balance of CARP (private lands) and implement leasehold. This will ensure the long term security of farmers and will impact positively to a stable situation in many hotspots. Such commitment, however, has to be complemented by continuing accountability sessions where DAR, and for that matter other agencies of the government, will report on activities to resolve issues on specific landholdings. The redistribution of the remaining private lands will be a crucial test of the CARPER and the institutions implementing the law. But, as in the past, it will need the continuing social pressure from below to make the CARPER move effectively.

4. Support to leasehold implementation in the Uy property. As in the past, the DAR at the local level had been remiss in fulfilling its commitments. Fortunately, through the dialogues, the support base of land rights claimants has been expanded and the DAR is accountable

to a broader constituency for commitments it makes. Accountability mechanisms have still to be developed but the presence of government agencies calling for the resolution of issues such as the leasehold implementation in the Uy property will add pressure on the DAR to fulfil its commitments. Likewise, the presence of the police in these dialogues will also likely prevent the police from filing criminal cases against the tenants once decisions to assert tenant rights have been made.

5. Installation of evicted tenants of Matias. The Writ of Execution had been secured for the nine farmers with positive decision (Partial Entry of Judgment). Serving of the Writ, based on the PPOC dialogue was scheduled on January 3, 2009. Reinstallation should then be expected within the month of January 2009.

6. On decriminalization of agrarian cases. The Supreme Court has committed to issue a Memorandum Circular for distribution to judges of the regular courts nationwide. The Department of Justice shall also issue an Administrative Order for its prosecutors nationwide.

7. Formulation of upland peace and development plan. A very general plan for the pursuit of peace through land security and agricultural development was agreed upon as a general framework in the upland areas of San Andres. This will have to be fleshed out through a follow-up activity and the help of experts on environmental rehabilitation and agro-forestry.

Farmers and DAR officials


8. The Provincial Peace and Order Council is evolving as a mechanism in addressing land conflict through the two meetings it had conducted so far. It has been instrumental in the release of two farmers who were arrested in the course of project implementation. The security sector is also becoming more conscious of its role in the agrarian reform implementation through the PPOC and has been the main mechanism that is planning the resolution of the Uy and Matias issues with respect to leasehold implementation and installation of farmers.

RecommendationsThere remains much work on the ground. Throughout the dialogues, the following are some of the oft-repeated recommendations: • Institutionalizing the PPOC as a mechanism

of conflict resolution. • South Bondoc Peninsula is a warlord-landlord

dominated region. The resulting weak state is caused not only by the presence of non-state armed groups, but by warlords within the local state machinery who use state laws and power to protect their interests, at the expense of the rule of law. A national-level Inter-Agency akin to the 1998 Task Force Bondoc Peninsula should be created in addressing local level state inertia. This national level mechanism should be ready and willing to step in when local agencies are unable and unwilling to step in and resolve conflicts. It should have a strong monitoring arm, at the very least, to

monitor compliance of specific agencies in relation to their commitments and to resolve long-standing land issues;

• Reform of local agencies. Many of the employees and officials of local DAR and DENR offices have been dealing with landlords for years. They may have become too close for comfort at the expense of reform. Some officials should be re-assigned, while objective-based audit of performance should be put in place.

• Continuing reform in the administration of agrarian justice, to include mainstreaming of the referral system and popularizing/making it public; and ensuring access to public (case) documents.

• Inclusion of agrarian reform-human rights in the curriculum of the security sector.

• Strengthening of Witness Protection for strategic targets of non-state armed groups and improving support system for victims of human rights violations or displaced as a consequence of their land rights claim.

PNP Quezon chief confers with POW lawyer at a dialogue

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The Higaonon datus and baes have heard many promises over the years. At the very first Building Bridges for Peace consultation, they called on the gods to make the new initiative different so that they can finally claim their ancestral domain. One of the older datus started chanting what was in the minds of all. “Hu Kalugay hu panahon ha nakigbisog gumikan hu “BUGTA,” imanto nagpasalamat kay ku MAGBABAYA ha binuhat dinha instrumento sa Building Bridges for Peace pinaagi taina ha mga etaw iling ki Etta Rosales daw sa mga duma din, ki Sir Teddy, daw ki

CONSTRUCTION SITE IN MOUNT BALATUKAN: Working with Higaonons in their strugglefor ancestral domain claimsBy Ving O. DillaBBP Project Officer, Misamis Oriental

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Mam Ving labi un gayud sa Gobernador taw si Moreno para lang malikuan pag aha sa nalugay un tungkay ha mga dokumento day ko Ancestral Domain day ka Balatukan. Masakit sa gahinawa day sikay sa mga laas ku mabay-anan hayana sa Kabilin day Ha Bugta ta kuna hayana para kanay sa mga laas un, iya haina hu mga sumusunod day ha mga kaliwatan. Imanto ta natandog man, hinaut hari makayog un daw hari un mailing ko una ha bada’ tag tiduga diya ka OSCC hangtud nahimo un ha NCIP. ( After so many years in our struggle, the Magbabaya will use Etta Rosales and company, Teddy Sabuga-a and Gov. Moreno, Ms. Ving as instruments to continue the process of our ancestral domain. It is important that we claim this Land because of the coming generation…)

Balatukan Territory is one of the eight recognized territories in Misamis Oriental where Higaonons are geographically distributed. These territories are bounded and named after immense rivers like Odiongan (Gingoog), Agusan, Kabulig

(Claveria), Tagoloan, Lanao, Cagayan, Pulangi (Bukidnon), and Balatukan (Balingasag).

The prayers of the Higaonons were for over 50,000 hectares of the highlands that they know to be their ancestral domain. Balatukan is very significant and central to the Higaonons’ spiritual beliefs and cultural identity. The spirits of their dead are believed to return to the sacred mountain known as “Panigbasa” or “Pangulian.”

The Higaonons, a sub grouping of the Manobo tribe, are believed to be the first inhabitants of the territory. The term Higaonon came from the term “gaon” which means from the mountain or mountain dwellers. Their elders say that they also have ancestors who were coastal dwellers but they retreated to the mountains because of the influx of migrant settlers.

The earliest migration into the territory is said to be at Lantad, one of the sitios of Kibanban,

Calling on the good spirits


Balingasag, Misamis Oriental. It is located 25 kms away from the town proper. Kibanban has a total population of 1,790, of which 95 percent are of the Higaonon Tribe.

Lantad is a vast plain of about 400 hectares with an elevation of 800 feet above sea level. It is fertile and boasts of rich biological diversity and abundant geological resources. It lies across the face of the extinct volcano, Mt. Kamatayan, another sacred place, and transversed by the mighty Balatukan River.

The name Lantad was derived, says historical accounts, from the Spanish term ”adelantar,” meaning “improved condition” or “good condition.” There is no Higaonon equivalent for the word. It is told that a Datu invited his kin to inhabit the

productive place. Adelantar was then shortened to “lantar” and then became Lantad.

Indeed, the forefathers of the Higaonon have made the land productive for generations. They have planted it to bananas, coconut, vegetables, peanuts and other root crops. To this day, however, the Higaonons live precariously. For the longest time, the area could only be reached by foot or on horseback. The Lumads could not bring their crops to market because of the distance and absence of a road network. Government was not able to deliver basic social services, much less intervene with programs to address the problems of poverty and landlessness of the people.

Dissatisfied and desperate for change, the people soon aligned with the underground left. By the 1970s, Lantad was a rebel enclave. It became the Regional Headquarters of the Communist Party of the Philippines/New Peoples Army/ National Democratic Front Northern Mindanao Revolutionary Committee in the mid 1970s. It was also in Lantad that the First Municipal Revolutionary Government of the North Central Revolutionary Committee was established.

The Lumads became “masa” or direct supporters of the movement. Lumads and farmers fought with the rebel the movement because they were given land titles by the NDF with the promise that eventually the titles will be legally binding and the lands would become theirs. The Lumads also hoped that the lands they claimed will be awarded to them in the future.

Misamis Oriental’s PPOC chief Teddy Sabuga-a and DILG assistant secretary Emeterio Moreno talks about the rightsof indigenous peoples


There is a truism that “the process is as important as the result!” and this is gaining acceptance in community development endeavors where the final outcomes are tested on twin indicators: process indicators and result indicators.

Our combined efforts for peace for the Higaonon Indigenous People in the Mt. Balatukan mountain ranges follow the bloody struggles of years of fierce insurgency fights in the area, particularly in Lantad complex. The insurgency that had established its own government in the area was subsequently destroyed by the powers that be with that use of the full might of the State’s war machine. Blood flowed from the rebels, army and civilians.

Peace seemed to be elusive then. It was, in fact, very elusive. Despite of the government’s control of the Lantad complex, with the sphere of influence over the whole Balatukan ranges, pockets of resistance remained. The structures of insurgency were deeply rooted among people who felt nothing but deprivation, want and neglect.

New political leaderships of many local government units (LGU), headed by Governor Oscar S. Moreno, were able to trail blaze the efforts of bringing government closer to the people by allowing them to air their sentiment and cooperate in the development programs of government.

The Building Bridges for Peace Project has helped in sustaining the peace efforts of the LGUs, particularly in the Province of Misamis Oriental by allowing the participation of the Higaonon Community to dissect their own problems and in finding solutions themselves. It also allowed the participation of the stakeholders from the State e.g. DENR, DAR, LGUs, NCIP, PNP, AFP along with the academe, CHR, NGOs and the media to sit and discuss with the Indigenous Peoples. There is a broad inclusion of all duty-holders and duty-bearers.

One of the conflict areas being discussed by the Higaonon Community is on the effective implementation of the NIPAS Act and the IPRA Law as the State recognizes the need to develop the Higaonon Indigenous Peoples,

who traditionally live in the forests and depend their lives from it, and at the same time protect bio-diversity in the areas of Balatukan ranges and Gingoog to Agusan forest covers as the last frontiers of Mindanao.

Conscious efforts of the BBP to treat the Indigenous Peoples with equality and non discrimination would be indispensable measures to sustain processes for peace. These two human rights principles, along with the principles of participation and inclusion are, in fact, bedrock human rights-based development efforts which shall be instruments for peace, unity and genuine peoples’ development.

Indeed, the processes in sustaining peace are equally important as peace itself.

Victorio O. Aleria, Jr., Commission on Human Rights-10

At pace with the Higaonon’s dream for peace


The NPA declared control of the area and distributed the entire area of Lantad to the farmers during this time. A hundred or so military, NPA and civilian casualties were reported but military offensives against the rebels were never truly victorious.

Eventually, the Lumad wanted more than paper promises. Many Lumads decided to return to the folds of the law and surrender. Lantad gained a relative peace but the underlying conflicts remained.

Claiming 57,870 hectares The quest for the ancestral claim of the Higaonon Tribe of Balatukan, formerly Lantad Balatukan Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claim (CADC), started in 1987 covering the areas of San Isidro, Medina & Sitio Lantad, Kibanban, Balingasag. The claim was filed with the Office of Southern Cultural Communities. (See Annex for map)

In 1993, the Higaonons in Pigsaluhan and Bantaawan in Gingoog City, Quezon in Balingasag and Banglay in Lagonglong added their own

claim to the application. In the later part of 1993 to 1994, Tipuluhon, Pelaez, Parmpugas, Malagana, Aposkahoy and Bulahan, all in Claveria were included. The claim was forwarded to the DENR for processing. The Lantad-Balatukan original claim by then was for a total of 57,870 hectares.

In 1995, the ancestral claim in the Municipalities of Medina, Balingasag and the City of Gingoog was unified. In 1998, a year after the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997 was enacted and the office of the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) was created, the claim was endorsed to NCIP. It didn’t prosper because there were no guidelines yet for them to process the application.

It was only in 2002 that the guidelines on ancestral domain claims were released.

In 2003, a Provincial Delineation Consultation was conducted by the NCIP. All claimants were called to prioritize their claims. Only one representative was allowed to attend for each claim. The Balatukan Claim was represented by Datu Bruno Lindahay. The NCIP said they can only release appropriations for one Certificate of Ancestral Domail Title (CADT) claim each year. It was decided by those present that Samay in Balingasag, Minalwang in Claveria, Lubilan in Naawan, the municipalities of Sagay, Mambajao, Guinsiliban & Catarman in Camiguin and Baligihan in Gingoog City will be prioritized. Out of the five claims in the priority list, only two – Samay and Minalwang – are with CADT.

Reporting workshop results


Meanwhile, the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act enacted in 1992 began to concern the Higaonon. Section 13 of the Act, recognizes the ancestral lands and rights over them but it was not clear to the Lumad how their claims would prosper vis-a-vis NIPAS.

In 2007, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), NCIP and a non-governmental organization assisting in the area conducted a SWOT analysis to an opposition objection of the Lumad for the proclamation of Mt. Balatukan as a National Park. The Higaonon wanted their ancestral domain claim to prosper and protested the NIPAS and the proclamation of the Natural Park. The protest was interpreted as a weakness. But the Higaonons meant to register their resistance. Reliable sources say that at this point 70 to 80 percent of the forces of the New People’s Army in Misamis Oriental are Higaonons.

On March 6, 2007, Presidential Proclamation 1249 declared the areas in the Municipalities of

Claveria, Balingasag, Medina and Gingoog City which are covered by the Mount Balatukan Range as The Mt. Balatukan Range National Park. The park covered 9,645 hectares of the CADT claim of the Higaonon Tribe of Balatukan.

Whether or not the CADT claim of the Higaonon within the protected area will be recognized became an issue. No one it seemed could give them a straight answer. How much longer do they have to wait for their CADC? Will they have access and the right to manage ancestral domains within the protected area? What was being done to harmonize the conflicting laws – IPRA and NIPAS – without prejudice to the rights of the Higaonon to own their ancestral domain and the protection of the environment?

The Baylans’ interventionAll the questions and misgiving came to fore when the Building Bridges for Peace Project held its first round of multi-stakeholder dialogues in April 2008 in Balingasag. The Higaonons could not help but think of the old broken promises.

BBP was not making promises, however, but wanted to understand the conflict and see how the community was managing. In fact, the first morning of the dialogue had very little talk. The BBP staff observed a ritual led by Higaonon. The Baylans and other ritualists called the good spirits to bless the people taking part in the consultation, and to guide them to produce output that is beneficial to all. They then called the Sumisigbat

Closing ritual of community activities in Lantad


Ang Balatucan Ancestral Domain ay matagal nang pangarap at panaginip ng mga katutubong Higaonon sa 13 barangays at apat na munisipyong sakop ng Misamis Oriental. Ngunit sa larangan ng digmaan na kung saan ito ay naranasan ng mga katutubo, ito ay hindi nabigyan ng pansin ng ating pamahalaan. Para sa mga katutubo ang lupa ay bahagi ng buhay, kung walang lupa hindi sila mabubuhay.

Sa kanilang mga pangarap, hindi binigo ng Provincial Government at Local Government Unit ng Balingasag na suportahan ang kanilang pag-angkin sa Lupang Ninuno sa pamamagitan ng pakipag-ugnayan sa iba’t-ibang ahensya ng gobyerno, non-governmental organization at sa pribadong sektor, civil society groups at people’s organizations sa loob ng Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) ng Misamis Oriental.

Isa sa mga naging kasama ng PPOC ay ang Building Bridges for Peace Project na siyang tumulong upang maganap ang isang konsultasyon hinggil sa pag-aayos ng Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title ng Balatukan. Ang ilang resulta sa pagtitipon ay ang pagtalakay ng isyu ng National

Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) sa loob ng Lupang Ninuno at ang problema ng National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) sa kakulangan ng pondo para mai-proseso ang nasabing CADT.

Malaki ang naambag ng programa ng Building Bridges for Peace sa gawain upang makamit ang total peace development sa aming lugar. Susi ang tuloy-tuloy na pakikipag-usap ng BBP sa mga tanggapan ng Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) at NCIP para ma-fastrack the Balatukan Ancestral Domain Claim at ang Ancestral Domain Sustainable Protection Plan (ADSPP).

Ang paglabas ng Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) ay malaking tulong sa mga Higaonon sa paglilinaw kung paano ba pamamahalaan ang NIPAS sa loob ng Lupang Ninuno. Naging posible ang harmonization ng NIPAS at Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA).

Ito ang sinabi ng Datu ng Suluguon, si Romeo Lindahay, noong nagkausap kami sa sitio Lantad, Kibanaban, Balingasag, Misamis Oriental tungkol sa pagtingin sa BBP:

“Malaki at nagpapasalamat kami dahil malaki ang naitulong sa problema namin sa NIPAS. Ngayon, malinaw na sa amin. Kung hindi sila at ang ibang ahensya sa ating gobyerno tumulong upang magkaroon ng usapan at pagkakaisa, hindi mabubuo ang mga patakaran. Ang IPRA mismo nandiyan yong Kapitan pero hindi malinaw ang implementasyon sa batas na yan. Kailangan ipatupad ng Barangay at DENR ang lahat ng nakabatay sa batas. Ngunit, sa tulong nina Ginang Etta Rosales malaki ang aking pagpasalamat sa inyo, sa NCIP at DENR na nag-asikaso ng mga pagtipon-tipon upang maging tulay para makamit ang kalinaw. Mismo ang DENR dapat malinaw para sa kanila, baka dumating tayo sa malaking kagulohan pag hindi ito maayos ng ating pamahalaan.”

Bae Rose D. Undag Higaonon, Misamis Oriental

Para makamit ang kalinaw

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or bad spirits to go away so that the consultation will be successful.

Even with the ritual done, some were very wary. “Sa kanay lang ha hari un isaban sa mga pasalig ha hari agkatuman, ba’ kew da’ pakag salig (Hopefully this initiative will be prosper unlike those previous promises),” one leader said.

By design, a big part of the consultation was a caucus among only the Higaonon datus and baes. The BBP staff, provincial and municipal government officials, and representatives of government agencies listened to how the Higaonon later summarized their experiences, frustrations and hopes.

The first consultation resulted to the surfacing of issues, especially the need to harmonize the two conflicting laws, namely the IPRA and NIPAS. Despite the issues raised, e.g. only selected IP’s were given favors during the implementation by the NIPAS Project, it was clarified that these people were part of the Bantay Gubat still involved is the protection of wild life and environment. When the two laws were further explained in subsequent dialogues it became clear that the laws could be harmonized. The Higaonon started to understand that NIPAS was not bad for them

as long as they are part of its implementation especially in the protection and management of their ancestral domain.

The creation of a Conflict Management Cluster Committee within the Provincial Peace and Order Council was also the result of the exchanges during the first consultation. The committee was conceived to be a venue to thresh out new and or existing projects especially related to conflict. When the committee was set up it tackled the conflicting issues in the implementation of NIPAS and IPRA and resolved that the laws should be clarified so that the IPRA law will be implemented unhampered in its intent to protect the rights of indigenous peoples and NIPAS in the preservation and protection of the environment.

A follow-up meeting on August 14, 2009 resulted in a unified agreement to restructure the documentation of the CADT claim based on the new covered areas. Activities were undertaken to complete the necessary papers for the re-documentation from the social preparation stage to the delineation and Survey.

Datu gives feedbackon draft MOU

Etta with Misamis Oriental PNP Regional Director Alberto Patrimonio and a City Councilor

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The Second Multi-Sectoral Stakeholders Consultation was conducted on September 28-30, 2009 in Gingoog City. It was during this consultation that the implementation of the joint memoranda of the DENR and NCIP entitled “Management of Overlapped Protected Areas and/or their Buffer Zones and Ancestral Domain Lands” was discussed. The discussion led to the formulation of a draft Memorandum of Understanding which is made to pursue the Higaonon’s claim to their ancestral domain.

The salient features of the MOU are the following:• Identification of overlapped areas will be done

by NCIP, DENR, the Higaonons and LGU-CADT application that are on process must not be covered under NIPAS.

• Management of Ancestral Domain, programs and projects must be done by the indigenous peoples.

• Recognition and respect for Free and Prior Informed Consent

• Respect for customary laws and practices of the tribe in the protection, sustainable and responsible use of resources without prejudice to developing alternative source of livelihood.

• Overlapped areas must be managed by the indigenous peoples in accordance with the harmonized Plan (Protected Area Management Board and Ancestral Domain Sustainable Protection Plans or ADSPP)

It was also in this consultation that the NCIP Manila committed to appropriate and prioritize the release of funds amounting to PhP1,451,200.00

for the Higaonon Tribe of Balatukan CADT claim. The provincial government also committed to contribute funds amounting to PhP300,000.00 to complete the total project cost.

It was after the second consultation that the Higaonon started to think that the realization of their dream was coming true. “Hinaut ha saina sa minulig kanay matinud-anon un siran, hari kay un ma biktima, ta agluyahan kay en hu mga pasalig” ( Hope that this people who support us is realistic, we do not want to be a victim again), one Bae said.

The Higaonon acted on their hope. While waiting for the fund release from the NCIP Manila in processing of CADT claim and the preparation of the Ancestral Domain Sustainable Protection Plans, the different Higaonon Councils started the re-documentation of their genealogy and working on a barangay survey to document the necessary data needed in the processing of the CADT. Lantad, Mananum Bag-o and Mananum Daan Tribal Councils have complete genealogy

Professor Erlinda Burton of Xavier University provides inputs on Lumad culture


The Building Bridges for Peace Project of the Philippine Coalition for the International Criminal Court came in just in time as the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) of Misamis Oriental was trying to embrace a paradigm shift in peace building and in pro-actively pursuing development initiatives.

When Etta Rosales approached Governor Oscar S. Moreno in 2008 and explained the BBP concept, it was clear to us that the PPOC would be the right body to work on the project.

Despite concerns about unifying the PPOC and expanding its work to include in its deliberations the concerned stakeholders, like the Higaonons, the paradigm shift was apparent from the moment BBP held the first dialogue.

Inspired by the pro-active leadership of Governor Oscar S. Moreno and Vice-Governor Norris C. Babiera, the efforts of the Misamis Oriental PPOC bannered the advancement of social equity through land distribution, empowerment of communities through livelihood assistance, expansion of people’s access to the best possible social services, and the pavement of roads for lasting peace.

Common understanding

Integrating the core principles of the BBP Project, PPOC-MisOr was able to create a Conflict Management Cluster (CMC) to further institutionalize the BBP project not just in the areas of Mt. Balatukan but throughout the province. The CMC even organized fact-finding missions on critical issues, like the killing of a Higaonon in the hinterland. As emphasized by Governor Moreno, “...we cannot address insurgency unless we address the root causes of insurgency.”

Through the BBP Project, common understanding on key implementation approaches was reached on how to harmonize the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act and the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA).

Indeed, for peace and development to reign, more and more bridges have to be built and consolidated for principled dialogue, conflict management, and lasting peace.

As the BBP Project ends, the Provincial Peace and Order Council of Misamis Oriental expresses its sincerest gratitude to the PCICC for making the Mt. Balatukan municipalities its pilot areas. PPOC-MisOr is committed more than ever

to tread the long and winding road to lasting peace, and it looks forward to walk with you again in our journey.

KALINAW atong ipatigbabaw!

TEODORO A. SABUGA-A, JR.Executive Director, Provincial

Peace and Order CouncilMisamis Oriental

as of this writing. In Manila, the BBP team had the same thought and continued meetings with the NCIP on its commitment to support the process in Mt. Balatukan.

The third consultation, which was a roundtable discussion and expanded meeting of the Provincial Peace and Order Council, finalized the MOU. (See Online Resources) The representative from DENR said they have no comments on the draft MOU since the provisions are in accordance with the Joint Memorandum Circular signed by DENR and NCIP in the harmonizing and management of the overlapped areas in ancestral domains.

The Project’s initial gains for the nine months of implementation are the following:• Institutionalization of the Conflict Management

Cluster of the PPOC• BBP agenda being adopted by the PPOC

• Strengthened relationship among the stakeholders (DENR, NCIP, Tribal Leaders)

• Formulation and signing of a MOU in harmonizing the IPRA and NIPAS Act in Mt. Balatukan

• DENR Memorandum to assist the preparation of ADSPP to CADT awarded and approved lands

• Allocation of funds from the NCIP National and the Provincial Government of Misamis Oriental

The promise of the MOU, recognition of ancestral domain, and preservation of Higaonon cultural heritage now lies in the hands of the PPOC-Conflict Management Cluster, and the provincial government, NCIP, the Higaonon Councils, various government agencies, civil society groups who participated in the dialogues and meetings. Once again we call on all the good spirits.

37

PERSPECTIvES AND POINTS OF INTERSECTION By Etta Pargas-Rosales

BBP Project Director

The Building Bridges for Peace Project used as reference frame the vision of EDSA when the 1986 People Power Uprising ended one-man-rule and ushered in renewed hope for the restoration of freedom, justice and democracy. The people sought justice not only for gross violations of their civil and political rights but, equally fundamental, an end to decades of poverty, unrest and violence in the rural countryside.

Meeting with National Commission on Indigenous Peoples President Atty. Eugenio A. Insigne and Ancestral Domains Office Director Myrna L. Caoagus

December 17, 2009 Forum with the Security Sector


The 1987 Constitution enshrined this vision in its articles on Social Justice and Human Rights. Over 30 international covenants on human rights and international law were adopted and ratified; however, many of these still need articulation in domestic law. There is also need to fully enforce enabling laws through oversight functions in all branches of government. Executive and administrative orders, circulars and memoranda must carry out the spirit of the law at every step of the way in order to not only harmonize overlapping provisions but more fundamentally to ensure the attainment of social justice and human dignity for all.

Thus, in defining the BBP milestones in influencing policy and behavior among key actors, the most important indicators have to do with empowered participation, interaction and action. Have we been able to forge a change process for the rights holders and the duty bearers? Is there increased engagement in mechanisms that would help identify the violations of people’s human rights and dignity and which contribute to unstable conditions? Is the security sector fulfilling its role as guardians of peace and security? Are all

stakeholders willing to accept that they may be part of the problem and need to take concrete action to become part of the solution?

Furthermore, are stakeholders able to agree on practical activities and mechanisms to address the problems of internal armed conflict and instability? Are they able to arrive at consensus on the roots of continuing armed conflict? Are they able to apply a holistic approach to these historical problems, to understand beyond the narrow confines of military security and human rights violations, the question of social justice, people’s empowerment and democratic governance? Are relations among the stakeholders enhanced through continuing dialogue? Are they able to form a consensus on the application of the principles and norms of human rights and international humanitarian law?

The Quezon and Misamis Oriental accounts already provide very important indicators. We reiterate here the most gratifying developments. • Effective multi-stakeholder dialogues in

both areas with several rounds of dialogues participated in by officials of national

39

government agencies prepared to respond to issues presented and recommendations;

• Establishment of working relationships with the Provincial Peace and Order Councils (PPOC) in both project areas and adoption of the Councils as venues for addressing issues of internal conflict and enforcing social justice measures;

• Formation of a Conflict Management Cluster in the PPOC of Misamis Oriental;

• The translations of major documents on ancestral domain claims for the Higaonon community in Mt. Balatukan;

• Formulation of a memorandum of understanding on harmonizing the application of two laws, the Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA) and the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act, in Mt. Balatukan based on a joint resolution earlier released by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP);

• Fund allocation from the the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples for the delineation and mapping out of the ancestral

domain areas for the enforcement of the Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title or CADT claims of the Higaonon;

• Installation of evicted tenants of Matias with the Writ of Execution secured for the nine farmers with positive decision (Partial Entry of Judgment); (Reinstallation is expected by the first quarter of 2010); and

• The commitment of the Supreme Court of the Philippines to issue a Memorandum Circular for distribution to judges of the regular courts nationwide on the decriminalization of agrarian cases. Ditto with the Department of Justice which shall issue an Administrative Order to its prosecutors nationwide.

Apart from these achievements, the BBP project team looks forward to the promise of better things to come as expressed in the sustained interest and commitments made by partners. The BBP Policy Forums on December 17, 2009 was a gratifying end to nine months of work. Below are what some of the participants had to say.

Perspective from the security sector• The security sector (Armed Forces of the

Philippines-CRS and Philippine National Police -PCRS) sought for the continuation of the Policy Forum as a regular mechanism for continuing dialogue on the peace process by the BBP and the stakeholders in the security sector. The Security Sector offered to host the subsequent Policy Dialogues; i.e., the AFP-CRS, the NDCP, and the PNP-PCRS.

Etta Rosales discusses the situation in the project areas with

Secretary Anabelle Abaya,the Presidential Adviser

on the Peace Process


• The chief of the AFP-CRS, Gen. Francisco Cruz, offered the position that the military involvement in the peace process should only be 10 percent while 90 percent should involve social justice issues such as what was being tackled in the forum. His deputy, Col. Rolando Jungco, admitted that he was tired of war. His father was in the military which fought the Huks and now he is fighting the CPP/NPA/NDF. He says they have the same ideology and there seems to be no end to the strife.

Perspective from the Office of the President on the Peace Process (OPAPP)• Annabelle Abaya, who heads OPAPP,

underscored that “the Building Bridges for Peace is a project that is doing the work of OPAPP and should be replicated nationwide. The BBP should provide training for peace advocates. There must be transfer of technology from your group to the others.”

• OPAPP is willing to partner with the PCICC-BBP for common activities that could strengthen the peace process. As the lead institution of the Philippine Government in the peace process, it is ready to support the PCICC-BBP programs that parallel OPAPP initiatives.

Perspective from Rights Holders in the Bondoc Peninsula and their Partners• Farmers’ groups are holding on to the promise

of actual installation of nine farmers in the Matias property agreed upon at the highest level of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). The installation set for February 2010 will be the first time farmers will be installed in the Matias hacienda in pursuit of the Agrarian Reform Law passed 22 years ago. Should this push through, the installation could open the floodgates for the resolution of pending cases involving some 1,700 hectares of arable land in the Court of Appeals. An estimated 300 tillers, since the enforcement of agrarian reform 22 years ago, have been deprived of their right to own the lands and have continued to remain as tenants in violation of the law.

Meeting at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources

Department of Agrarian Reform Undersecretary Ambrosio de Luna expounds on RA 9700’s referral

system for agrarian reform cases filed


• In public lands, a policy decision on the part of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to delineate timberlands and alienable and disposable lands will validate real occupants in public lands who deserve to engage in community-based forestry management programs deprived them by big landed interests. Currently, because there is no defined mapping of forestlands against alienable and disposable lands, big landowners have claimed thousands of hectares of public lands through judicial applications or private survey undertakings.

Perspective from agrarian reform and human rights lawyers• Lawyers’ groups involved in defending

farmers against criminalization charges of landowners have succeeded in persuading the Department of Justice and the Supreme Court to come up with their own circulars against these criminalization schemes, in line with Section 19 of the new Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reform (CARPER) Law, passed in December 2008 through the collective pressure of farmers.

Perspective from duty holdersin Misamis Oriental• Another major milestone has been the use

of the Provincial Peace and Order Council as a venue for multi-stakeholder discussion of social justice concerns. This has been inspired by the friendly provincial government

of Misamis Oriental whose dynamic leadership and progressive executive assistants have used the Council to discuss urgent issues of internal conflict. The BBP intervention pushed the adoption of the Higaunon claim to ancestral domain titles as a major agenda of the Misamis Oriental PPOC.

• Peace advocates, civil society groups and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) have championed the BBP Project and urged that it continues and be a national campaign towards peace.

Perspective from duty holders in the judiciary, justice department• BBP dialogues with the Judiciary and the

Department of Justice facilitated executive and judicial oversight functions through orders and circulars enforcing the CARPER law. The High Court will be coming out with a Court Circular providing that all local courts must automatically refer agrarian-related criminal cases to the Department of Agrarian Reform for verification. This will help emancipate

Legal conference on criminalization

farmers from trumped-up charges that keep hundreds upon hundreds of farmers detained in jail in many provinces where landlord-rule is the rule of law.

In sum, institutions that were directly affected by the issues of internal armed conflict, human rights violations and peace were very supportive of the project – both civilian and uniformed high government officials, civil society groups and the Commission on Human Rights.

While Building Bridges for Peace lists down very specific and concrete gains that are beneficial to the farmers and encouraging for multi-stakeholders dialogue, what it has gained as a strategic thrust

is the goodwill, trust and confidence from middle-level and some high government officials, both civilian and uniformed in the executive and judicial branches of government.

The provincial governments of Misamis Oriental and Quezon under the leadership of Governor Oscar Moreno and Governor Raffy Nantes, respectively, provided the framework of governance through which the BBP Project made its initial contacts. The openness and vision of governance of these provinces have facilitated work on the ground.

At the same time, what was achieved in nine months would not have been possible without the many years of struggle of farmers’ organizations

Participants of the December 17, 2009 policy forum


in Quezon and Higaonon communities in Mt. Balatukan. The initiatives on the ground to solve dispute needed only to be strengthened to build collective capacity among state and non-state actors working together for peace solutions.

Only time will tell if the consensus on action points and newfound partnerships will pull through in the long term and help make peace a reality. But continuing dialogue, working together and holding on to the dream, no matter how difficult, have gained many friends.

The spirit of EDSA lives on.

BBP staff and farmers’ lawyers with Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno


ANNEX


This book and the following documents can be found on the blog of the Philippine Coalition for the International Criminal Court, pcicc.wordpress.com:

Resolusyon Ng Multi-Stakeholders Consultation Dialogue Na Ginanap Sa Bulwagang Kalilayan, Lucena City Para Tugunan Ang Mga Usapin Sa Repormang Agraryo At Mga Karahasan Sa Bondoc Peninsula, 8 July 2009

ONLINE RESOURCES


A Proposal on Implementing Section 19 Of Republic Act 9700 Entitled: “An Act Strengthening The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp), Extending The Acquisition And Distribution Of All Agricultural Lands, Instituting Necessary Reforms, Amending For The Purpose Certain Provisions Of Republic Act No. 6657, Otherwise Known As The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law Of 1988, As Amended, And Appropriating Funds Therefor.”

(This is a draft prepared by RIGHTSNet and Initiatives for Dialogues and Alternative Legal Services or Ideals and submitted to the Supreme Court.)


Memorandum of Understanding To Pursue Higaonon People’s Ancestral Domain Claims Kasulatan Pagsinabtanay Pag Padayun Sa Pag Angkon Sa Mga Higaonon Sa Mga Teritoryo Nga Ilang Nasunod Sailang Kagikanan, open for signatures 15 December 2010


DENR Memorandum on Request For Assistance of the Higaunon Tribe of Balatukan Regarding the Preparation of their Ancestral Domains Sustainable Development and Protection Plan (ADSPP) Involving the Area Subject of their Ancestral Domain Claim Located Within the Mt. Balatukan Range National Park, 14 December 2009

building bridges for peace - Philippine Coalition for the International

Documents

Transcript of building bridges for peace - Philippine Coalition for the International