Balay Mindanaw Operation Peace Course Batch 110
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| Operation Peace Course Batch 110 Schedule of Activities |
On June 6, 2023, a representative from the Municipal Local Government Unit (MLGU) of Loreto, Agusan del Sur (ADS) went to Cagayan de Oro City to join the 5-day peacebuilding course offered freely by Balay Mindanaw.
What is Balay Midanaw?
Balay Mindanaw Foundation, Inc. (BMFI) is a non-stock and non-profit organization focused on peacebuilding in Mindanao to attain "Equality, Development, Peace for Mindanao, for the Philippines, and for the World."
What is Operation Peace Course (OPKors)?
OPKors is an initiative of BMFI to educate interested parties from the local government units (LGUs), military sectors, and other organizations about peacebuilding. The course does not strictly focus on topics about peacebuilding but also encourages the sharing of knowledge and experiences in the field relevant to peacebuilding for learning and the exchange of ideas that might help to achieve inclusive peace and development.
Who are the speakers or resource people?
In the preliminaries, the founder of BMFI, Charlito Manlupig, whom they call "Kuya Kaloy," discussed the Concept and Practice of Inclusive Peace and Resiliency Building in Mindanao. He emphasized during the training that they were all equal in that room. Despite his long experience as a government and non-government manager or leader, he remained humble and respectful towards everyone.
The second speaker was MGen Roy Galido, the Commander for WesMinCom, who tackled peacebuilding in the security sector. He reiterated the words of "Kuya Kaloy" that the new approach of the military sector should be winning the peace, not the war. What they mean by this is that they should choose peaceful actions to end conflicts, like socio-economic support, rather than firearms and ammunition. His words gave realizations to the military participants.
Prof. Saturnina "Bebot" Rodil, an Associate Professor at MSU-IIT and a well-known peacebuilder, was the third resource person. She helped the participants find inner peace and self-transformation.
Retired General Raymundo Ferrer discussed Multi-stakeholder Engagement for Peace and Security on the third day of the training. He was the first speaker who shared his vast experience in Mindanao violence. He imparted to the participants the story of those working on the ground and the lives of those living in remote areas, also known as GIDAS (Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas).
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| Presentation of the 3-box Analysis guided by ICPeace |
The remaining speakers are part of the International Center for Peace (ICPeace), an education program of Balay Mindanaw focused on educational approaches to building peace and conflict transformation. Some topics explored are about understanding conflict, violence, and peace. Context and conflict analysis, conflict mapping, and conflict interventions are some interactive activities that pushed the participants to look at the reality in the communities they serve and think (hard) of ways to help.
What is the role of the participants?
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| Participants making the Conflict Map guided by ICPeace |
The participants share their knowledge and thoughts about the topics discussed to stimulate the interest of everyone in the room. They also provide outputs beneficial to the organization they are working for or their field of assignment.
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| OPKors Batch 110 Groups analyzing all 3-box Analysis Outputs |
The Agusan del Sur team worked on one of the common causes of conflict in the province, land disputes. Truth be told, the only context and conflict analyzed by all groups from Caraga and Northern Mindanao are related to land conflicts. The result implies a need to enhance the land subdivision and titling system, especially in GIDAs.
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| Agusan del Sur Group working on the Conflict Tree |
Below are the results of the context and conflict analysis of the group assigned in Agusan del Sur.
Agusan del Sur Team Recommendation
3-box Analysis
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| Agusan del Sur 3-box Analysis |
In the 3-box analysis, column one includes forces for peace like the collaboration of AFP, LGU, and PNP on government programs, projects, and activities such as medical missions, PSA registration, and seminar or training in GIDAs.
Column two is about forces against peace, like unaddressed concerns of the disadvantaged and people in conflict, such as a lack of livelihood and targeted training.
The third column consists of the actors toward peace. They are the individuals or groups with a strong influence (positive or negative) on the conflict. Actors listed by the Agusan del Sur group are the LGUs (including the barangays, municipalities/cities, and province/s), Non-government Organizations (NGOs), uniformed personnel (AFP and PNP), communities, New People's Army (NPA), migrants, Indigenous People (IP), and National Government Agencies (i.e., DSWD, DAR, and DENR).
Conflict Mapping
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| Agusan del Sur Conflict Map: The land dispute between an IP landowner and a migrant |
In this process, they identified the parties involved directly or indirectly in conflict and examined one anothers' relationship and possible alliances.
They based their map on the common reality they observed or shared with them from one of the parties in conflict.
Conflict Tree
They used the conflict tree tool to identify the root cause of the conflict, the core issue, and its effects not just on the parties involved but also on the community.
In the conflict tree below, the identified core issue is the land dispute between an IP (landowner) and the migrant (buyer). Some of the identified root causes are the lack of knowledge of the parties in the land titling process, multiple land claimants, and deceptive buying processes.
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| Agusan del Sur Conflict Tree (written in Tagalog) |
PIN Analysis
The PIN is the shortcut of position, interest, and needs. The "position" is what the parties say (publicly) they want. The "interest" is their concern or what they truly desire. The "needs" are their basic needs for survival.
The first triangle below shared the IP landowner's position, needs, and interest. In the small triangle in the middle are the common interest of the parties in conflict while in the second big triangle are the position, interests, and needs of the migrant buyer. Their common interests are livelihood and land subdivision for titling.
The process of land subdivision and titling is lengthy and expensive for most IP landowners. They need support to reclaim or get a part of their ancestral land because many IPs today became landless. Many left their native lands because they believe that they lost their rights to the land acquired through deception. They were forced to leave their native land to survive.
Group Action Plan
