In celebration of the Women’s Month, the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy (PCID) together with the Institute for Autonomy and Governance (IAG) and several other partners spearheaded Monday a national forum to steer the discourse on the peace process and provide the unique and significant women’s lens for moving forward.

 

Bangsamoro women from the Society of Empowered Royal Ladies of Cotabato Empire voiced out the misery of women and children in the evacuation centers due to the all-out offensive launched by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) against the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) guerillas in Maguindanao. Of the more than 70,000 evacuees in the 11 municipalities of the province, around 2,000 are pregnant women, according to Atty. Roslaine Maniri, the convener of the group.

 

Sr. Linda Hisug of the Oblates of Notre Dame in the Archdiocese of Cotabato visited recently one of the evacuation centers in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao. Speaking as one of the panelists during the forum, she described what she saw: “Families are stuck under the streets, with sacks or cardboards or native mats for their backs and plastics as roofs. Rations of five kilos of rice, 5 cans of sardines and another five packs of instant noodles are given to the evacuees. Some are fortunate to have additional sugar and coffee. They do not know when the next distribution will be.”

 

READ: Thoughts on my personal encounters with peace – and war

 

PCID President Amina Rasul said, “Muslim women in the conflict-affected areas are caught between a rock and a hard place. The rock is the state of military operations which reduce communities to unproductive conflict zones, all in the name of securing the peace. Ignorance about Muslim faith makes many leaders tend to perceive our religion itself as a threat. The hard place is the aggregation of extremist fundamentalist groups who want to monopolize Islam.”

 

READ: ‘Between a rock and a hard place’

 

The Bangsamoro women in the forum are pinning their hopes on the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) as a key legislation that could potentially usher peace and development in the troubled region, but the deliberations on the proposed law in Congress have been stalled following the tragic January 25 Mamasapano encounter.

 

The BBL is the enabling law of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, the product of 17 years of negotiations between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

 

GPH peace panel chair Miriam Coronel-Ferrer remains hopeful the BBL will pass before the current administration bows out in 2016. “There is a schedule in Congress. It will move,” she said.

 

But Mohagher Iqbal, chair of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) that drafted the BBL, acknowledged that “although there is only one option, which is to pass the BBL, we are not sure whether or not it will pass. If you look at the content of newspapers, even in talk shows, you will be discouraged. Practically 90% of discussions are negative.”

 

Iqbal reiterated the position of the MILF that “there is no other option, except the option of peace, except to pass the BBL.”

 

Representatives from the international community – UNICEF Philippines Representative Lotta Sylwander, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Country Representative Benedikt Seemann, Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) Chairperson Mdm Mo Bleeker, and Australian Embassy Deputy Head of Mission Dr. David Dutton also gave messages of support and stressed on the important role of women in the peace process and to keep working for lasting peace.

 

The forum on “Women Moving the Peace Process Forward” was presented by PCID, IAG, Local Government Development Foundation (LOGODEF), Zamboanga-Basilan Development Alliance (ZABIDA), Philippine Legislators’ Committee for Population and Development (PLCPD), Senate Muslim Advocates for Peace and Progress, Women in International Security (WIIS), and Harvard Kennedy School of Government Alumni Association, with support from Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, the Australian Government, and UNICEF. 

 

IN PICTURES: Forum on Women Moving the Peace Process Forward