Mt. Province, Philippines (photo credits: Vien Suerte-Cortez)
The Philippines
[Espanol]
1. Background.
The Republic of the Philippines forms part of the Malay Archipelago in south east Asia with Malaysia and Indonesia to the south west, Taiwan and China to the north. Its territory consists of over 7,000 islands, the largest being Luzon in the north and Mindanao in the south. Its population is over 92 million and growing rapidly, mostly consisting of descendents of original Austronesian speaking people but with a small mestizo minority that makes up the bulk of the current landowning, commercial and political elite in the country. There are over 170 different local languages spoken throughout the islands, the official languages being Tagalog and English. There are nearly 10 million Filipinos working overseas and returning nearly $12 billion in remittances every year, which makes up a sizeable portion of Filipino GNP.
2. History.
Austronesian speaking peoples had settled in the Philippines and built up extensive trading networks as early as 5,000 B.C.E., but independent local life came to an end in the 16th century when Spanish settlers and Catholic missionaries began to colonise the islands and convert the islanders. [Catholicism is the dominant religion throughout the Philippines, although there is a substantial Muslim population in the south.] For over 300 years, between 1565 and 1821 the colony was governed as a part of “New Spain” but during the 19th Century it was directly administered from Madrid. In the 1880’s a protest movement began , led by Filipino representatives in Spain such as Jose Rizal, pushing for political reforms [including greater representation sent to Madrid] and social change. Failing to make headway in Spain itself, the reformers shifted their activities to the islands but met with indifference and then repression. [Rizal was tried for sedition and executed in December 1896.] In the same year armed struggle against Spanish rule broke out, and Emilio Aguinaldo established a revolutionary government.
Local events now became enmeshed in the Spanish American War, which broke out in 1898, the same year that Aguinaldo announced Filipino independence and was proclaimed head of state. At the end of the war, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States [together with Cuba, Guam and Puerto Rico] and the violence on the islands was transformed into a vicious conflict between the United States military and Filipino guerrilla forces, representing the nationalist government. The war ended in 1901 with the defeat of nationalist forces and from that point on the islands were under the colonial administration of the United States, which co-opted local elites and gradually introduced limited electoral democracy into the country. [Even by 1935 only 14% of the Filipino population was entitled to vote for the first President of the “Commonwealth of the Philippines”, established in that year as a step towards independence.] Plans for the granting of full independence for the country were interrupted by the Second World War, by the Japanese invasion of the islands in 1942 and by the subsequent occupation, which also saw the rise of indigenous armed resistance to the Japanese, encouraged both by the United States and by the local communist party [CPP]. With the reconquest of the islands by the Allies and the ending of the war, independence was achieved in 1946 and U.S. rule came to an end, although major US military and naval bases remained on the islands until they were removed in 2000.
The new republic faced a large number of economic and political problems, not least a major left wing insurgency known as the Huk rebellion [see below]. US influence and support remained strong, so that the Philippines sent troops both to Korea in the 1950’s and Vietnam in the 1960’s, although during the latter decade student protest and unrest disrupted life in several cities. In 1972 two term elected President Ferdinand Marcos [constitutionally barred from seeking a third term] declared martial law and commenced a period of dictatorial rule, marked by extensive corruption and cronyism. The Marcos era, re-legitimated by a dubious election in 1981, lasted until 1986, when Marcos attempted to extend his rule by calling another “snap” election and claiming victory therein. In what subsequently became known as the EDSA Revolution [or EDSA1], massive popular protests erupted, the Roman Catholic primate, Cardinal Sin, condemned the stealing of the election, key military leaders and units backed the protesters and the US Government withdrew its support from Marcos. The dictator was forced into exile and the candidate generally recognised as having won the 1986 election -- Corazon Aquino, the widow of assassinated opposition leader Benigno Aquino -- became President.
Events have not run smoothly since the first EDSA revolution and the Aquino presidency, which had started with massive popular support and high hopes of far reaching reforms, was only able to carry through political changes, including a new constitution, but not the anticipated agrarian reforms. Efforts to make peace with the New People’s Army [NPA] [see below] came to nothing. However, the hand over to the next elected president, Fidel Ramos, was smooth and legitimate, and Ramos was able to pass some small economic reforms as well as signing a peace agreement with one of the Muslim separatist movements [see below] in the south of the country. The same could not be said about the presidency of his successor, Joseph Estrada, which was notable for his support among the urban poor but also for flamboyant spending, corruption, links with figures from the Marcos era, a declaration of “all our war” against insurgent and separatist movements and, finally, an effort to impeach him in the Senate. When this failed, another popular protest [EDSA2] broke out in 2001, led by the middle class, encouraged by Estrada’s opponents in the church and business communities, and ultimately supported by the police and the army. Finally, the Supreme Court nominated Estrada’s vice president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, to replace him, although Estrada retained much popular support among the poor which he mobilised in a march on the presidential palace [“EDSA3”], put down with much violence.
As a non-elected president, Arroyo was not in a strong position to resist pressure from conservative forces in Filipino society such as the army and the church. [She scrapped the family planning programme started under Fidel Ramos.] She sought a new mandate and was elected for a six year term, although her opponent alleged electoral fraud and corruption, and there certainly were dubious aspects to her 3% winning margin. Currently, it remains to be seen whether her planned reform of the Filipino political system, known as “charter change” involving a new parliamentary, single chamber system, will be implemented, what effects this will have on political instability in the country, and whether this scheme is simply – as claimed by many who oppose it – a means of avoiding the single term limitation on the presidency.
3. Protracted Conflicts and Local Peace Zones.
The establishment of peace zones and communities in the Philippines took place against a background – and because of – a number of violent, protracted conflicts involving clashes between government armed forces [backed in some cases by armed civilian milita] and insurgent movements, some seeking revolutionary change throughout Filipino society and others seeking to separate themselves, to greater or lesser degrees, from the Filipino state.
The Philippines is not a country where insurgencies are unknown. Throughout the almost four centuries of Spanish rule there were indigenous revolts that were put down with much brutality. The guerrilla war against the imposition of American rule lasted for three years before it petered out and was conducted with considerable savagery. In more recent times, the tradition of violent resistance was carried on by the Hukbalahap, the military arm of the CPP, formed in 1942 to fight against the Japanese occupation and which, during the Second World War, often worked with American backed guerrillas to disrupt Japanese tax collection processes, destroy food and other supplies and – especially once American troops had re-invaded the islands -- to ambush Japanese units during their long retreat. Initially the main support for the Huks came from the campesinos in central Luzon but by 1943 the movement claimed over 20,000 active fighters throughout the country. In areas they controlled the CPP put some of its Marxist ideas into practice, establishing local government, carrying out land reform, dividing up large estates and frequently killing off landlords. At the end of the war the “Huk rebellion” continued against what its leaders regarded as an imperial occupation, which they saw as continuing after independence through the presence of US business interests, US bases and US military assistance programmes. However, by 1954 the rebellion was virtually at an end with the defeat and dispersal of the Huk forces [renamed the “People’s Liberation Army” in 1950] and its reduction to a minor nuisance, at least until the 1970’s.
The dangerous, insecure and violent environment that gave rise to the local zones of peace movement, at least in its first stage during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, was the result of a rebirth of left wing insurgency, a reaction to the years of the Marcos dictatorship. The CPP remained in being during the late 1950’s and 1960’s, although armed resistance dwindled to a few isolated areas throughout the country. In 1969, the Party reformed the armed resistance as the New People’s Army [NPA], which from very small beginnings spread rapidly throughout the country, especially after Marcos proclaimed martial law in 1972. Many students and former students became members of the NPA. By the mid-1980’s it was estimated that there were 25,000 fighters in the NPA, although many of the original leaders were in jail or exile and the movement’s tactics were changing to kidnapping, extortion, murder and increasingly frequent human rights violations affecting local communities in both rural and urban areas. Fighting between the Armed Forces of the Philippines [AFP] and the NPA became widespread, especially in Luzon, Negros and Mindanao, and local communities were frequently “caught in the crossfire”, both literally and metaphorically. The situation of the civilian population may even have worsened during the 1990’s when the CPP and NPA underwent a savage internal purge which involved the killing of many NPA members accused of being spies or government agents. This so-called “Second Rectification” was largely over by the end of 1998, after which the NPA resumed its “revolution” mainly in rural areas, targeting police, the military, politicians, landlords, business leaders and criminals.
The NPA’s insurgency and the government’s military reactions to it brought about the establishment of a number of neutral “peace zones” throughout the country. The situation in the south, and particularly on Mindanao, was perhaps even more unstable and dangerous in the 1980’s and 1990’s –and certainly in the 2000’s – as there also existed in that region a number of Muslim [locally known as “Moros”] separatist insurgencies, also threatening the security and lives of local communities. If the conflicts between the central government and left wing insurgencies had protracted over 50 years, those in the south were more recent, but – given that they were about the continued existence of the Filipino state as a unit – seemed equally intractable and just as likely to be violently long lasting. The origins of Moro resistance to the central government go back to the 1960’s with the formation of the Moro National Liberation Front [MNLF], whose main objective was establishing an independent Islamic state in areas where Moros had traditionally lived. [Moro organisations claim that about 10 million Moros live in the area covered by “Bangsamoro” – southern Mindanao, Palawan, the Sulu Archipelago, Basilan and nearby islands – about one third of the Philippines.] Moro leaders accuse the Filipino government of deliberately bringing Christian settlers into More areas, discriminating against Moros and even carrying out genocide against Moro Muslims.
In 1996, the government of President Ramos managed to conclude a Final Peace Agreement with the MNLF, handing over an Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao [ARMM] to the care of the newly politicised organisation and making other concessions, but well short of complete independence. While the MNLF accepted this compromise, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front [MILF] , which had split earlier from the MNLF in 1977 continued its armed struggle. This it did -- with increasing disruption -- for the next ten years, at which point, in July 1997, a general cessation of hostilities was signed with President Ramos’ government. This was broken in 2000 by the Estrada government, which announced a policy of “all out war” against the MILF and other insurgent groups, a policy that was reversed two years later by President Arroyo who signed a ceasefire with an MILF possibly made somewhat more receptive to peace offers by the fear of being associated with the militant Islamic Abu Sayyaf following the events of 11th September 2001. The two sides commenced peace negotiations but made little progress and there were several violent incidents and major outbreaks of fighting during 2005 and the first half of 2006, leading to speculation about whether the MILF could control its cadres. The whole situation is complicated by the existence of other militant Filipino Islamic insurgencies, such as Abu Sofia and Abu Sayyaf [literally “Father of the Sword”], said to have links to al Qaeda and the Indonesian Jemaah Islamiyah and who aim at the eventual creation of a pan-Islamic superstate including Mindanao, the Sulu Archipelago, Borneo, the Malay Penisula, Thailand and Myanmar.
The situation in the southern Philippines thus remains highly unstable, and an absence of peace and security there helps to account for the continuation of a second wave of efforts to set up peace zones and communities in that part of the islands. Prospects for a general peace look equally bleak. President Arroyo declared a brief “state of emergency” for the country in February 2006 and in June officials were announcing a policy of “all out war” against the NPA. Since 2001, according to Filipino human rights organisations, there has been a growing campaign of targeted assassinations against leftist politicians, workers’ leaders and community activists – 55 have been killed in the first 6 months of 2006 alone. The effects of all this on local peacebuilding efforts do not look encouraging.
4. The Peace Zones.
The peace zones and communities in the Philippines have been established at various time in a series of "waves" starting around the time of the EDSA Revolution when the initial peace zones were mainly created in Luzon. Later initiatives took place in other regions of the country and the most recent "wave" of new peace zones has taken place in Mindanao where the struggle between the Government and thre MILF continues and local communities face high levels of violence. As with the more numerous peace communities in Colombia, for ease of access we have entered information about the individual peace zones in four regional sub-groupings: Luzon, Bicol, Visayas and Mindanao.