OPAPP History

Historically, the Philippine Government’s institutionalized efforts in peace-building and peace-making straddle four administrations and span almost two decades of work. The beginnings of the current peace process can be traced back to the 1986 People Power Revolution staged through a common call for the citizenry to participate in a peaceful non-violent uprising to overthrow a 20-year-old dictatorship and restore democracy in the country. (The Philippines was under Martial Law from September 21, 1972 to 1983.)

THE AQUINO ADMINISTRATION:

REBUILDING PEACE

With freedom regained, Corazon Aquino, the first woman president of the Republic, assumed the presidency in a transitional government faced with huge problems cutting across the socio-political-economic spectrum of governance. Among these were two rebellions rooted in historical injustices raging in the countryside: the Communist insurgency and the Moro struggle for secession.

However, in her six-year term as President, despite efforts to restore the institutions of constitutional democracy and end the armed conflicts that plagued the nation, a series of coup attempts were staged by three military rebel groups between 1986-1989: three were led by the Reform the Armed Forces Movement and four led by two groups of military rebels loyal to the deposed dictator.

President Aquino ended her term in mid-1992 with the foundations of the peace efforts of government in place through:

(1) the commencement of formal negotiations with three rebel groups;

(2) a signed peace agreement with the Cordillera Peoples Liberation Front and the CPLA, a breakaway group from the Communist insurgents based in the Cordillera mountains of Northern Luzon;

(3) reconciliation efforts by granting amnesty to persons who committed crimes in pursuit of political beliefs;

(4) the creation of a peace body through the Office of the Peace Commissioner (OPC);

(5) addressing issues of conflict, amelioration of economic deprivation, and government neglect;

(6) protection of non-combatants;

(7) support for people’s peace initiatives;

(8) dialogues between members of the Cabinet on security and political affairs and the Multisectoral Peace Advocates towards forging a new peace and reconstruction process; and

(9) discreet meetings held between government officials and the National Democratic Front international representatives to reopen channels towards peace talks.

Moreover, according to military statistics, the peak rebel strength of 25,800 of the Communist Rebel Movement in 1988 had been reduced to 11,900 in 1992, and the peak firearm strength of 15,500 in 1987 was brought down to 8,700 by 1992. The ceasefire established during the 1986 talks with the Moro rebels continued to hold, and the military rebels were forced underground and their numbers contained.

THE RAMOS ADMINISTRATION:

BIRTH OF THE COMPREHENSIVE PEACE PROCESS

When Fidel Ramos assumed the presidency in 1992, he was determined to move the Philippine economy forward, putting the economy at par with our neighboring nations in the Southeast Asian region. Recognizing, therefore, that civic order, political stability, and national security were among the preconditions for the economic growth of the nation, he set the peace efforts of government early on as a priority agenda of his administration.

The Communist insurgency, Moro armed separatism, and military rebellions had been weakened but remained unresolved. His first moves were toward reconciliation, building confidence, and encouraging the return of rebels to mainstream society.

President Ramos issued two amnesty proclamations; endorsed the de-criminalization of the Communist Party through the repeal by Congress of the Anti-Subversion law; created a presidential committee to review cases of alleged political offenders and recommended their release, bail, or pardon; and dispatched a special mission to the Netherlands to explore the openness of the CPP/NPA/NDF leadership to peaceful negotiations.

A most significant decision in the early days of the Ramos presidency was the amendment of his amnesty proclamation to include the creation of the National Unification Commission (NUC) in response to the clamor of a growing number of peace advocates from practically all sectors of Philippine society for government to address the concerns of “unpeace” within a larger and participative process.

The NUC was an ad hoc advisory body mandated by Executive Order No. 19 and signed by Pres. Ramos on September 1, 1992 tasked to formulate and recommend to the President a viable general amnesty program and peace process that will lead to a just, comprehensive, and lasting peace in the country.

From the previous administration’s peace-building efforts as alternative and/or complement to stalled peace talks, the peace initiatives have evolved into new dimensions under the NUC. During its six-month term, discussions with the military rebels have already graduated into formal talks. Exploratory talks with the MNLF have begun and an agreement had been signed to begin formal talks. The MILF at this point agreed to engage in exploratory talks but preferred to wait until the conclusion of the talks with the MNLF.

The Hague Joint Declaration was signed with the Netherlands-based NDF leadership. And equally important as the peace talks, the NUC public consultations conducted in 71 out of 76 provinces and with numerous multi-sectoral formations – the first of its kind – documented and integrated the voices of the entire nation on peace concerns towards the formulation of the NUC recommendations embodied in Executive Order No. 125, which Pres. Ramos signed on September 15,1993.

E.O. 125 provided the official policy framework for the Ramos government’s peace efforts and created the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, its support Secretariat, the Peace Panels for the peace talks, and Panel Advisers.

It provided a broader official perspective on peace, an official policy that defined a comprehensive, multi-track peace process, an infrastructure to carry out the government peace effort, and significant achievements in the reform and negotiations process. Foremost among them were the Social Reform Agenda (SRA), the banner program of the Ramos Administration, and the 1996 GRP-MNLF Final Peace Accord.

In the context of the Reform Path of the Comprehensive Peace Process, the current framework for the government’s social reform efforts known as the 1997 Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act (R.A. 8425) traces its roots and foundations to the SRA and the Social Reform Council, chaired by the President himself.

The SRA concept was developed by OPAPP as one mechanism to operationalize and push Path 1 of the Comprehensive Peace Process – to address the root causes of armed conflicts and social unrest as defined in the NUC consultations. It was launched in 1994 as the primary advocacy and implementation framework for social and economic reforms. Furthermore, it operationalized the people empowerment component of Pres. Ramos’ vision of Philippines 2000 through numerous policy issuances, aimed at rationalizing and integrating all anti-poverty policies and programs around a central human development framework.

The Basic Sectors were the specific target participant-beneficiaries of SRA’s deliberate reform policies. To empower the Basic Sectors, counterpart structures on different levels were subsequently organized in order to effectively push the integrated Basic Sectors Agenda and government programs towards the common goal of poverty reduction.

The SRA created a positive and enabling environment in prioritizing the enactment of numerous laws which have been advocated by concerned sectors for many years. A total of 85 social reform laws were enacted under the Ramos Administration, 60 of these were SRA measures. Eight of the eleven priority SRA bills passed were aimed to address critical equity issues of the basic sectors, as follows:

A.   1997

•    The Anti-Rape Law (R.A. 8353)

•    The Anti-Squatting Repeal Act (R.A. 8368)

•    The Family Courts Act (R.A. 8369)

•    The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (R.A. 8371)

•    The Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (R.A. 8435)

•    The Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act (R.A. 8425)

B.   1998

•    Agrarian Reform Fund Augmentation Law

•    The Philippine Fisheries Code

NATIONAL UNIFICATION COMMISSION (1992)

The National Unification Commission (NUC) was established via Proclamation No. 10-A on July 28, 1992, and later Executive Order No. 19 on September 1, 1992 as an ad hoc advisory body to the President relative to the formulation of a national peace program.

Ma. Lorenza Palm-Dalupan, political anthropologist and former Executive Director of the OPAPP, said in her report “The Development of the Government’s Comprehensive Peace Program” (2000) that the amendment of the amnesty proclamation to include the creation of the NUC by Pres. Ramos was probably the most significant decision he took in responding to the clamor of peace advocates to position amnesty within a larger and participative peace process.

The NUC was tasked to “formulate and recommend, after consulting with the concerned sectors of society, to the President … a viable general amnesty program and peace process that will lead to a just, comprehensive, and lasting peace” (E.O. 19, s. 1992). Specifically, the NUC was mandated to do the following tasks:

1.    Definition of initial principles underlying the peace efforts;

2.    Conduct of consultations or exploratory discussions with rebel group representatives;

3.    Conduct of national, local, and sectoral level of public consultations;

4.    Preparation by Technical Committees of working papers on peace-related substantive issues;

5.    Promulgation of guidelines for peace initiatives by public officials; and

6.    Support for confidence-building measures.

Notably, the NUC as an advisory body to the President, only recommends after due consultation with all sectors of society, an indication that the government places weight on the “participative” nature of the process and “empowerment” of the people.

As mandated, the NUC conducted a six-month public consultation nationwide to generate inputs that are multi-sectoral, promoted awareness and interest among the people in the issues of peace and mobilized active support for the participation of the citizenry in the formulation and implementation of peace proposals.

The NUC initially defined three underlying principles of the peace process to guide the conduct of the consultations and the formulation of a national peace program (NUC, 1993):

1.    A peace process should be community-based, reflecting the sentiments, values, and principles important to all Filipinos;

2.    A peace process seeks to forge a new social compact for a just, equitable, humane and pluralistic society;

3.    A peace process seeks a principled and peaceful resolution of the armed conflicts, with neither blame nor surrender, but with dignity for all concerned.

The consultation particularly looked into the perceived causes of armed conflicts, approaches to peace and relevant peace issues determined by the people. It has purposefully drawn out feedback and views on government policies, reforms, and programs relative to the peace effort.

Moreover, it became a vehicle for soliciting contributions and commitment from all sectors of society on how to achieve these policies, reforms, and program. To gather inputs for its recommendations and lay the groundwork for formal negotiations, consultations were also conducted with the rebel groups.

Results of these national and local consultations are contained in the “Final Report to the President on the Pursuit of a Comprehensive Peace Process” submitted by the NUC on July 1, 1993.

To cite briefly, the NUC report identified five root causes of armed conflict as: 1) poverty and economic inequity; 2) poor governance; 3) acts of injustice and abuse, human rights violation, and corruption; 4) structural inequity in the political system; and 5) exploitation and marginalization of Indigenous Cultural Communities.

Other issues not to be ignored were the lack of concern for the environment and the counterinsurgency campaign.

The President designated the Chairman, as head of the NUC, and its two members. The Senate President and the House Speaker selected its six members, four coming from the Senate as the upper chamber of Congress and two members from the lower chamber, the House of Representatives. The members elected a Vice Chairman among themselves.

To ensure effective and efficient functioning, the NUC support system included a Council of Advisers, a Technical Committee, and a Secretariat. Upon the recommendation of the Commission, the President designated members for the Council of Advisers that served as a consultative body to the peace process.

The Technical Committee consists of members selected by the Commission, provided expert and professional assistance. The Secretariat, headed by an Executive Director designated by the Chairman, provided administrative support to the Commission and the Technical Committee. It was tasked to handle the overall organizing and supervision of the consultations.

Public consultations were conducted at two levels: national and local. While the national consultation was conducted with national formations that included multi-sectoral coalitions and national multi-sectoral organizations, the local consultations were carried out from the provincial to the regional gatherings geared at generating inputs from the provincial community.

The regional consultations being more structured convened 10 representatives from each province with priority for marginalized basic sectors to be represented.

Considering the vast scope of work, the NUC has drawn support from members of the nationwide network of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) to serve as oversight in the local consultations.

Regional Convenors Groups (RCGs) were set up in the 14 regions nationwide to assist the NUC Secretariat in the organization of national consultations and preparatory activities on the local level. Regional Co-Convenors were nominated, one each from the CBCP and NCCP, and approved by the NUC.

Provincial Convenors Groups (PCGs) were formed from each province with its memberships identified by the RCG. Each was basically manned by the provincial governor, representatives from the religious groups, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), and People’s Organization (POs). Though in some cases, the PCG accommodates representation from other significant sectors such as Indigenous Cultural Communities (ICC) and political units in highly urbanized areas.

The NUC structure lends its strengths from the nature of its consultation process and the principles underlying it. The process and its guiding principles endeavored to involve all concerned sectors of society to generate collective political will to attain peace and justice. The following remarks are briefly noted:

1.    The NUC strived to be balanced in its representation of members from all sectors of society. Though the President and Senate and Congress heads had a hand in selecting the NUC composition, national networks of CBCP and NCCP were tapped to serve as Regional Co-Convenors to provide assistance in the actual conduct of local consultations and had a freehand in selecting PCG members.

Intervention of the NUC in the actual consultation process particularly at the provincial level was limited to validation of the representation mix. The approach has helped preserve the neutrality of the process since people from the religious sector particularly guarded its integrity.

2.    There was a strong effort to make the consultation and the national peace program formulation a mainstream societal concern. It attempted to encourage participation from all sectors of society to increase the possibility of coming up with a more realistic, practical and sound peace proposals since it reflected sentiments on the ground.

3.    Empowerment of the people was inherent from the structure and the consultation process itself for it engaged the people to become co-makers with the government, sharing responsibility in the formulation and implementation of a national peace program.

Participation and empowerment led to “shared ownership” over the process and the product. In this case, ownership of the national peace program was not exclusive to the government. It made the Filipinos responsible to their own peace program, partakers of the gains of the national peace effort and brothers in the struggle to attain a just and lasting peace.

THE ESTRADA ADMINISTRATION

E.O. 125 withstood the rough sailing two-and-a-half years of Pres. Ramos’ successor, President Joseph Estrada, until the second woman president of the Philippines stepped into power after another people power revolution was staged in January 2001 ousting the incumbent president.

An interim peace agreement was signed between the GRP and the RPMP/RPA/ABB in 2000.

THE ARROYO ADMINISTRATION:

RECONSTRUCTING THE COMPREHENSIVE PEACE PROCESS

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, former Vice-President-elect to Estrada, became the 14th President of the Republic.

In February 2001, President Arroyo provided for an enhanced and strengthened OPAPP in one of her very first executive issuances, Executive Order No. 03, her official peace policy.