Tags: Administration, General News, Politics
By Anna Valmero
MAKATI CITY, METRO MANILA – Dominic Hannigan, a member of the Irish Parliament, believes it takes more than just the government and Muslim groups like Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to achieve true and lasting peace in Mindanao.
Hannigan recently ended his three-week volunteer program in Mindanao under VSO Bahaginan. He served as an advocacy adviser with the Mindanao Peace Partners, a partner of VSO Bahaginan and an organization that works to build peace across divided communities in the Philippines.
For the Mindanao peace process treaty to push through, Hannigan said the Philippine government should consider an “all-inclusive” strategy involving all stakeholders – from combatants, local leaders to youth and families in poor communities – who will benefit from unity and post-conflict economic growth.
“Stakeholders should be educated on this and the leadership in the country should prioritize it on the political agenda as well,” he said in a media briefing.
“In this regard, the peace talks should not only involved the two major parties, namely the Philippine government and the MILF . The peace talks should also include the youth to prevent them from being recruited as combatants, families in poor communities, former combatants and small armed groups.”
As chairman of the Good Friday peace agreement in Ireland, Hannigan shared best practices over the last three weeks with the Mindanao Peace Partners (MPP) and VSO Bahaginan to foster peace and conflict resolution between the Philippine government and MILF.
The Good Friday Agreement, which ended 30 years of war in the Northern Ireland, ushered economic development between 1998 to 2007, said Hannigan.
Similarly, he believes the same can be achieved in Mindanao, noting that the Philippines would attract more foreign investments as businesses like to grow in countries with good peace rating.
“One of my observations is that among many groups, there is a clear thirst for peace. They also recognize that compromises will be necessary to reach an agreement,” he said.
One of the causes of armed conflict in the southern region is economic, such as the high unemployment rate in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). This pushes the youth to take up arms and fight for a future instead of studying and becoming productive citizens.
Hannigan said there is a strong need to focus resources in ARMM, where life expectancy is at 52 years old, the lowest in the country compared to the national average of 71 years old. With economic development, Mindanao constituents will have more jobs and better access to social services such as sanitation, education and medical facilities.
Moreover, Hannigan said the peace process should also involve all stakeholders and “splinter groups” of armed men composed of former MILF members or from smaller rebels who disagree with the peace process.
“Efforts should be made to include them in the peace process, similar to how we included different armed groups for the Ireland peace process. It would be much better to try and reach an accommodation with them as part of an agreement rather than have them shouting from the sides and continue their operations even after an agreement has been reached,” he said.
The Irish deputy also urged local non-government organizations to implement more programs in Mindanao.
Hannigan lauded the work of local group Peacetech, which established dialogue and understanding between students in Metro Manila and Mindanao through Internet “link-ups” so they could discover things they have in common.
The Irishman also visited 100 young members of local indigenous peoples’ (IP) group studying a four-year degree program on community development. He said this would help foster community development among IP communities.
“The Philippines is at the beginnging of road to a settlement and while a peace agreement does not come overnight, it would be achieved with a focused, all-inclusive strategy,” he said.
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