Cagayan de Oro City (24 July) -- For decades now, various voices have been crying for peace to happen in Mindanao.
But on the eve of the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Supreme Court issued a Temporary Restraining Order followed by a declaration that the MOA-AD was unconstitutional.
Throughout the period, violence ensued and the sound of guns dominated the various parts of region wherein thousands of civilians were rendered homeless.
Then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, in the last quarter of 2008, requested the Bishops-Ulama Conference (BUC) to oversee a consultative process to come up with a framework for lasting peace in Mindanao.
Inspired by the challenge of ending the decades-long conflict and bringing peace in Mindanao, the BUC accepted the invitation of the government to spearhead the new peace process.
It commissioned a project dubbed as Konsult Mindanaw that allows broader peoples' participation in the peace process.
Konsult Mindanaw held a series of extensive grassroots consultations and dialogues regarding the ongoing peace process with the MILF. It included representations from various sectors such as women, youth, rural and urban poor, local government units, non-government organizations, traditional leaders, religious groups, academe, business practitioners, professionals and internally displaced persons (IDPs).
The project also involved special group discussions among artists, armed groups, media practitioners and children.
It primarily aimed to expand the constituency of peace through wider consultations to reach the grassroots communities and diverse sectors of the Mindanao society. It also sought to draw diverse perceptions of the present situation and derive a common vision of peace in Mindanao to inspire personal commitment to its realization.
Moreover, Konsult Mindanaw generated fresh ideas on how to enhance and proceed with the peace process hoping to learn new lessons that can further enrich the continuing peace education and communication.
This community-based consultation divided into eight (8) regional centers reaching the whole of Mindanao that include among others, Basilan-Sulu-Tawi, Zamboanga Peninsula, Davao, Caraga, Central Mindanao, Socksargen, Northern Mindanao and the Lanao region.
Each regional operation is being hosted by an existing research center that will coordinate the communication process, conduct actual consultation and interpret the data gathered.
Major schools and universities across Mindanao have also been tapped to carry out the project like Ateneo universities in Davao and Zamboanga; Notre Dame University in Cotabato City; Mindanao State University in Marawi City, General Santos City and Tawi-Tawi; Urios College in Butuan City and Dansalan College in Marawi City in partnership with the Mountain view College in Bukidnon.
Principally a research process, Konsult Mindanaw, enhances peace education and communication, democratic exercise as well as spiritual transformation,
It is not a substitute of the peace process but instead it complements the GRP-MILF peace talks and the broader peace process in Mindanao. (Apipa P Bagumbaran/PIA)
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