Opinion

Convening a National Peace Summit

BREAKTHROUGH - Elfren S. Cruz - The Philippine Star

April 4, 2015 | 10:00am

The formation of a convenor’s group — a Peace Council — that will organize and preside at a National Peace Summit is an inspired idea that could be the key to finally securing lasting peace in Mindanao. It is the purpose and the composition of the council that gives it credibility and respect.

President Aquino explained that the Peace Summit would “deliberate on and discuss the Bangsamoro Basic Law.” It is expected that the summit participants would be able to dissect and debate the proposed BBL in a “calm and reasonable manner” that will lead to the desired goal of a Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and end the years of violence in that region.

Ever since the Mamasapano incident, the hearings on the BBL have been suspended and the debate on the law has been dominated by politicians and media commentators. Instead of a reasoned discussion, it is the people with the most inflammatory voices and the calls for all-out war, purportedly in retribution for the Mamasapano battle, that have been hogging the headlines and media time.

I notice, for example, that a call by a lawmaker for retribution merits more attention and space than a call by respected national organizations such as the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines and the Makati Business Club which hardly merit attention. A week ago, the 14 surviving framers of the Constitution issued a statement supporting the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region. But several lawmakers with obvious political agenda have chosen to ignore the views of the surviving 14 ConCon delegates.

The initial members of the Peace Council are persons of unquestioned integrity and intelligence. Let me repeat their names – Manila Archbishop Cardinal Luis Tagle, former Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., business leader Jaime Zobel de Ayala, former Ambassador to the Holy See Howard Dee, and youth leader for peace Rohaniza Sumndad-Usman. These are persons who will never allow themselves to be used simply as a political tool by any person or interest group.

In order to maintain its credibility, it is critical that the invited participants to the National Peace Summit should also have the same stature, in terms of integrity and statesmanship, as the convenors. They must not be politicians or even former politicians. There must also be a diversity of views with a shared, common vision. The list should exclude personalities who will join simply to obstruct the purpose of the summit.

I do not think anyone can offer a truly comprehensive list of all those who should be asked to participate in the summit. However, I would like to offer some names of persons that might be worth considering. Certainly this is a personal list and I cannot even say that it is a complete list.

I think the best sources for potential names would be those in the academe, leaders of major religious denominations, legal luminaries, civil society leaders from business and NGOs, and from the arts.

Among the legal luminaries, I would suggest former Chief Justice Art Panganiban and a law school head like Dean Jose Manuel Diokno of the DLSU College of Law. There are many religious leaders that will qualify to be invited. However, one name that should definitely be in the list is Cotabato City Archbishop Cardinal Quevedo. As the senior prelate of a city in the middle of the Bangsamoro region, his voice is one that should carry a lot of weight.

From the academe, the presidents of the leading universities – De La Salle University, University of the Philippines-Dilliman, Ateneo de Manila, University of Sto. Tomas – should be included. Then I would also suggest, for obvious purposes, the heads of the leading universities in Mindanao –Mindanao State University, Xavier University (Cagayan de Oro), UP-Mindanao, and Notre Dame (Cotabato City).

Among civil society leaders, there are Antonio Meloto, founder and head of Gawad Kalinga; Ramon del Rosario Jr., president of the Makati Business Club; Hans Sy, executive vice president of the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce; and Carmencita Abella, president of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation.

There are also certain personalities that could provide expertise or diversity of views in certain areas. These could be persons like Grace Pulido Tan, recently retired COA chair; Jose “Butch” Dalisay, leading literary luminary; and Ambeth Ocampo, a leading historian.

The 14 surviving framers of the 1987 Constitution could also be a source of names for the Peace Summit. The list includes Felicitas Aquino-Arroyo, Adolf Azcuna, Teodoro Bacani, Joaquin Bernas, Florangel Rosario Braid, Hilario Davide Jr, Edmundo Garcia, Jose Gascon, Christian Monsod, Ricardo Romulo, Rene Sarmineto, Jaime Tadeo, Wilfrido Villacorta, and Bernardo Villegas.

While diversity of views is ideal, this must be balanced by the need to limit the number of participants in the Peace Summit. If the group is too large, the discussion will be too unwieldy to manage. It might not be possible to reach any kind of consensus.

The 1987 Constitutional Convention only had 55 members and yet there were a few members who resigned in protest. The final draft of the 1935 Constitution was said to be written by a group of seven young men headed by Claro M. Recto.

For those politicians and media commentators who are still advocating war in order to annihilate the “other side,” it might be good to reflect on the words of Pope Francis when he talked about peace. He said in his Apostolic Exhortations (paragraph 219) that peace is not “simply the absence of warfare, based on a precarious balance of power; it is fashioned by efforts directed day after day towards the establishment of the ordered universe willed by God, with more a more perfect justice among men. In the end, a peace which is not result of integral development will be doomed; it will always spawn new conflicts and various forms of violence.”

The last few months have been a crucial test for P-Noy’s leadership and courage of convictions. In the midst of all the drumbeating for war and political exploitation by so-called militants and the opposition, the president has refused to be diverted from the long-term goal of achieving permanent peace in Mindanao. He has remained steadfast in his belief that the violence, which started 45 years ago during the Marcos martial law regime and has cost thousands of lives, will finally come to an end.

We can only hope and pray that the National Peace Summit will help educate and enlighten our people that the Bangsamoro Basic Law is the path to peace for future generations in Mindanao and the whole country.

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