MGen. Ferrer teaches his soldiers how to do peace building. More photos

LABANGAN, Zamboanga del Sur -- Can soldiers who are trained for war, also work for peace?

The Army’s First “Tabak” Division (1ID) -- particularly its commander, newly promoted Maj. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer -- wants to prove that it can be done. Tabak’s area of responsibility is the western part of Mindanao which includes the Zamboanga provinces, Basilan and parts of Sulu.

“We already have so much training on fighting, since our cadet days,” Ferrer, a member of Class 1977 of the Philippine Military Academy, told his soldiers. “Maybe it’s about time we teach soldiers to do peace building,” he added.

In partnership with non-governmental organizations involved in peace building and development work, the Tabak Division started a series of seminars on capacity-building and conflict management for its field officers, from lieutenant colonels down to second lieutenants assigned in remote places. At least 50 participants showed up in the Nov. 22 to 25 training at the Tabak headquarters last week.

Ferrer lamented that the military may have various projects to reach out to the communities with an assortment of acronyms, but still failed to win the people’s hearts and minds.

“What do we do in these programs? What do we have? Fifteen thousand pesos per quarter for community organizing and peace building? We can’t do it that way!” he said.

Prof. Rudy B. Rodil, vice chair of the government panel in the GRP-MILF peace talks, discusses the history of the Mindanao conflict. More photos

Ferrer’s answer? Tap the non-governmental organizations involved in peace building and development work, which was what he did as commander of the 103rd Infantry Brigade in Basilan starting in 2004.

There he sought the help of the Christian Children’s Fund (CCF) to conduct capacity building and conflict management seminars for his soldiers and members of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU).

Ferrer said this changed the attitudes of the soldiers in dealing with people in the community.

The general himself took time out to meet the people in Basilan in his efforts to gain the trust of the community. “They see us as an invading force, a destruction force, a ‘national army’ as if there’s a local one,” he said.

He even went to the extent of joining a training conducted by the Mindanao Peace Building Institute in Davao City to enhance his conflict resolution skills. He was the only representative from the military in that course, which was attended mostly by NGO and church workers.

The military’s peace building efforts in Basilan, Ferrer claimed, resulted in lesser eruption of violence in the land known as the home of the notorious Abu Sayyaf.

“Maybe that’s why Basilan disappeared from the news in the last few years, because there have never been major conflicts there since we started training our soldiers on peace building,” he said.

The island province, he said, has been gaining momentum in terms of peace and development.

As commanding general of the Tabak Division, Ferrer wants to replicate his Basilan experience to the 1ID’s area of responsibility, bringing in his NGO allies to help him out.

	Tabak soldiers go back to the classroom, to study peace this time. More photos

Thus, the team of peace advocates Bong Aranal and Baby Almonte, who conducted the seminars for thousands of soldiers and CAFGUs all over Basilan, joined Ferrer for last week’s training. Aranal and Almonte are with the Zamboanga Life Care Services, an NGO in Zamboanga City.

Ferrer has also gained the support of Balay Mindanaw Foundation, Inc. (BMFI), a Cagayan de Oro-based NGO doing peace building and development work with the Higaonon tribe in Misamis Oriental. Ferrer is getting help from Ariel Hernandez, BMFI executive director and classmate at the Mirant Bridging Leadership program at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati.

Last August, generals of both the Western and Eastern Mindanao Commands of the Armed Forces expressed willingness to support peace building efforts in the military during separate meetings initiated by BMFI.

In last week’s seminar, the soldiers were surprised to hear the history of the Mindanao conflict through Prof. Rudy B. Rodil, vice chair of the government panel in the GRP-MILF peace talks. Rodil traced the conflict to centuries ago, since the Spanish colonization..

Lawyer Franklin Quijano expounded on his experience as chair of the government panel negotiating peace with the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa sa Mindanao (RPMM), a breakaway group of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

“We cannot do peace building on our own. We just don’t have the money, the skills and the resources,” he said. “So we need to work with other stakeholders,” he told his soldiers.

The lieutenant colonels perform a role-playing exercise. More photos

Ferrer also pointed out that the military has more idle time than combat time, so they might as well find other productive things to do, like helping build peace and improve life in the community.

Ferrer seems to have gotten the support of his men.

“In war, we are the first casualties. So it’s us and our families who suffer,” said Lt. Col. Gavin D. Edjawan, commander of the 51st Infantry Battalion based in Maluso, Basilan. “So who else wants peace most but us?” he added. 

Lt. Col. Demy T. Tejares also said soldiers need peace building skills “because often, we are the only government representatives in the areas because the mayors and barangay captains are usually out.” [Bobby Timonera for MindaNews]