Women and the Bangsamoro Basic Law: Asking the hard questions

By Diana G. Mendoza

What will women gain from the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL)? Will it put an end to child marriages that hinder girls from exploring options other than keeping house and from getting an education? Will it stop the teaching in the Shari’a law that directs women to be submissive? Will Muslim women get the chance to be in responsible positions in their communities and the government?

Young women journalists who attended a forum during the March observance of the International Day of Women and Women’s Month wrote these questions on pieces of paper instead of coming forward to write on the usual sheet of manila paper as part of an end-session exercise.

Even for journalists, questioning the situation of Muslim women under the BBL during such a volatile time was problematic. But for the young women journalists in the Women and Media Workshop and Intergenerational Forum organized by the Women’s Feature Service (WFS) that recalled the 20th year of the landmark Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China in 1995, it was a chance to ask the hard questions that they may have been meaning to raise about the impact of the BBL on the lives of Muslim women.

Last month’s forum invited the young women journalists to hear former Senator Leticia Ramos-Shahani, former Ambassador Rosario Manalo, and Dr. Patricia Licuanan of the Commission on Higher Education discuss the progress in women’s status since the Beijing Conference.

The journalists discussed with the resource persons whatever progress has been achieved in the situation of women and girls in the Philippines in the last 20 years, and looked at a possible post-2015 agenda for women through the media.

One of the speakers, Yasmin Busran-Lao, a WFS board member and secretary of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos under the Office of the President, said the work of women in ensuring human rights and peace has been an ongoing process in much of the world, but their efforts are recognized only when other women insist that their work be acknowledged.

In Mindanao, she said, the peace process has taken 14 years to build and unknown to many Filipinos, “much of the hard work was done and continues to be done by women.” She recalled the work of women, both Muslim and non-Muslim, on the comprehensive agreement for peace in Mindanao that was signed on March 27, 2013 which she called a “watershed date to mark one year of the completion of the work of women.”

Busran-Lao said women and their organizations are also involved in local governance, such as, for example, in the all-women teams monitoring the ceasefire between the Government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the barangays. “These groups of women have enabled the ceasefire to hold. Without them there would not have been a three-year period of peace,” she said. What’s more, women also contributed to the crafting of the BBL, particularly in those of its provisions that address gender concerns.

However, since the encounter in Mamasapano, the comprehensive agreement for peace and the Bangsamoro Basic Law has been having a difficult time in Congress, where politicking among legislators who see the issue as a way of gaining mileage even if most of them have not really read the documents about the agreement and the law has practically assured its non-passage or its being severely watered down.

While the media could have been helpful, media coverage was lacking in historical perspective interests in the 2016 elections,” she said, not naming anyone. Besides not reading the peace documents, she said some of the grandstanding senators and congressmen have forgotten that the work of peace had been going on for the past 14 years.

“They said the wrong things about the peace process and its achievements that began with the return of the rebels to civil society and their giving up their weapons,” she continued.

She also criticized some women legislators who have changed their position towards the BBL and said negative things about the peace process. She called on these women to initiate a rational discourse on the peace process based on examining and reading the documents, instead of airing irrational or emotional views influenced by the public outrage over the Mamasapano encounter.

She recalled that while the peace talks were going on, there were no armed encounters at all, and this allowed for the normalization of civic life, such as the conduct of education for the young, the improvement of health services, the implementation of road construction, and the entry of other development programs into the area.

Despite the unfortunate Mamasapano encounter, Busran-Lao said the peace agreement has been gaining the support of other countries. The government and the MILF were committed to the peace agreement and did not engage in armed conflict or military operations during the period.

She recalled how it was in the evacuation centers during the presidency of Joseph Estrada, who declared an all-out war policy in 2000. She said every woman at that time, and even until now, had to have ready a sack in which to put necessities such as rice, clothes, and cooking instruments in case they had to leave their homes because of the fighting. “The women and children are the most vulnerable sectors of the population. They are displaced in a dehumanizing situation and many of them die in situations of conflict and war.”

Busran-Lao asked the women journalists in the workshop to do their homework and read the printed materials she had brought with her, as it is important to know the salient points of the work for peace.

She said journalists should not stop asking questions as this would help clarify issues in the ongoing peace process. The participants indeed raised more questions during the workshop, among them–

“The Islamic teaching that women must be submissive encourages violence against women and children. How can the BBL change the situation of women and children?”

“Muslim women remain misrepresented and underrepresented. Will they get the chance to be recognized and given powers and positions?

“How will the BBL address the deeply-rooted prejudices and stereotypes against Bangsamoro women?”

“How will the BBL rehabilitate the families affected by the war? Given the rise of fundamentalism in Islamic nations, what are in place to make sure Mamasapano does not happen again? Is there a guarantee of peace once the BBL is passed?”

With the competing discourses for an all-out war against the call for peace, Busran-Lao said the BBL will have to decide and choose its position since the Mamasapano opened up all the prejudices and problems on the ground. “Peace on paper is not what will make peace real; it is peace in the hearts of people that brings about peace,” she said.

The BBL has to be given the chance it deserves, because it will address the issue of wealth-sharing, as well as other social and economic initiatives, like going into partnerships with foreign investors without having to go through the national government bureaucracy for approval. “Wealth-sharing can be achieved even without wealth-sharing measures since Mindanao is rich in economic resources and potential.”

Because warlordism is rampant in much of the Bangsa Moro areas, Busran-Lao said the BBL will institutionalize the agreement to de-commission arms and armed groups. The government committed itself to disarming those without licenses to carry arms. Within the BBL, these gun laws will be implemented.

One of the key elements that would make the Bangsa Moro different is the setting up of a parliamentary form of government. The normalization process would convert MILF war camps into civilian development areas and end the political violence in the area.

Busran-Lao said the Bangsamoro area that the BBL will create will not be like the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) which she called “a structural failure” because it functioned like a department that was still dependent on the national government. Its sectoral representatives did not include indigenous peoples. She said ARMM was hindered by central government rules and was perceived to have created positions for people politically favored by the President of the Philippines.

She enjoined the women journalists to also exercise their right as citizens, as she shared the petition written by one of the survivors of the Special Action Force in Mamasapano that she signed, and encouraged the participant-journalists to read the petition and sign it in support of the peace process.

Diana G. Mendoza is a freelance journalist. She is a board member of the Women’s Feature Service Philippines.