Talks to make Mountain Province peace zone start

By Angel Baybay

BONTOC, Mountain Province – Municipal-based consultations on the proposed declaration of the province as a peace zone have started with a public forum at the multipurpose building here.

Participants included representatives from the different sectors, heads of government offices, religious denominations, and municipal and barangay officials of Bontoc.

The people of Sabangan town will be next to be consulted on August 17 that shall coincide with the out-of-town meeting of the provincial peace and order council.

The grassroots meeting is an initial step in the process of selling the idea of peace zone and gather inputs that will enrich the concept of the peace keeping effort.

The initial idea as propounded by governor Leonard Mayaen is for the New People’s Army and Philippine Army to leave the province at the same time but this could be further strengthened by suggestions and opinions from the community people.

Peace zone is not a new theory to the people of the province. In November 1988, Sagada was declared a peace zone although documents submitted to the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace Process revealed it is a demilitarized zone.

In 2003, efforts were undertaken to expand the coverage of the peace zone to include Besao, Bontoc, and Sadanga.

An invitation was given to Barlig but representatives failed to attend the scheduled planning activities.

As reflected in the minutes of meetings, the 2003 initiative was prompted by the series of military offensives after a platoon of soldiers who escorted the remains of a soldier to his home in Tocucan, Bontoc were wiped out in an ambush in barangay Talubin when they were on their way back to their station.

One of those who perished in the surprise attack was a native of the capital town.

In the concept paper on the proposal to declare the province as a zone of peace, it took note of the aspiration of the people to live in a peaceful and progressive community.

It detailed how inter-village problems were swiftly and wisely resolved by elders resulting to an environment of unrestricted economic and social intercourse among residents despite their varied ethnic attributes.

The prevailing harmonious co-existence was however reportedly disturbed by the entry of the NPAs and the army in the early part of the 1980s.

The presence of the NPA and the army reportedly created an atmosphere of war.

The serenity of the mountains which were then communally forested and managed by neighboring villages was broken by the deafening sound of gun fires.

Kaingins and rice fields were untended as people dare not go beyond their back yards for fear of being caught in the crossfire. More than these however, the unrest generated suspicion, mistrust and hatred among the local populace.

“The people suffered for more than three decades now. The continued stay of the NPAs and the Army in the province would result to more deaths, inflict more damage to the sagging economy, and create unbridgeable enmity among the people,” the document said.

Declaring the province as a peace zone would make people start an undisturbed life and solve their own problems.

“The time has come for the people specially surviving victims of the unrest to be left behind and start life anew. All armed combatants, the NPAs and the Army, should leave the province and let the administration of peace be managed through the indigenous way,” the concept paper said.

The significance of indigenous means of peace-keeping and curbing criminality was recognized by the Philippine Constitution such that in 1997, the Indigenous People’s Rights Act was promulgated by then President Fidel V. Ramos.

Specifically, the law gave cognizance to the justice system, conflict resolution institutions, and peace building processes of indigenous peoples.