Philippine colonel helps launch quiet revolution for peace-building

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CARMEN, Philippines (CNS) — When Col. Pedro Soria walked into his first seminar on peace-building, his classmates eyed him suspiciously, wondering if the Philippine army officer was there to spy on them. But Soria stayed for the two-week course, winning the confidence of his fellow students and helping launch a quiet revolution with the Philippine military.

Soria, commanding officer of the 602nd infantry brigade in North Cotabato province, says that when he received his orders to attend the Mindanao Peace Institute he was not very interested. But orders were orders, so Soria threw himself into the study program sponsored by Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ relief and development agency.

The course is designed to teach participants peace-building and conflict-resolution skills while providing them with a better understanding of the historic roots of the dispute that became a war between the rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Philippine government. Although a 2003 cease-fire remains technically in place, sporadic fighting between the two sides has displaced thousands of families in recent years.

“Many of my classmates were civilians with deep resentments about the military. They had been victimized by military abuses in the past and could never imagine talking with an army officer,” Soria told Catholic News Service.

“Yet I found the course interesting and educational. It gave me additional lenses through which we can see conflict. Before, when we went to a place, our expectation was always to fight. That’s what soldiers do. But now when we go to a place where there’s conflict, we’re focused on transforming that conflict and doing something to avoid violence,” the colonel said.

Soria took it upon himself to spread the word, buying 15 copies of a book on conflict resolution and ordering his officers to participate in after-dinner discussions of the book.

“The discussion became so animated that what was supposed to be a weeklong course took 14 days to complete,” he said.

Soria said he had difficulty leading the course, and when troubling questions arose he would use his cell phone to text questions to a CRS staff member, who would text him back replies he could share with the group.

Following the completion of that study group, Soria asked his commanding officer if he could expand the discussion, and in the last six months of 2007 he led six seminars with more than 150 participants. In January, he led a seminar with 20 officers and 41 enlisted personnel, and he says the military is planning even more.

Soria says the feedback he has received from participants has been all positive.

“My young lieutenants tell me that when they were assigned here they expected nothing but fighting. One even said it was getting to be boring here because there’s no fighting. I told them that things have changed. We’re in the peace-building mode now. We’re trying to support the peace process between the government and the MILF, and this is one way we can contribute,” he said.

While the rebel front once argued for independence, its goals of late have been less ambitious, and Soria tells his officers they need to identify the local spats that often degenerate into open conflict.

“We have passed that period of open war between the government and MILF. We have to move on,” Soria said. “If you look at the present conflict, it’s not a matter of secession. Most of what generates conflict are small things like family feuds or feuds over land, and some of the people involved have relatives in the MILF or the armed forces. They call their relatives to denounce the other as someone suspicious. All of a sudden, a local argument has become a reason for war. If we can’t successfully handle a simple family feud or land conflict, it becomes an MILF-army issue. This has happened so many times in the past, but we’re trying to avoid that now. There are other agencies that should address those conflicts.”

Soria says some within the military hierarchy have criticized his interest in peace-building, claiming it will produce soldiers who do not want to fight.

“After going through this training, I can say that we’re not only producing soldiers who can fight, but soldiers who can understand better the conflict they find themselves in. That’s important. If you know the true nature of the conflict, you’ll know when to fight and when not to fight. Before we were just given a piece of paper and told to go to such and such a place and fight. Today it’s not that way anymore. You can have other options,” he said.

Soria rejects the traditional tension between hawks and doves and says he and his soldiers are called to be owls.

“Owls can see everything around them. They have a better, more complete perspective,” he said.

Archbishop Fernando R. Capalla of Davao has supported the peace studies program and says many of the leaders of the Philippine armed forces could benefit from it.

“One time I attended a meeting of some generals, and they all had the latest laptops in front of them. But when they began to talk about communism, I thought, ‘My God, they don’t know that communism has collapsed.’ They were still talking about Mao Zedong and (Josef) Stalin. But that’s passe,” Archbishop Capalla said.

“Some people have suggested to me that we need to not just invite some of these officers to the peace-building institute, but that we need to go directly to the military academy, because that’s where they’re brainwashed,” he said.

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