Peacemaking Award recipient: Mary Ann Arnado

Introduction

Mary Ann Arnado in November 2008 Submitted photo

World Vision International is proud to honour Mary Ann Arnado as the 2009 Peacemaking Award recipient. Throughout the journey of her work, Mary Ann gracefully balances boldness and passion for peace with humility and professionalism in pursing that peace. A feminist, peace advocate, human rights advocate, mother, sister, and Mindanaoan are all pieces of who she is, each uniquely shaping her life’s journey. Her story of dedication, courage, perseverance, critical thinking and resourcefulness to mobilise marginalised indigenous communities inspires and encourages others to engage peacemaking with the same reverence.

A peacemaker’s story

Although Mary Ann grew up in Mindanao under the Marcos regime, it wasn’t until she attended Mindanao State University that she began to learn of the historic discourse of her homeland and her people. Her exposure to the suffering and injustice of her fellow Mindanaons led her to study law professionally. Her pursuit of using law to advocate for peace was built on the belief that people themselves could change the structures and institutions and truly reform the country. From this point on, she worked tirelessly to empower the voiceless and build mutual understanding and healing through dialogue, advocacy and action, all with the hopes of uniting Mindanaons as one people.

Mary Ann’s advocacy work with Mindanao Interfaith Peoples Conference (MIPC), a grassroots network working on behalf of indigenous communities, deepened her understanding of the indigenous cultural system and the need for peace among them. As a lawyer and peace advocate, Mary Ann continued to work for peace Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID), a regional institution that promotes solidarity among the peoples of Southeast Asia. Mary Ann successfully convinced the board that IID needed to help bring tri-peoples together for dialogue in order to reconcile hostilities and bring peace to Mindanao. She coordinated the grassroots peacebuilding and peace advocacy programme in Mindanao by promoting the participation of indigenous people, particularly women, in the peace process between the government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Her ability to mobilise tri-peoples into dialogue opened doors for different groups of people to learn from one another, let go of stereotypes and step out of isolation. By creating space for dialogue on the grassroots level, the voices of citizens helped establish a culture of peace, a necessary component for successful implementation of sustainable peace. Through these dialogues the Mindanao Peoples Caucus (MPC) was born.

In that capacity, Mary Ann and the MPC organised and established the successful Bantay Ceasefire monitoring team, worked directly in zones of conflict to educate warring factions on international humanitarian law and human rights. Mary Ann and the MPC uniquely bridged “horizontal” peace work to the more official, “vertical” peace processes between the MILF and the government.

During the Buliok War of 2003, Mary Ann helped mobilise over 10,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who were demanding an immediate ceasefire between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the MILF, a demand heeded by both sides. Her efforts brought Mindanaoans from all walks of life to participate in making a political statement, one that eventually led to political change.

Even more recently, Mary Ann participated in the International Women’s Peace and Solidarity Mission to Basilan to investigate the recurrence of violence and the situation of the displaced in the region. Mary Ann was instrumental in the success of the Basilan incident fact-finding mission, formed in response to the beheading of 14 members of the AFP, and comprised of representatives from the AFP, MILF and Bantay Ceasefire. Her unwavering persistence that the investigators visit the actual site of the incident resulted in the correct identification of the offending party. Not only did Mary Ann’s leadership provide accountability and justice, but Mary Ann’s participation in this mission also articulated the need to openly address issues of sexual violence as a result of conflict. With cultural norms dictating otherwise, Mary Ann is examining avenues to bring this issue to light in order for true root causes and ramifications of conflict to be incorporated into peace processes.

This year her leadership with the Mindanao Peace Power Day and International Solidarity Conference on Mindanao continue to serve as strong illustrations of Mary Ann’s passion to fight for peace. Today Mary Ann continues her work as a peacemaker, using the voice she has found and strengthened through years of practicing law and advocating for the rights of Mindanaoans. While still practicing law, she envisions opening a sanctuary for women to rest, write, reflect, heal, meet and share their peace work and life stories.

The makings of an award recipient

Perhaps one of the most significant marks of Mary Ann’s peacemaking journey is her ability to effectively mobilise individuals and communities to build durable peace. Whether we look at Mary Ann’s work to engage with marginalised Mindanaoans and cultivate space to bring people together for dialogue or we look at her ability to coordinate the physical mobilisation of IDPs, it is evident that she moves people into action. Futhermore, even though Mary Ann’s peace efforts have focused on indigenous Mindanaoans, she has successfully moblised government and structural leaders to not only come to grips with the reality of the internal conflict but also to address it responsibly. Mary Ann’s ability to empower the voiceless to step out while also calling leaders to accountability highlights an extraordinary commitment to peacemaking.

Mary Ann’s peace work is also built on both context and conflict analysis. In each step of Mary Ann’s journey, she has invested the time and energy into understanding both the indigenous communities she has worked for as well as the political realm that she has fought to change. She has listened to the stories of others, both on the micro and macro levels so she could historically and culturally understand how to be effective and credible in her work. Her critical analysis and keen understanding of the law has helped her not only know the law but use it to promote justice and fight the oppression and exploitation of people. It has been this critical awareness of how the law should be applied that has led her to the formation of the MPC and the Bantay Ceasefire.

The foundation of Mary Ann’s peacemaking journey centres around her engagement with policy and advocacy. Although her heart has been drawn to the grassroots-level to help the marginalised find empowerment in stepping out for peace and reconciliation as seen with IID and MPC, her formal advocacy commitments related to policy at the national and international level are also quite impressive. Since 2001, Mary Ann has attended sessions of the formal peace talks in Malaysia as an observer representing the civil society in Mindanao. Therefore, Mary Ann’s influence and scope of impact is at the local, national and international level, recognising that all angles are necessary in order to build sustainable change.

Another deep commitment of peacemaking in Mary Ann’s life has been her ability to build bridges between different groups of people in order to work toward conflict resolution. When Mary Ann first began work at IID, there was no Mindanao programme, but she convinced the board that there needed to be an organisation in Mindanao that was engaged in dialogue and conflict resolution at the grassroots-level, among the communities themselves. She thus formed the MPC, as a component of IID (though it now stands alone as its own organisation), with the belief that if people from different communities have not engaged with each other in a significant amount of time, then stereotypes about the “other” community are created and can be exploited by outsiders. She knew dialogue would break down these barriers and forge relationships and cultivate healing across these divisions. Today, the MPC is in its eighth year of building these bridges.

Mary Ann has consistently taken risks in order to stand for durable peace. She has risked her physical safety and well as her reputation by going against the status quo. When she sees injustice she will not quietly watch for someone else to bring it to the light. She has boldly brought up the leadership of women, sexual violence, accountability, political responsibilities of leaders and worked tirelessly to bring those in opposition together, always knowing the effects of her decisions could easily create backlash. Nevertheless, she understands that in order to create sustainable peace, you have to take great risks.

Recognising and drawing from communal and national resources has also been a key practice of Mary Ann’s. She has identified tangible ways for indigenous people to express their demands for peace, especially women and children, by embracing their lawful rights. While Mary Ann shows respect for local and national authority, trying to collaborate with their resources when possible, Mary Ann has also taught those with whom she works to creatively use their own resources and innovations in order to find alternative solutions for being heard. This is how the Bantay Ceasefire began. Her partnership with stakeholders at both the grassroots-level as well as the structural-level provide Mary Ann with solid credibility and testify to her maturity and ability to work with many people across great differences. With this spirit Mary Ann recognises that it is “what people can do together that makes the difference. We all have the ability to be peacemakers.”

Congratulations Mary Ann!

For a full narrative on the life and work of Mary Ann Arnado, please visit: http://www.sandiego.edu/peacestudies/documents/ipj/WPMNarratives/MaryAnnArnado.pdf