Water system in Barangay Ranao, Pilayan where ESSC staff drew on community perceptions before extending for cleaner distributions.

The horror and deep sadness our country is going through are now transforming to questions and challenges to government and to ourselves: Will justice be served the victims and the families left behind? How do we ensure this is not repeated? And more broadly, when and how do we respond meaningfully to Maguindanao's persistent poverty?

Discussing the problems of bringing water into the village in Sitio Linek, Barangay Tubuan

In 2006, ESSC worked on a small peace initiative in this province, in the municipality of Upi. This work activity was sought to explore opportunities by which a definition of peace and conflict can be drawn out from a community perspective, thereby sharpening and enhancing the national definition that the government and other assisting organizations and programs are using as a basis to design responses. ESSC's work in the area continued in 2009 to assist in the construction and improvement of potable water systems in selected barangays.

Violence remains part of the social landscape in the southern part of Mindanao. Yet there are many stories showing human engagement drawing out the potential for change. The engagement focused on three communities in Upi: Tubuan, which is coastal; and Renti and Ranao Pilayan, which are upland. These sites were selected primarily because of the weak government system in this part of Mindanao. ESSC's work approach of the project is simple -- live with the communities and understand more personally their life and the forms of conflict existing in the area.

The conflict in these areas is part of the communities' history and carried through the 21st century, such that perceptions of safety and cultural differences are natural barriers to the development of this part of Mindanao. The context of the engagement is the poverty pattern in the country where areas rich and diverse in natural resources are also the areas of extreme poverty and acute marginalization. Mindanao supplies most of the natural resources for the country yet 19 of its 23 provinces, including all the provinces in Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanano (ARMM), are among the 44 poorest provinces in the country. Within this, the Muslim Mindanao provinces have a high poverty incidence, including Maguindanao. An added layer is the armed conflict that is defining the area nationally and that has a historical and cultural context.

An attempt to engage for further action

Seeking to understand what the community interests are in Sitio Likon, Barangay Tubuan.

A strategic way to develop the engagement was to help the community put together a village planning document that is also a government requirement for presenting the communities' present circumstances and their future plans. These are often in terms of existing resources needs, availability or non-availability of basic social services, existing development programs and projects, infrastructure, among others. In addition, maps were prepared with the community that illustrated the community's understanding of their resources, their resource management practices, and their relationship with these resources as sources of livelihood and for ecological services.

The process of working with the community in crafting their development plan allowed an understanding of the social and political configuration of the area. Upi is a microcosm of Mindanao in its tripartite cultural composition--- the indigenous Teduray communities (44%), the Christian settlers (33%), and the Maguindanao who are of Muslim culture (23%). To develop the plan in such a diverse community context with the participation of the communities and government representatives is very revealing of the general goodwill that exists among the people. The effort of people to find a way to move forward amidst the cultural and historical violence involving each other's group is a manifestation that peaceful co-existence is possible.

It was also a period of political shifts and changes in the balances of power. However, the simple work that ESSC undertook in helping people delineate their community areas and resources in relation to neighboring areas allowed for a clarification of interest and intent without conflict. Positive contribution from all sides emerged as the process allowed for clarification.

The work allowed a better understanding as to how partner communities operate, and see the best way to contribute in improving their quality of life. It now serves as a basis of ESSC in looking at a further phase of the work. It is early to assume that our engagement will be sustained, as there is always the threat of violence or political upheaval beyond the context of these communities. But what was started through this initial work, the process of drawing out the community understanding, applying this understanding in developing with them their resource management plans, focusing local government attention in these marginal areas, are sufficient bases for further action.