International Feminist Journal of Politics

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“Courage is very important for those who wage

peace”: conversation with Jasmin Nario-Galace,
peace educator, on the implementation of the
UN's Women, Peace and Security agenda in
conflict-ridden Philippines

Barbara K. Trojanowska

To cite this article: Barbara K. Trojanowska (2019) “Courage is very important for those who wage
peace”: conversation with Jasmin Nario-Galace, peace educator, on the implementation of the UN's
Women, Peace and Security agenda in conflict-ridden Philippines, International Feminist Journal of
Politics, 21:2, 317-325, DOI: 10.1080/14616742.2019.1586448

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2019.1586448

Published online: 10 May 2019.

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INTERNATIONAL FEMINIST JOURNAL OF POLITICS
2019, VOL. 21, NO. 2, 317–325
https://doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2019.1586448

CONVERSATIONS

“Courage is very important for those who wage

peace”: conversation with Jasmin Nario-Galace, peace
educator, on the implementation of the UN’s Women,
Peace and Security agenda in conflict-ridden
Philippines
Barbara K. Trojanowska
Centre for Gender, Peace and Security, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

The Philippines has suffered from a number of intrastate conflicts unresolved

at least since the 1960s. The colonial history of Spanish, British, American, and
Japanese occupations has left the country politically fragmented and prone to
armed violence. The major protracted conflicts relate to the Government’s
fights with insurgency movements led by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front
(MILF), striving for self-determination of Muslim population inhabiting the
Bangsamoro Region, and by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP),
struggling to establish a communist society. Conflict resolution appears on
the horizon from time to time (the milestone Bangsamoro Organic Law was
signed only last year, enforcing the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bang-
samoro from 2014), but peace is always fragile in the complex Philippine
context, where the socio-political situation continues to evolve dynamically.
Due to ongoing clashes in the southern parts of the Philippines, President
Rodrigo Duterte declared Martial Law in the Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao (ARMM) on May 23, 2017. The Martial Law was recently prolonged
for the third time, now to last until the end of 2019, having become the major
security crisis in the country in decades. Furthermore, Duterte canceled peace
talks with the CPP in November 2017. Despite attempts, the peace talks have
not resumed to date. Instead, the security situation of the Philippines is
increasingly tense and politicized. Similar to many other conflict-affected
countries, in the Philippines women bear the consequences of armed
conflicts perhaps most acutely.
Professor Jasmin Nario-Galace has dedicated her life to peace education
but she is not a typical scholar sitting behind the desk. Instead, she risks
her safety traveling to conflict zones in the Philippines as well as internation-
ally to teach peace and reconciliation strategies, focusing on the rights of

CONTACT Barbara K. Trojanowska barbara.trojanowska@monash.edu; barbara.k.trojanowska@gmail.

com Centre for Gender, Peace and Security, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
318 B. K. TROJANOWSKA

women. She is at the forefront of the implementation of United Nations Secur-

ity Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) and seven subsequent resolutions1
on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) in the Philippines, and has played a
pivotal role in drafting three Philippine National Action Plans (NAPs). In
2010, the Government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo adopted the
first “Philippine National Action Plan on UNSCR 1325 and 1820,” ultimately
pioneering NAPs in Asia and the Pacific. In 2012, the administration of Presi-
dent Benigno Aquino II (that proceeded Macapagal-Arroyo’s) enhanced the
NAP into a second iteration under the same title. The third-generation NAP,
“Philippine National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security,” launched
by the current Government in 2017, confirmed the country’s leadership on
UNSCR 1325 in the region.
Since the election of President Duterte in 2016, a misogynistic approach to
conflict resolution and emerging security challenges has shaped the political
affairs of the Philippines. Thanks to advocacy and grassroots activism of
peacebuilders such as Jasmin, the WPS agenda has nonetheless remained a
national priority, securing a place in the Government’s Six-Point Peace
Agenda for the period 2016–2022, the major framework to guide the
approach to peace processes.
Jasmin was formerly the first National Coordinator of Women Engaged in
Action on 1325 (WE Act 1325), the network of organizations working on
WPS in the Philippines. Currently, she is the Executive Director of the Center
for Peace Education. Even though she was busy traveling between the
capital and conflict-affected areas of the Philippines, Jasmin agreed to meet
me on a humid day in June 2017 in Manila, where I was conducting my
field research. She invited me to Miriam College, the very institution where
the story of the Philippine WPS policy began a full decade earlier. There,
Jasmin shared the achievements and challenges in her tireless efforts for sus-
tainable peace in the country.

Women and conflicts in the Philippines

Barbara: Jasmin, the security situation in the Philippines is clearly tense. How
have these conflicts and protracted armed violence affected women?
Jasmin: Unfortunately, armed conflicts have brought sexual abuse. For
example, civil society organizations, such as Kalinaw Mindanao, reported
that Muslim women had been sexually violated in evacuation centers by
men who, allegedly searching for grenades, had been groping their breasts.
What makes it even worse, women and their communities are reluctant to
report rape and the cases of sexual violence, whether out of fear or
“because of their culture” (a strong prohibition for women to “dishonor” the
family).
 INTERNATIONAL FEMINIST JOURNAL OF POLITICS 319

Evacuation centers across the country lack facilities for women. When in
these centers, women often do not have access to social and health services
they require. In the recent Marawi siege, there have been reports of preg-
nancy-related deaths caused by trauma and hardship from fleeing conflict sites.
Armed conflicts have also caused economic dislocation. WE Act 1325
conducted a dialogue with women in relation to the Zamboanga siege,
and they described how this siege cost them their teaching, store-
tending, vending, and other means of livelihood. At the same time,
however, armed conflicts have complicated domestic relations, putting mul-
tiple burdens on the shoulders of women. The situation of these women is
complex and challenging.
Barbara: But have these conflicts also mobilized women as agents of change?
Jasmin: Absolutely. Women we have talked to reported that conflicts have
mobilized them to advocate, negotiate, and mediate for peace. These
women have served as community healers and reconcilers, evacuation
center managers, relief operations coordinators, and facilitators of dialogues.
Barbara: Women’s participation has also been one of the major objectives of
the Philippine NAPs, from the start. As a matter of fact, the most recent NAP
(launched in March 2017) reprioritized the pillars and the main focus area is
now women’s participation, while protection only comes second.
Jasmin: For me, the main objective of our NAPs has unchangeably been for
women to be agents of conflict prevention, conflict resolution, and peace-
building. We want to see women working for peace and security in their
own areas. As communities are also affected by other forms of violence
(such as clan wars, violent extremism, or the “War on Drugs”), we help
women enhance their leadership capacities across the board. In a nutshell,
the Philippine NAPs are about women having equal rights in governance
and decision making, particularly pertinent to issues concerning peace and
security.
That is the essence of UNSCR 1325. I have spoken to some of the writers of
UNSCR 1325, like Cora Weiss, Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, and Betty
Reardon and this is what I gathered from them. We need the voice and agency
of half of the world’s population to help bring more peace to this conflict-
ridden world. But gender inequalities are often not understood as a root
cause of violent conflicts. Therefore, gender equality is marginalized, some-
times trivialized, or, most often, simply not prioritized. This explains in part
the absence of women from the peace tables. In the Philippines, we want
to see women participate in building peace and security because they have
perspectives and experiences that we believe can be useful in conflict preven-
tion, resolution, and peacebuilding work.
320 B. K. TROJANOWSKA

Drafting the National Action Plan

Barbara: You were one of the main initiators and writers of the first NAP. How
did it start?
Jasmin: Miriam Coronel Ferrer, Mavic Cabrera Balleza,2 and I met here in this
very same institution at Miriam College. We met in the school’s cafeteria. That
is how the story of our NAP began – with three women meeting in the cafe-
teria [laughing].
We met in the cafeteria here and talked about UNSCR 1325. We had heard
about it, but we didn’t know how it had progressed in the Philippines. This
was in 2007. We decided to convene a national meeting of women peace
advocates in order to see if there were some headways in implementing
UNSCR 1325 in the Philippines. That’s what we eventually did. We asked for
support from the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women
(NCRFW, now Philippine Commission on Women) and Office of the Presiden-
tial Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) and with their help, and in the
summer of 2007 we were able to hold a national meeting with about 35
very prominent women peacebuilders and women’s rights advocates, includ-
ing Teresita Quintos Deles3 and many others […]. We talked about the role of
women in peacebuilding and in conflict prevention.
Barbara: What did you find out during this workshop?
Jasmin: The conclusion of the workshop was that there was no progress in the
implementation of the resolution [1325] in the Philippines. Seven years after
the adoption of UNSCR 1325, the only initiative reported, if my memory serves
me, was a seminar on the matter organized by the World Bank and NCRFW.
But we didn’t want the resolution to go to waste. We asked the participants
what they wanted to do with UNSCR 1325. This is how the idea of creating
a NAP came about.
Barbara: And yet it took another three years until the NAP was launched.
Jasmin: At that meeting in 2007, we agreed that we would initiate the draft-
ing of our NAP. The three of us met several times with NCRFW and started the
process. Then, OPAPP suggested that the process be more consultative, and
we loved that idea. With support from the United Nations Development Pro-
gramme (UNDP), in 2008–2009 we went to different regions of the country to
conduct community consultations. In total, we ran six regional cluster consul-
tations: three in Luzon, two in Mindanao, and one in Visayas.
You see, we wanted our NAP to be context-based. In these consultations,
we started with a conflict analysis. We asked questions such as: What are
the sources of conflicts, here in this particular region? What are the types
of conflicts and violence? What are the causes of conflicts and what are
the effects? What are the women doing and how has all of this affected
 INTERNATIONAL FEMINIST JOURNAL OF POLITICS 321

them? What have their roles been in mitigating the effects of conflicts as
well as in building peace? Then we asked them what they wanted to see
happen in the country and how they wanted to see women actively
helping build it.
Barbara: What was the result of these community consultations?
Jasmin: The data we gathered in the community consultations became the
basis for the first NAP. We put it together during a writeshop that was later
followed by a national validation workshop with government agencies. We
expanded the number of actors helping us. From civil society organizations,
we invited for instance Karen Tanada, Aurora de Dios,4 and other prominent
women’s rights advocates and women peacebuilders. We also invited repre-
sentatives from different regions that were part of the community consul-
tations. As hard as it was, we took in as many suggestions as we could.
While the NAP had to be refined by the Government, it eventually was
adopted on March 1, 2010. Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
released the Executive Order no. 865 on “Creation of a National Steering Com-
mittee on Women, Peace and Security to Implement UN Security Council Res-
olutions 1325 and 1820 and Providing Funds thereof.” A couple of weeks later,
we launched the NAP at Miriam College – where the NAP story had begun
three years earlier and where we are meeting today.

From policy to practice

Barbara: Yet your efforts didn’t stop with the Government’s adoption of the
NAP. Over the past seven years you have worked tirelessly on its implemen-
tation. What has been most important in this next phase?
Jasmin: We have focused on women’s roles in decision making, both at the
national and local levels. To start with, at the national level we used the
NAP to continuously lobby the Government and our security sector to
employ more women in peace- and security-related roles. To oversee the pro-
gress, between 2010–2014 we published “Women Count. Security Resolution
1325: Civil Society Monitoring Reports.”5 So, we basically counted women in
all these roles, and we did find that the percentage of women in senior pos-
itions increased with each year. For example, our most recent report from
2014 found significant progress in the area of peace negotiation teams and
in the security sector. We also noted progress in civil society participation in
WPS task forces. All of this affected the peace talks at the highest level
where Miriam Coronel-Ferrer became, in 2014, the first woman chief negotia-
tor in the world to sign a major peace agreement.
Currently, we are trying to secure funding for another “Women Count”
report to cover the period 2015–present, because my sense is that the
number of women has dropped since 2016, unfortunately.
322 B. K. TROJANOWSKA

Barbara: Before I ask you about this drop, can you tell me about your work at
the local levels?
Jasmin: We used the NAP to lobby local officials to develop Local Action Plans
(LAPs) on Women, Peace and Security in order to support women’s participation
in local governance. The conflicts in the Philippines are not in the capital, they are
not in Manila. The conflicts are at the local levels and that’s why LAPs are so
important for overall peace and security. So, we spoke with mayors and gover-
nors about the NAP. We held training sessions on the WPS agenda in several
Local Government Units (LGUs) and some of them eventually adopted LAPs
which outlined provisions on women’s protection and participation in local
peace mechanisms.
Our major goal was, again, to see an increase in women’s participation, for
example in the Peace and Order Councils or the Council of Elders. Such bodies
ensure the peace and security in local communities, including in conflict-
affected areas. Traditionally, these councils had all-men members. We asked
one such council in the North why there were no women. They didn’t even
know why! Ultimately, we challenged them to include women and there
are some good results of this work. For example, after maybe a year or so,
there were already six women sitting in that Council of Elders, which is the
major decision-making mechanism for indigenous peoples in that province.6
Barbara: Interestingly, in the Philippines women’s participation in national
governance appears to be much stronger than at the local levels, as demon-
strated in the “Women Counts” reports. How have you achieved the inclusion
of women in local peace mechanisms?
Jasmin: We started with training women on leadership. We worked to
enhance their capacities in conflict resolution, mediation, and small arms
control, among others. We focused on these particular areas so that these
women could participate effectively, for example in the Peace and Order
Councils that I mentioned earlier. Essentially, we aimed to have women
actively participating in decision-making processes and local mechanisms.
But we know that if their participation is not accompanied by skills, knowl-
edge, and confidence, that goal will be difficult to attain.
That process in itself was an exercise in empowerment. For example,
members of WE Act 1325 from conflict-affected areas in Mindanao wrote a train-
ing manual and served as facilitators in that very training. We don’t want the goal
of empowerment to be just rhetoric. We want women “elders” to have the
appreciation of “new,” often young, women who are coming into the women’s
rights circles. We don’t want young women to be threatened by leadership roles.
As a consequence, some of the women we trained actually ran for office.
Some of them lost; some of them won. Some of them are now barangay7
officials! This is just one story of how our local work facilitated getting
 INTERNATIONAL FEMINIST JOURNAL OF POLITICS 323

women to decision-making tables. Localizing our NAP helped make these

achievements possible. It wouldn’t have gone there, if we hadn’t had the
NAP. While the Government and women’s groups are doing a lot [towards
increasing women’s participation in peace and security], it is our NAP that
has focused specifically on women’s roles in peacebuilding, conflict prevention,
and related decision-making processes. Therefore, the NAP has helped bring
the issues of women’s participation in decision making to the fore.
Barbara: So, you have adopted a bottom-up approach to the
implementation?
Jasmin: Yes, indeed. Because local women are normally not consulted in
conflict situations or in peace processes. I will give you another example. In
the conflict between the Government and the Communist Party of the Philip-
pines (CPP), indigenous peoples are always caught in between. What we did
was to consult indigenous women who normally are not seen or heard. We
asked them about their issues, their concerns, and their hopes in relation to
these conflicts. An example of the questions we discussed was: If you had
the chance to speak to the Government, the military, and the New People’s
Army [the armed wing of the CPP] about the conflict, what would you say
to them? We put together what they said in a publication and handed
copies to both the Government and the CPP.
The women were tired of the violence and said: “Conflicts are stealing our
chickens, they are stealing the little we have. Our men are being recruited into
joining the conflicts. We want the fights to stop.” These are some of the things
that they said. By putting it together in a document and handing the publi-
cation over to the parties of the conflicts, we helped bring women’s voices
from the ground to the fore. This is another way by which we have used
the NAP. When women are not able to participate directly, we have helped
bring their voices to the attention of those who are at the fore. Later these
women said: “This is the first time we’re being asked these questions.” But I
can tell you, Barbara, they were afraid of speaking out for fear that armed
groups might retaliate against them.
Barbara: This sounds very dangerous …
Jasmin: Yes, it is very, very dangerous. Especially for women on the ground.
They are the ones whose lives are on the line.
Barbara: But you travel to conflict-affected areas as well?
Jasmin: We do. It is necessary and very important for our work. In fact, when the
Marawi fights broke out, we were very close to that area. That comes with the ter-
ritory: the risk is always there. Courage is very important for those who wage peace.
Otherwise there won’t be many things that you can do – if fear dominates you.
324 B. K. TROJANOWSKA

The future of Women, Peace and Security

Barbara: The achievements you mentioned since the NAP was launched in
2010 are truly impressive and the Philippines remains at the forefront of the
implementation of the UN’s WPS agenda. But the environment for
women does not seem to be favorable at this point. I’ve been hearing
during my field research that with the new Government elected in 2016,
some civil society actors are worried where this work is heading now.
Jasmin: Yes, I am worried too. But then … the President is not the NAP. I
mean, the first NAP was initiated and propelled by members of civil society
organizations. So, it’s a document that can be implemented by anyone. Of
course, the major responsibility is on the Government’s shoulders. OPAPP is
taking steps to implement the current NAP and started with the training of
government officials so that the NAP could be mainstreamed in the depart-
ment’s plans, programs, and activities. I trust that OPAPP will take the
mission forward. But it doesn’t stop us from doing our bit.
Barbara: What comes next – for you?
Jasmin: We in civil society will do our part. I am proud of the work we have
done so far. “Proud” is probably not the word. I am very happy about the
work we have done. And I haven’t stopped, you know.
While implementing the current NAP, my focus will be on women’s roles in
building the peace constituency through peace education, women’s partici-
pation in arms control processes, the development of Local Action Plans in
areas affected by conflict, and the monitoring of women’s participation in
senior positions in both government and the security sector. This will be
my little bit for women’s rights, peace, and security.

Notes
1. I.e., UNSCR 1820, 1888, 1889, 1960, 2106, 2122, and 2242.
2. Miriam Coronel Ferrer was the Chairperson of the Peace Panel of the Philip-
pine Government with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Mavic Cabrera
Balleza is the International Coordinator for the Global Network of Women
Peacebuilders.
3. Teresita Quintos Deles was the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.
4. Karen Tanada and Aurora de Dios are prominent peace activists in the
Philippines. Tanada is currently the National Coordinator of WE Act 1325,
while de Dios is the Executive Director of Women and Gender Institute at
Miriam College.
5. “Women Count” reports are an initiative by the Global Network for Women
Peacebuilders that monitors the participation of women in peace-related roles
in selected countries. For more, see gnwp.org (accessed: February 1, 2019).
6. Councils of Elders are bodies of 12–15 representatives.
7. Barangay is the smallest administrative unit in the Philippines.
 INTERNATIONAL FEMINIST JOURNAL OF POLITICS 325

Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Monash University Graduate Scholarship and
Faculty of Arts International Postgraduate Research Scholarship. I am indebted to Pro-
fessor Jasmin Nario-Galace who agreed to this conversation and to Associate Professor
Katrina Lee-Koo who oversaw and guided my research project. I would also like to
extend my thanks to the IFJP Conversations’ editors, Associate Professor Catia Cecilia
Confortini, Dr Natália Maria Félix de Souza, Dr Laura McLeod, and Dr Megan Daigle
for their invaluable comments, including Megan’s suggestion of the title.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor
Dr Barbara K. Trojanowska completed her Ph.D. at the Monash University’s Research
Centre for Gender, Peace, and Security. Her research focuses on United Nations Secur-
ity Council Resolution 1325 and its implementation through national and regional
action plans in Asia and the Pacific. Barbara is the International Coordinator of the
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Academic Network
and a Steering Member of the Australian Civil Society Coalition on Women, Peace,
and Security. She published for Critical Studies on Security and Australian Journal of
International Affairs.