Pagpati'ut - Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue

There is a need for an arms control and management that is rooted on the
place.
These issues are the elephant that everyone sees, but no one wants to
address these issues.
C O N C L U S I O N
To strengthen the community resilience to violence, communityempowerment
interventions are direly needed. Efforts towards community
organizing, skills training (in organizational development, as well as skills
training for employment), providing economic opportunities, opening
political spaces are some of the big words and motherhood statements
one can make when discussing interventions. While sounding too general,
these are actually what are needed to accompany the people’s effort to
pillars that would support the relative peace that has been planted in the
communities.
Concretely, the following interventions are recommended.
community assertion of their collective agenda is necessary. The people
of Barangay Silangkan did this by declaring themselves a Peace Centered
Community, and by going through the process of everyone signing the
The community must also initiate the formulation of a community-
32 This process will contribute in
(2) Document and study the governance style of the ‘peace holders,’ with
the twin goal of understanding ‘what works,’‘what’s fair.’
While the style of governance and power management of some leaders
seem to be effective, it may not pass when scrutinized under the ‘fairness
and justice’ lens. Moreover, the people from the community must be
32 This suggestion came from the Sulu-based researchers, informed by their involvement and
deep knowledge as regards the power play and conflict dynamics on the ground.
55