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Gender & Development
ISSN: 1355-2074 (Print) 1364-9221 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cgde20
How women’s silence secures the peace: analysing
sexual and gender-based violence in a low-
intensity conflict
Sara E. Davies, Jacqui True & Maria Tanyag
To cite this article: Sara E. Davies, Jacqui True & Maria Tanyag (2016) How women’s silence
secures the peace: analysing sexual and gender-based violence in a low-intensity conflict,
Gender & Development, 24:3, 459-473, DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2016.1233672
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2016.1233672
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How women’s silence secures the peace: analysing sexual and
gender-based violence in a low-intensity conflict
Sara E. Davies, Jacqui True and Maria Tanyag
ABSTRACT
Most studies of the gendered impact of conflict focus on sexual and
gender-based violence (SGBV) atrocities committed in high-intensity
conflict environments. In contrast, this article focuses on the patterns
of SGBV in Mindanao, Philippines –an environment of protracted low-
intensity conflict within a fragile state. We examine the current
Mindanao peace process to highlight the disempowerment of survivors
of SGBV, due in large part to the reporting constraints that affect those
most likely to be targeted for sexual violence by rival groups, some of
whom are closely associated with the peace process. By making visible
the significant social, political-economic, and institutional barriers
affecting the recognition and reporting of SGBV, we discuss how and
why conflict-related SGBV continues in fragile and low-intensity conflict
environments.
La mayoría de los estudios orientados a examinar las formas en que el
conflicto incide en el género se centran en las atrocidades vinculadas a
la violencia sexual y basada en el género (VSBG) en ámbitos en que se
desarrollan conflictos de alta intensidad. En cambio, el presente
artículo se concentra en los patrones de VSBG ocurridos en Mindanao,
Filipinas —un ambiente de prolongado conflicto de baja intensidad
desarrollado en el contexto de un Estado frágil. Al respecto, las autoras
analizan el actual proceso de paz llevado a cabo en Mindanao,
destacando el desempoderamiento experimentado por quienes han
sobrevivido a la VSBG. En gran parte, éste deriva de las restricciones
existentes para la presentación de denuncias, las cuales afectan a
aquellas mujeres que tienen mayor probabilidad de convertirse en
blancos de violencia sexual a manos de grupos rivales. Cabe señalar
que algunos de estos grupos tienen vínculos estrechos con el proceso
de paz. Además de visibilizar los importantes obstáculos sociales,
político-económicos e institucionales que impiden el reconocimiento y
la denuncia de la violencia sexual y basada en el género, las autoras
analizan de qué manera y por qué en entornos frágiles caracterizados
por conflictos de baja intensidad continúa produciéndose la VSBG
relacionada con el conflicto.
La plupart des études de l’impact des conflits selon le sexe se
concentrent sur les impacts sur les femmes et les hommes des
atrocités liées à la violence sexuelle et sexiste (VSS) commises dans des
environnements en proie à des conflits intenses. Cet article se
concentre quant à lui sur les schémas des violences sexuelles et
sexistes à Mindanao, aux Philippines —un environnement se
caractérisant par un conflit de faible intensité au sein d’un État fragile.
KEYWORDS
Peace process; Mindanao;
clan violence; sexual
violence; gender
© 2016 Oxfam GB
CONTACT Sara E. Davies Sara.Davies@griffith.edu.au
GENDER & DEVELOPMENT, 2016
VOL. 24, NO. 3, 459–473
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2016.1233672
Nous examinons le processus de paix du Mindanao (Mindanao Peace
Process) actuel pour mettre en relief la perte d’autonomie parmi les
survivantes de la VSS, en grande partie suite aux contraintes entravant
la notification qui s’exercent sur les personnes les plus susceptibles
d’être ciblées par des violences sexuelles commises par des groupes
rivaux, dont certains sont étroitement associés au processus de paix.
En rendant visibles les considérables barrières sociales, politico-
économiques et institutionnelles qui entravent la reconnaissance et la
notification des violences sexuelles et sexistes, nous discutons de la
manière dont la VSS liée au conflit continue d’exister dans les
environnements fragiles et de conflits à faible intensité, et des raisons
de cet état de fait.
Introduction
This article examines the dynamics of conflict and peace in one case of a fragile and
low-intensity conflict-affected area: Mindanao, Philippines. Like several other contexts
in the Asia Pacific, Mindanao is a fragile area marked by the presence of protracted
conflicts that stretch back to independence of the Philippines. However, the region is
unique in that it has also engendered a peace process in which women’s participation
has been highlighted internationally as playing a crucial part. The Philippines is recog-
nised as a ‘success story’for modelling women’s participation in peace (UN Women
2015).
The Bangsamoro peace process –that is, the peace process between the Government of
the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) –culminated in the historic
signing of a peace agreement on 27 March 2014. The Comprehensive Agreement on the
Bangsamoro ended a 40-year conflict, and 17 years of negotiations. It is considered a trail-
blazer, because women were present from both sides of the peace table and included
throughout the negotiation process. They comprised 50 per cent of the government’s
negotiating team and 25 per cent of the signatories (O’Reilly et al.2015). In contrast,
many peace processes have involved only military representatives of armed parties. The
government appointed a woman, Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, as chief negotiator and signa-
tory of the peace deal. This was a world first in historically male-dominated peace pro-
cesses. The Philippines is also considered a leader in the Asia Pacific region for putting
the United Nation’s (UN) Women, Peace and Security agenda into practice. It was the
first country in the region to develop a National Action Plan for the implementation of
UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (ibid.).
However, we argue in this article that for peace processes to promote the interests of all
groups of women, the significant reporting constraints affecting those most likely to be
targeted need to be explicitly acknowledged. We examine the occurrence and reporting
of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in the Philippines perpetrated across differ-
ent types of armed conflicts. These issues need to be considered when we assess the
broader implications of the Philippines peace process in sustainably advancing gender
equality and women’s rights after conflict.
460 S. E. DAVIES ET AL.
SGBV in the Asia Pacific region
The Asia Pacific region has been relatively neglected in recent reports on the gender-
specific impacts of conflict, including those on the disproportionate vulnerability of
women and girls to SGBV during and after war or conflict.
1
This research neglect
coincides with a broad decline in deaths from major conflicts in Asia and the Pacific in
recent decades (Aspinall et al.2012). However, widespread and systematic SGBV con-
tinues in the Asia Pacific region despite this decline in conflict-related deaths, and despite
the lack of any major civil or inter-state wars.
2
Furthermore, multiple localised, low-intensity conflicts exist such as clan/kinship and
intra-community conflicts, as well as civil wars in which rebel groups violently compete
against one another. These localised conflicts have effects which can trigger intra-state
armed conflicts, thereby causing greater deaths and damage beyond the areas where fight-
ing initially takes place.
In such contexts, SGBV is an effective form of political and economic violence that
exacerbates gender and other material inequalities and grievances. It instils fear and
repression in communities, due to the pervasive shame and stigma attached to the survi-
vors (and their families) of SGBV, and the frequently insurmountable institutional and
political barriers to SGBV reporting. These preserve a culture of impunity around
SGBV. Low-intensity conflict situations also have political and structural conditions
that can lead to the perpetration of mass atrocities, often including SGBV that is typically
not reported. These conditions include weak law enforcement and prosecution, prolifer-
ation of small arms, economic hardship, poor state services, and systemic gender discrimi-
nation and inequality.
Internally displaced people (IDPs), and women and girls from minority ethnic, reli-
gious, and indigenous groups, are most vulnerable to conflict-related SGBV. They are pri-
mary targets for SGBV not because of any inherent vulnerability, but because they are
largely disenfranchised from their right to report human rights violations. In addition,
poor infrastructure and services in the conflict-affected areas in which they live give
them little opportunity to do so. Moreover, the intense political machinations during con-
flicts and peace processes often both create and reinforce the silence surrounding SGBV
crimes and their non-reporting, particularly for the most vulnerable groups of women
and girls targeted for this form of violence.
The extent of SGBV in Mindanao
As part of the Philippine National Action Plan, mentioned above, and reflecting the gov-
ernment’s commitment under the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) of 1979, the Philippine Commission on
Women (PCW) compiles nationwide statistics from police reports of 13 different types
of violence against women and girls (VAW) across 18 different regions as defined by
national laws (PCW 2014).
3
The national data are a good starting point to explore the
scale of SGBV in Mindanao, and its likely under-reporting. In the next section we do
GENDER & DEVELOPMENT 461
this, and present other findings from our own research which build a strong case for SGBV
as an integral and ‘normalised’part of life in fragile contexts such as Mindanao –to the
extent that the rates could be far higher than formally recorded.
The research this article draws on includes interviews with 35 key-informants from the
government and other public officials, international organisations, and grassroots civil
society groups. These represent various stakeholders, notably Moro women. Participants
were identified initially through desk research, existing organisational contacts, and sub-
sequently through purposive snowball sampling.
4
Field research was conducted in two key
sites: Metro Manila in the capital and Davao, Mindanao from January to March 2015, and
then March to April 2016. Due to security concerns, many of these interviews were pre-
arranged to occur in highly urban areas. We also used secondary sources including local
and international news reports and publications by international and national civil society
organisations to corroborate our interview data.
In Table 1 we see 2104 figures showing the prevalence of reported VAW in two regions
in Mindanao,
5
compared to the total reported in Western Visayas, and nationally.
The conflict-affected Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) recorded the
lowest number of VAW cases of any region in the Philippines in 2014 and 2015. In 2015,
reported VAW cases in ARMM represented just 0.37 per cent of nationwide reports. In
contrast, statistics from the neighbouring region of Davao, which has the largest urban
centre but a much smaller population than the ARMM, recorded the highest number of
VAW cases in the Philippines in 2015, with 7,166 reports. This represented 17.33 per
cent of nationwide reports in 2015. The data for the conflict-affected ARMM are at
odds with the reporting of VAW cases in the neighbouring more peaceful region. This
leads us to question the validity of the reported data, which is likely affected by limited
access to the institutions for reporting and responding to such violence. As a result, despite
women’s participation in the Mindanao peace process, SGBV in Mindanao remains
under-reported, under-examined, and unaddressed.
The prevalence of SGBV directed at women and girls belonging to minority groups
and internally displaced in Mindanao has not been discussed in the context of any for-
mal peace process. However, SGBV has been strategically used by rival clans to gain
Table 1 2014 Annual VAW Reports Disaggregated by Region
TYPES OF VAW Western Visayas Davao, Mindanao Autonomous Region Muslim Mindanao PHILIPPINES TOTAL
Rape 165 141 18 2010
Incestuous Rape 4 5 0 36
Attempted Rape 40 45 3 635
Acts of Lasciviousness 239 193 10 1871
Physical Injuries 433 33 23 7727
Sexual Harrassment 7 6 3 103
RA 9208 Trafficking 4 3 0 238
RA 9262 IPV 6855 7320 72 31937
Threats 64 12 5 1297
Seduction 4 0 0 35
Concubinage 23 21 2 349
Abduction/Kidnapping 4 1 2 49
Unjust Vexation 83 45 0 499
TOTAL 7925 7825 138 46786
462 S. E. DAVIES ET AL.
and establish control over natural resources in mineral-rich areas (UN Office for the
High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) 2015). Clan violence (rido)domi-
nates the interpersonal and intra-community realms in Mindanao and SGBV is a fea-
ture of it (Hilsdon 2009). Rido is typical of ‘small-scale societies where family and
kinship ties are the main sources of authority and where there is a lack of effective
state control and authority’(Torres 2014, 8). We found in interviews that forced mar-
riage is often tied to rido. For example, in Sulu, ARMM region, young girls are
abducted, raped, and then forced into marriage by armed clan groups, in that order
(interview with female, Mindanao-based peace worker, 16 March 2015). One infor-
mant in Mindanao discussed how daughters are offered for marriage to appease war-
ring clans, though even the sacrifice of daughters may not be able to prevent future clan
violence from re-igniting (interview with female, Mindanao gender consultant and aca-
demic, 3 February 2015). This demonstrates the fragility of peace forged at the expense
of women and girls.
It is important to note that not all women are equally vulnerable to systematic SGBV,
and this may be another reason to explain the volume of silence concerning the extent of
SGBV in Mindanao. In interviews in March 2015, Mindanao-based non-government
organisation (NGO) workers and community leaders stated that rape and sexual violence
are commonly perpetrated by elite clans and their private armies, against poor women in
rival clans, or within indigenous communities (interview with female, Mindanao-based
peace worker). Women belonging to elite clans are less vulnerable to attack (interview
with Mindanao-based NGO worker/community leader).
Lack of attention to SGBV: three factors
The high rates of SGBV directed at women and girls belonging to minority groups and
internally displaced in Mindanao has not been discussed in the context of any formal
peace process. We argue that there are three reasons for this neglect.
First, failure to recognise the complex conflict dynamics and range of actors in Mind-
anao can lead to the assumption that SGBV does not exist in this particular fragile, con-
flict-affected setting. Our ability to observe the presence of SGBV and interpret how
widespread and systematic it is within fragile and conflict-affected settings depends on
how conflicts are understood and measured (Swaine 2015). The second and third issues
to blame for neglect of SGBV in fragile low-intensity conflict settings are both to do
with data reporting. Currently, the recording of data on conflict-related violence is
based on battle-death thresholds.
6
This excludes many deaths resulting from localised
and protracted conflicts that characterise Mindanao, which in turn obscures SGBV. In
addition, violence of a sexual nature, and VAW more widely, has particular reporting chal-
lenges.
7
SGBV survivors are commonly unable to report the violence they have experi-
enced, due to complex reasons ranging from stigma to marginalisation to practical
issues including displacement. These barriers to reporting mean that data do not reveal
the full extent of the problem of SGBV.
GENDER & DEVELOPMENT 463
Below, we explore these reasons for neglect of SGBV in more depth. We focus particu-
larly on the structural and institutional conditions that prevent SGBV survivors from
reporting violence and participating in peace processes.
Whose conflict and whose counting?
Currently, the Bangsamoro peace process in Mindanao is focused solely on conflict-resol-
ution between the government and one major armed group, the MILF (Franco 2016).
However, there are multiple actors involved in conflict in Mindanao, including numerous
armed groups, private armies of clans, criminal gangs, and political elites (Dwyer and
Cagoco-Guiam 2012). Due to the presence of multiple actors and types of conflict in
Mindanao excluded from the peace process (see Table 2), resolving the conflict between
the Government of the Philippines and the MILF will be a step towards peace in the
ARMM, but by itself will not end the multiplicity of conflicts in the region. International
NGOs and academics working in the ARMM see the importance of other forms of conflict
beyond the intra-state conflict between rebels and government forces. In particular, rido is
one of the primary drivers of conflict in the region, and clans are key actors in the conflict
in the ARMM.
A major database for recording past and ongoing conflicts is the Uppsala Conflict Data
Program (UCDP).
8
UCDP is updated annually, and includes different forms of inter- and
intrastate conflict including ‘one-sided’violence against civilians. However, it only records
ongoing conflicts in the Philippines with battle deaths over 1,000 per annum. Rido-related
Table 2 Multiple Conflicts and Multiple Actors
Conflict / Parties Involved Location Type
Philippine government –Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) Mindanao Intra-state
Philippine government –Bangsamoro Islamic
Freedom Fighters (BIFF)
Mindanao (Zamboanga) Intra-state
Philippine government –Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) Mindanao (and Southeast Asia) Intra-state
Philippine government –Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF)
Mindanao Intra-state
Philippine government –Moro National Liberation
Front (MNLF)
Mindanao Intra-state
Philippine government –Communist Party of the
Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA)
Mindanao (and Nationwide) Intra-state
BIFF –MILF Maguindanao, Mindanao Non-state
Christians –Muslims Mindanao Non-state
Jing Caludtiag - Randy Karon rido Maguindanao and Sultan
Kudarat, Mindanao
Non-state
Hadji Faizal Abdulkarim - Hadji Masir Ahalul rido Bubuan Island, Mindanao Non-state
Lumad –Moro Mindanao Non-state
Vigilante groups –CPP-NPA Mindanao Non-state
Ampatuan militia and other private armies
belonging to elite clans –civilians
Maguindanao One-sided
ASG –civilians Mindanao (with two recorded
attacks in Manila & Cebu)
One-sided
Kidnap for ransom gangs –civilians Mindanao particularly Basilan,
Sulu and Tawi-tawi
One-sided
CPP (NPA) –civilians Northern and Southern Luzon,
Central Visayas to Mindanao
One-sided
MILF –civilians Mindanao One-sided
464 S. E. DAVIES ET AL.
violence falls outside this categorisation because it typically accounts for a small number of
deaths per incident, but the casualties may increase over an extended period of time.
Based on the Asia Foundation rido survey, there was a total of 1,266 documented cases
of rido from the 1930s to 2005, accounting for approximately 5,500 deaths, 64 per cent of
which remain unresolved (Torres 2014, 8). It is estimated that half of this total of rido inci-
dents occurred in the last five years (2000–4), averaging around 127 new cases per year
(ibid.). Hence, compared to the recorded cases of rido-related violence, local estimates
for which are in the hundreds, the UCDP database recorded just two rido incidents
from 1998 to 2016.
An initiative led by International Alert and the World Bank has provided some quan-
titative data that addresses this gap, and sheds light on the main drivers of conflict in the
ARMM, disaggregated by province. This is called the Bangsamoro Conflict Monitoring
System (BCMS).
9
The BCMS uses the concept of violent conflict, which refers to ‘incidents
where two or more parties use violence to settle misunderstandings and grievances, and/or
defend and expand their individual or collective interests (e.g. social, economic, political
resources and power, etc.’(International Alert 2014, 16). Incidents are gathered from
two key data sources: police databases and credible media sources.
BCMS findings suggest that violence in Mindanao, particularly in the volatile pro-
vinces of ARMM, ranges from clan feuds to non-state armed conflict, and intra-state
conflict (International Alert 2014, 28). Moreover, they show how the majority of violent
conflicts in Mindanao emanate from clan and tribal dynamics in the region. That is, the
dominant form of violent conflict in ARMM is between and among clans, tribes, and
local elites, with disputes over illicit trade in arms and arm production, rather than
insurgency-related conflict per se (International Alert 2014). As Steven Rood (2005,6)
explains:
[W]hat begins as a dispute between families can end with organised armed forces clashing, as par-
ties to the dispute persuade others to become involved or the Philippine military can mistake a
clan clash as a separatist operation and intervene on its own.
If a conflict is too small-scale to be recorded, the SGBV which is linked to it will also go
unnoticed (Swaine 2015). It is no coincidence that in the four years that the UN Secretary-
General has provided annual reports on sexual violence in conflict-affected situations,
neither the Philippines nor Mindanao specifically have been mentioned (Ban 2016). If
rido remains below the radar of data collection, and as long as powerful clans in Mindanao
remain invisible within the national peace and conflict negotiations, the SGBV crimes they
commit will continue to go unrecognised. The perpetration of SGBV can intensify at
moments of political contestations and rivalries during elections for political office in
Mindanao and clans have vested interests in keeping this violence invisible. For example,
male members of one powerful clan, the Ampatuan, had committed hundreds of human
rights violations with impunity, including sexual violence against poor and indigenous
women and young girls.
10
These atrocities were routinely perpetrated even before the infa-
mous 2009 Maguindanao massacre that gained both national and international attention
(Lingao 2013). Human Rights Watch’s(2010) account noted that this massacre, which
GENDER & DEVELOPMENT 465
resulted in 57 deaths, had been committed by a clan with a record of unchecked killings
and other serious abuses perpetrated in Mindanao. The organisation argued:
The Maguindanao massacre was an aberration only because of how many people died [in one
incident], not because of its cold-blooded brutality, which the government, military, and police
has long tolerated, and even fuelled. (Human Rights Watch 2010,6)
We argue that the invisibility of rido-related SGBV creates a fragile environment that con-
strains women and girls’ability to report the crimes and undermines possibilities for mean-
ingful, gender-inclusive participation in peace (Human Rights Watch 2010). Unreported
SGBV in connection with extrajudicial killings by armed non-state actors and government
forces, who have sometimes engaged clans such as Ampatuans as their de facto army, has
crucial implications for vulnerable populations in an already fragile peace process.
Whose experiences of violence?
Clearly, silence about SGBV in conflict-affected situations does not mean an absence of this vio-
lence, or that it is not widespread and systematic. One of the starkest indications that SGBV is
widespread is the presence of gender norms that prohibit or constrain reporting (Davies and
True 2015). Different groups have specific political and practical challenges to reporting
SGBV crimes, given the insecurities engendered in the Mindanao context through multiple,
overlapping forms of conflict. These challenges compromise all sources of information, from
international treaty-monitoring bodies to national police reports and media stories.
Social marginalisation and stigma
The first major barrier to reporting SGBV concerns the social marginalisation and stigma
of victims, especially women and girls. These are the result of culturally specific, gender-
based codes of honour and pride within families and communities. Because of the shame
associated with rape and other sexual violence, including trafficking, there is strong
pressure for women and girls to keep the violence they have experienced to themselves.
They do this also to prevent the escalation of rido (interviews, Mindanao, February/
March 2015). Silence around SGBV is one way Muslim Moro and non-Muslim Lumad
indigenous women can protect clan or kin pride and identity, from which their own status
and dignity derives. In effect, as one male government official told us:
they internalise the violence to reduce further and broader conflict.
One male informant, who is a country representative for an international NGO, stated
that:
rape is very taboo in Mindanao. There is no reporting or complaints and even if there are legal
remedies in place victims just disappear …
Lack of access to law and justice
A second major challenge to reporting SGBV in Mindanao is the lack of secure access to
law or justice from institutions which are able to respond adequately. Women and girls in
466 S. E. DAVIES ET AL.
conflict-affected Mindanao cannot report violence safely; they risk violent retribution.
This fear is particularly acute for women in minority communities, including indigenous
and internally displaced women, and women and girls living in poverty.
Women as well as men commonly carry guns for protection in Mindanao. A male NGO
worker with a major organisation working in the region stressed that the more secluded
and rural an area or locality, given the absence of state institutions, the more likely that
extreme violence will take place there, and ‘the more room for silence and fear’(interview,
March 2015). Women who belong to powerful families have access to significant protec-
tion provided by armed male members of families with superior weapons, and often have
their own private armies.
There are some generic problems here, and some specific problems associated with
SGBV and gender-specific obstacles to women and girls obtaining support (and in particu-
lar, women and girls from marginalised groups). If police, and legal and judicial insti-
tutions have no contact with the victims of SGBV, they obviously do not record their
experiences. Many barangays (villages) in Mindanao are either geographically remote
from or lack police stations and health centres where survivors could report the crime
they have experienced, and/or receive assistance.
Even if institutions are within reach, low-intensity conflict situations are by nature
fragile and unstable, so regular reporting and monitoring systems will be frequently dis-
rupted. If cases are reported, they may not surface at higher levels of policymaking,
because professional reputations are at stake, and there is a lack of institutional transpar-
ency. For example, one informant, a male country representative for an international
organisation, told us that many officials are careful about the ramifications of high or
low levels of reported cases:
If the reports are too high, then the government looks bad and a failure, but then if it is too low, the
administration risks not receiving financial support and attention from external funding agencies.
(Interview, March 2015)
In addition, as our interviews corroborated, there are also the practical disincentives to
report SGBV suffered by mainly female survivors, whose dignity is at stake if badly trea-
ted –a universal problem in gender-insensitive institutions. We were told that barangay
officials are often not trained or capable of issuing protection orders (interview with
female NGO leader and lawyer at a Quezon city [Metro Manila] protection unit, 15
April 2016).
For Muslim and indigenous women, their experiences of violence are further compli-
cated by the presence of plural legal systems in Mindanao. Shari’a Law applies for personal
and family relations among Muslims, while many Islamised indigenous groups also sub-
scribe to customary laws concerning dispute settlements (Solamo-Antonio 2015). Grie-
vances, including those relating to SGBV, are often redressed in a way that further
harms women and girls, such as through forced marriage (including dowry); payment
of ‘blood money’as ‘reparations’; and other arrangements which mean survivors continue
to interact with perpetrators in their daily lives. On 25 January 2014, a report in The Man-
ila Times quoted a high-ranking police official in ARMM commenting:
GENDER & DEVELOPMENT 467
…because of culture, people will not report [crimes] to the police, they consult their village chiefs
because once they report it to the police, it is tantamount to a declaration of war. (Vargas 2014)
Issues affecting displaced women and girls
The experience of displacement presents a third major challenge affecting the reporting of
SGBV. Internal displacement due to conflict and seasonal natural disasters affecting Mind-
anao compounds the marginalisation of ethnic minorities and their difficulties in acces-
sing public infrastructures and humanitarian assistance to report and address SGBV.
According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), in 2014 nearly
half a million Filipino people were internally displaced mainly in Mindanao (IDMC
2015, 5). Within that figure, 123,800 people were displaced due to armed conflict,
crime, and clan-based violence, and geographically concentrated in ARMM (ibid.).
Nearly all of those who remain displaced in Mindanao belong to Muslim ethnic min-
orities, and are amongst the poorest and most vulnerable IDPs. The majority have no formal
land ownership or tenancy rights in their areas of origin (Kok 2015). Displacement tends to
be ‘semi-permanent’, with many people trapped in long and protracted evacuation due to
conflict, where families return to their homes, only to be once again displaced by new clashes
(IDMC 2015). In this prolonged state of displacement in camps with poor health, water, and
sanitation facilities, IDPs are exposed to abuse, exploitation, disease, and death (Kok 2015).
In one Mindanao displacement context, Zamboanga, 7,335 people remain displaced in
evacuation camps and 12,576 people in transition sites (UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) 2015). When disasters such as drought and flooding occur
in conflict situations, they compound the problem of protracted displacement and create
new protection gaps for communities (IDMC 2015). One woman worker for an
international development organisation we interviewed said her organisation provided assist-
ance for IDP camps in Mindanao. She admitted that their referral system failed to protect
women and girls, due to being overwhelmed by continued crises (interview, March 2015).
As stated earlier, indigenous women and girls are specifically targeted for SGBV
because they come from the most powerless and neglected social groups in the region.
The exclusion of the Lumad indigenous group from the peace process is compounded
by their particular vulnerability to displacement, due to loss of land for Moro populations,
military operations, mining, and logging projects. Lumads have clear barriers to accessing
barangay and other state mechanisms for reporting, due to their geographical isolation.
Many Lumads are not even registered in the national census. In such a situation, crimes
against Lumads go unremarked, as everyday occurrences (Ferrie 2016). This has an
obvious impact on recording rates of SGBV perpetrated against indigenous peoples, as
shown in Table 1, where the ARMM region had a remarkably low volume of VAW
reports, in comparison to its surrounding areas.
All in all, an absence of reports does not mean there is no problem. What it means is
that the patterns of SGBV remain unclear, and our understanding and analysis are limited.
Tragically the peace process, at this stage, does not address the conditions that have led to
SGBV continuing unabated, with near impunity.
468 S. E. DAVIES ET AL.
Whose voices?
In the light of the analysis above, what might we expect from a peace process that centred
on women’s rights and gender equality?
The Bangsamoro peace process in Mindanao is considered to be relatively inclusive
compared to previous negotiations (O’Reilly et al.2015; UN Women 2015) yet our assess-
ment is that it is still characterised by limited representation and participation of diverse
groups (displaced and Lumad populations) affected by conflict, particularly marginalised
women. The discrimination which perpetuates SGBV crimes aimed at indigenous Lumad
and internally displaced women also operates to prevent their participation in peace pro-
cesses. The selection of individual women for a seat at the peace table has been based on
their ethnic and religious status; as such, ethnic minorities such as Lumads have found it
difficult to stake claims (Paredes 2015).
A gender-inclusive peace process would be sensitive to diversity among women, under-
stand the many different economic, social, and political roles they play, and recognise how
complex inequalities affect women’s capacities to participate and be included in the gov-
ernance of peace and security.
The extent to which women have genuinely been able to participate in a peace process
can be judged by the outcome. If women have been able to table concrete and fundamental
reforms, this is more meaningful than counting the numbers of women round a peace
table (Paffenholz et al.2016). One of the fundamental reforms to push for is the public
recognition of SGBV in all fragile settings, and the end of impunity for this violence,
which means access to justice, protection, and redress for SGBV survivors. However,
even when local women are present at peace talks, raising issues of ongoing SGBV can
be difficult (Jenkins and Goetz 2010). Moreover, it is particularly difficult in an environ-
ment where the violence being ‘counted’and the people being subjected to this violence
are not included in the peace process, as is the case for the populations most at risk of
SGBV in Mindanao.
In situations where the reporting of SGBV is too difficult and dangerous, how can we
ensure the participation of IDPs and indigenous women in peace processes without pla-
cing them in the dangerous position that they fear? This form of gender-inclusive partici-
pation is crucial for gender-inclusive protection. Humanitarian assistance offers a much-
needed source of protection for marginalised women and girls, but because this is often
short term, it presents a major challenge for ongoing protection. Humanitarian agencies
are typically funded only to address SGBV in the context of a crisis, defined according
to a particular threshold of conflict or disaster. These agencies are under pressure to
respond only to the crisis situation and not to provide long-term protection, peacebuild-
ing, and equality measures (GenCap 2015).
Conclusion: implications for peace processes
The Mindanao case illustrates how women in conflict situations may be forced into silence
about SGBV, as a result of barriers preventing them from reporting abuse and
GENDER & DEVELOPMENT 469
participating in peace processes. Women of low status are not outside conflicts –far from
it –but their voices may not be represented among the parties to peace agreements. Thus,
the fragility of the peace process lies not only in the agreement itself, but also in the selec-
tivity of who contributes to it and who benefits from it. In Mindanao, the conflict is experi-
enced as silent survival, for Moro and Lumad women especially, as well as long-term
displaced women and girls.
Women’s silence may secure the peace, but peace is fragile and unlikely to be sustain-
able under these conditions. The failure to acknowledge clan and community levels of vio-
lence are related to national discussions of peace and security results from the privileging
of intra-state conflicts and of the counting of battle deaths. Yet it is clan membership that
fuels conflict at communal and intra-state levels, and is directly linked to SGBV perpe-
trated against marginalised, minority women and girls. The failure to investigate SGBV
in low-intensity conflict situations sustains both its invisibility and its effectiveness at
excluding particular populations from their political and civil rights. Without recognition
of the problem of SGBV, we cannot expect improvements in protection, participation, or
the prevention of violence and conflict in this fragile environment where there remain
high numbers of displaced and disenfranchised populations.
Women’s participation in peace processes has been celebrated as instrumental in resol-
ving the protracted conflict in Mindanao. However, there has not been only one conflict
to end in Mindanao. Failure to recognise the multiple armed conflicts at the communal
level poses a significant barrier to raising and addressing the problem of SGBV that con-
tinues to target women from unrepresented minority groups in the peace process. Con-
flict-affected situations in the Asia Pacific region are complex in that their low intensity
of deaths per year cover up the multitude of repressive forms of violence that still subjugate
populations. In particular, the low-intensity conflict designation makes mapping the pat-
terns of SGBV a difficult but vital task. Only by making visible these patterns can we identify
appropriate strategies to ensure the inclusion of those groups being systematically targeted
for such violence, which will mitigate their ongoing vulnerability and prevent future conflict
and violence.
Notes
1. For example: the annual UN Secretary-General reports on sexual violence in conflict-affected situ-
ations has listed four countries from Asia (Afghanistan, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka) over
the four years of reporting (2012–15), see www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/key-documents/
reports/ (last checked by the authors 30 April 2016); and the Office of the Special Representative
of Secretary-General for Sexual Violence in Conflict does not have one country from Asia listed
amongst its 11 ‘case’countries, see www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/ (last checked by the
authors 30 April 2016).
2. For example, Jacqui True (2015) argues that research contending that there has been a decline in
violence and war is based on the count of battle deaths over the threshold of 1,000 deaths neglects
evidence of the incidence of gendered violence that does not result in death.
3. Under Philippine laws, the term violence against women is adopted to refer to a range of SGBV
including but not limited to physical violence, sexual violence, prostitution and trafficking, and
470 S. E. DAVIES ET AL.
economic abuse. In Republic Act 9262, VAW is defined as ‘any act or a series of acts committed by
any person against a woman who is his wife, former wife, or against a woman with whom the person
has or had a sexual or dating relationship, or with whom he has a common child, or against her child
whether legitimate or illegitimate, within or without the family abode, which result in or is likely to
result in physical, sexual, psychological harm or suffering, or economic abuse including threats of
such acts, battery, assault, coercion, harassment or arbitrary deprivation of liberty’.Nationaldata
collection operationalises this broad definition into the 13 indicators listed in Table 1.Weuse
the term sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) following the official definition adopted by
through the UN Security Council, Rome Statute, and international law and policy frameworks.
We note that the two concepts overlap although VAW denotes a legal term in the Philippines.
4. Purposive snowball sampling is a research method involving identifying research participants pro-
gressively by asking each one to recommend others who may have relevant perspectives and
knowledge.
5. VAW was the focus of the data collection drawn on here because it is the term used in the national
statistics in the Philippines that cover sexual and gender-based forms of violence. The concept of
VAW has sufficient overlap with SGBV for us to see analysing this data as useful for our own
research.
6. The term ‘battle-death threshold’refers to the number of deaths directly resulting from conflict
that are needed before they are coded as either a minor conflict (25–100 battle deaths) or a
major conflict (above 1,000 deaths) (see Uppsala Conflict Data Program as at Note 8).
7. The 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) defines widespread and sys-
tematic sexual and gender-based crimes to include rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution,
forced pregnancy, enforced sterilisation, and other forms of sexual violence (Office of the ICC
Prosecutor 2014, 5). These crimes may occur in conflict or not. However, the UN Security Council
is primarily concerned with hearing reports of sexual violence being directed, ordered, or per-
mitted by organised groups against populations in conflict situations recognised by the Council.
The UN Secretary-General has and may report cases, whether in conflict or not, that meet the
‘widespread and systematic’criteria (Ban 2016). The situations reported are different to
national-level ‘Violence Against Women’reports which refer to violence that affects women
and girls disproportionately, but may not be widespread.
8. Available at http://www.pcr.uu.se/research/ucdp/ (last checked by the authors 26 July 2016).
9. Violent conflicts are categorised in the BCMS as vertical conflicts referring to insurgency-related,
separatist, or non-separatist armed struggles against the State; and horizontal conflicts referring
to all conflicts without state engagement such as violent struggles between clans, ethnic groups,
rival insurgent factions, political parties, and private armed groups, or shadow authorities. BCMS
identifies the following causes of violent conflicts: political; resource; identity; shadow economy;
extra-judicial –under which SGBV such as domestic violence, rape, and sexual harassment are classi-
fied; and governance. Single or multiple causes for conflicts are recorded (International Alert 2014).
10. The Ampatuans have been politically dominant in Maguindanao, ARMM through the use of vio-
lence and coercion, and promoting clan interests at the expense of other people’s lives (Human
Rights Watch 2010). Among Mindanao provinces, the ARMM has the highest concentration of
Moros and the lowest for non-Muslim indigenous Lumads. It also constitutes the poorest pro-
vinces in the Philippines (Human Development Network 2012–13).
Notes on contributors
Sara E. Davies is Australian Research Council Future Fellow and Associate Professor at the Centre for
Governance and Public Policy, Griffith University, Australia and Adjunct Associate Professor, Monash
Gender, Peace and Security (GPS) Centre, and Professor of Politics and International Relations in the
School of Social Sciences, Monash University, Australia. Postal address: Centre for Governance and
GENDER & DEVELOPMENT 471
Public Policy, School of Government and International Relations, Griffith University, Building 72,
Nathan, QLD 4111, Australia. Email: Sara.Davies@griffith.edu.au
Jacqui True is Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Director of Monash Gender, Peace and Secur-
ity (GPS) Centre, and Professor of Politics and International Relations in the School of Social Sciences,
Monash University, Australia.
Maria Tanyag is a PhD Candidate at the Monash Gender, Peace and Security (GPS) Centre.
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