A Stouthearted Peace-Builder
/
Ferrer discussing the peace process with the Western Mindanao Command in Zamboanga City (Photo courtesy of Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation)
Ferrer weaves mutual respect into pragmatic idealism, explaining that, “Conflicts are best resolved not through the annihilation of one party, but by the mutual transformation of all players towards a common vision and shared responsibilities and accountability.”
She did quite well as a peace negotiator, being the consummate peace builder and women’s advocate. For her, the two elements are intertwined. Overcoming the traditional bias against women in “men’s work,” she succeeded for the most part because she is a woman; and that completed the dimensions of finalized peace agreements.
In an animated chat with a woman in Mindanao (Photo courtesy of Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation)
Coronel-Ferrer is of slight build; she comes on as gentle, amiable, agreeable. But beneath the exterior is a tough, sharp, and savvy conciliator who can disarm and win over the most tenacious counterpart. Her quests are noble and lofty, but her methods are grounded in reality. This spelled her success in peace negotiations. “I’m a peace advocate, and peace advocates are always optimistic,” she says.
Her idealism was forged early. She recalls, “When I was at the university in the late 1970s, the country was under martial law imposed by the government of Ferdinand Marcos. I started to become politically active, and after graduation, I joined the resistance against martial rule. It was a dangerous time. I had friends who were killed; other activists were raped, tortured, or detained.”
After the 1986 People Power Revolution, Ferrer initiated the drafting of the Philippines’ first National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security. The draft was eventually adopted by the government in 2010 as part of its commitment to the UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which ensures the protection of women’s rights during armed conflicts, and advances the role of women as peacebuilders on all levels. Quite a feat for a young woman.
The peace challenge
More complex challenges were forthcoming. She joined the government panel tasked to negotiate peace with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and became chief government negotiator in the latter part of 2012.
Being the first woman chair of the peace panel, Coronel-Ferrer approached the job with humility, conscious of the other party’s “cultural differences” and working around them. There was some hesitancy to work with a woman chair, but she soon earned admiration and respect for her analytical command of the issues and skill as a negotiator.
“No one path will bring the total change. We often had to temper expectations on what the peace table on the Bangsamoro could achieve. It could settle one conflict - a big one, between the government and the biggest, most organized armed group in the country fighting for a cause.”
She says the halt in the fighting opened the space for major reforms based on partnership and mutual accountability. “It has tempered but not completely stopped the flow of more young people toward violent extremism.”
The peace talks also needed to “intersect with the other transformation tracks in Congress, in our bureaucracy, in the behavior of our political class, and in the practices and mindsets of our body politic.”
In 2014, the Philippine government and the MILF signed the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), ushering the transition process that created the new Bangsamoro entity with a more empowered autonomous government. The agreement also provided a process for the decommissioning of weapons and combatants and the transformation of conflict-affected areas into peaceful civilian communities.
It brought a gradual end to the 17-year-old conflict that had killed more than 120,000 people.
Ferrer explains that the peace agreement “seeks to “carry out transitional justice,” and “thread together the tattered fabric of social life and heal the wounds of centuries of conflict.” “We hope it will reconcile families, political groups, tribes and communities alienated from each other by prejudice, vendetta, and injustice.”
Looking back, Ferrer recalls the bumpy process they went through. “Negotiations were taking too long, Some of the impatient MILF members dropped out and joined the extremist groups.” This led to some violence. “The challenge was to put genuine reforms in place. For the MILF it was to be partners in government.”
She notes that one of the key things that made the peace negotiation with the MILF successful was the political leadership of then-president Benigno Aquino III. “He really tried to open his mind and accommodate, as much as possible, the requests of the MILF.”
“If we didn’t have a leadership that tried to understand the whole context and did not use his political capital, because this was not a popular initiative, the (peace talks) would not have been successful,” Coronel-Ferrer adds. Another key element was the “supportive public on the part of the MILF,” which tried to find a peaceful settlement to the conflict.
When asked what the most difficult part of the peace negotiations with the MILF was, she answered, “Everything.”
The CAB has been described by international observers as a model for the integration of gender-responsive provisions and the inclusive participation of women and civil society organizations. Ferrer sees this achievement more modestly: “There is no perfect agreement, but we make it more imperfect by leaving women out of the process.”
Women in the forefront
Ferrer, head of the Philippine Government peace panel, visits the soldiers and MILF at Camp Iranon (Photo courtesy of Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation)
The peace movement that emerged after the People Power Revolution was mostly led by women. “We all came together across many different organizations and ideological positions, from many walks of life and working to pursue a common goal.”
“Being a female peace-builder is admittedly difficult, women are usually restricted to handling women’s issues instead of ‘dealing with the hard stuff’,” according to Ferrer. But when she successfully led the negotiations with the MILF, it paved the way for other women to follow suit.
“They told me ‘now we know that women can do it as well.’ It’s really this accumulation of women who show that it can be done by women, and it can be done well, and it inspires other women.”
Coronel-Ferrer is the first female chief negotiator in the world to sign a final peace accord with a rebel group. She concedes that this recognition would not have been possible without the efforts of the women who came before her.
The experience made her determined to work towards ensuring more of her compatriots get their due. “This has become all the more important in recent years as we have seen the return of authoritarianism and a pushback against women’s rights and the peace agenda.
“I feel that I was born under a lucky star because I have a lot of support from my husband and my family. Many women don’t have this kind of safe, supportive space, and struggle to be free from domestic violence, or the shackles of household work and lack of economic freedom. It is for them that I don’t give up the vision of a future defined by peace and not by conflict and division.”
The unending quest for a just society
Coronel-Ferrer’s lifelong peace advocacy has gone beyond the country’s borders. She was part of international teams looking into the conflict situations in East Timor and Cambodia. And she provided support work for the peace programs of the Carter Center in Sudan and Syria.
In 2018, she became a member of the United Nations Standby Team of Senior Mediation Advisers, the only one from Southeast Asia so far, supporting the mediation and preventive diplomacy work of UN missions in places like Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq, the Maldives, and the ASEAN region.
Coronel-Ferrer co-founded the Southeast Asian Women Peace Mediators (SEAWPM) in 2020, a pioneering group of women engaged in convening safe spaces for dialogues and supporting mediation initiatives in countries like Myanmar and Afghanistan. This is her main work today.
She also sits as member of the board of trustees or advisory bodies of several key conflict resolution initiatives such as the International Crisis Group, the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, the Harvard University-based Negotiations Strategies Institute, and the Peace Treaty Initiative. Amazing how one person can do all that.
Fittingly, the rewards followed.
Miriam Coronel-Ferrer received the 2023 Ramon Magsaysay Award for her “deep, unwavering belief in the transformative power of non-violent strategies in peace building... and her unstinting devotion to the agenda of harnessing the power of women in creating a just and peaceful world.”
[SIDEBAR]
On a lighter vein, with all her complex involvements, Coronel-Ferrer shares how she juggles her time:
“One has to keep focused on the task at hand. As in everything you need a proper dose of discipline and dedication.”
She dabbled in poetry in her youth, but no longer does. “Perhaps because I use my analytical and logical side more, I've learned more toward the essay form, away from the cadence and imagery of poetry. But I do think that metaphors and analogies have more impact in all forms of narratives, the academic lingo included. In my senior years, I'd like to do more creative non-fiction.”
How do you unwind? “I read a novel. It's like my vengeance from all the other readings that I need to do. When my body complains, I do a yoga routine from rote. It stretches all the muscles in the body.”
Are you a foodie? “I learned how to make kesong puti (cottage cheese) and burong isda (fermented fish and rice) just from watching my grandmother. My favorite cuisines are all in the Southeast Asian neighborhood with their spicy medleys of favors emerging from putting together leaves, fruits, and barks from the garden and forests.”
Inspiring quotes and insights
“Peace is something you work for every day.
“The quest for peace is not an exclusive process. You don't have to be a negotiator. Where you are is where you build your own peace, yourself, family, friend.”
“Peace is an umbrella that puts together all the social movements, all the individual struggles that we do. To make a better life for everyone. If some of the elements are not there, then it cannot be real peace.”
In her speech for receiving the Hilary Clinton Award for Advancing Women in Peace and Security in 2015, Coronel-Ferrer said she does not want her grandchildren “to inherit a country divided by prejudice, dishonored by sexism, and stunted by the narrow vision of members of its political class.” “Yet we have gone this far in our peace process. There should be no turning back.”
A final message
“What does it mean to have ‘the greatness of spirit’ which the Ramon Magsaysay Award exemplifies? At the end of the day, it comes from the ordinary things we do in our daily lives beyond our immediate circles, for the wellbeing of Others who are not Us so that We live up to the humanity that is in All of Us.”
Manuel “EG” Hizon is a Manila-based development consultant engaged in strategic communications.
More articles from Manuel Hizon
