‘Women’s Peace Table’ launched in Mindanao

DAVAO CITY (MindanaoExaminer / Dec. 12, 2011) – The Mindanao Commission on Women has launched the “Women’s Peace Table” that will connect the formal peace negotiations between the Aquino government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to the women not only in the southern Philippines, but the rest of the country.  

Peace negotiations are to resume in January next year in Malaysia which is brokering the talks. Both Manilaand the MILF recently announced the addition of two respected Muslim women in the talks – Yasmin Lao for the government and lawyer Raissa Jajurie for the MILF panel.

“We rejoice in this positive direction the two parties are taking. Women have suffered too long and too much.  But more than that, we know that women have the capacity and the commitment to be a significant actor to bring about a sustained and just peace in Mindanao,” Irene Santiago, of the Mindanao Commission on Women, said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.

Santiago said Mindanao women are “eager to participate in the negotiations as a vital actor and to be a partner in the tremendous task of post-war reconstruction and recovery.”

The Women’s Peace Table is the third that aims to harness women’s tremendous capacities to generate many alternatives, mediate, mobilize, and educate for peace.

“Because peace is a national concern, the Women’s Peace Table is open to all women who yearn for and are willing to work for peace,” Santiago said.