Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
Second Regular Session

5106

House Bill No.

Introduced by Representatives
DIOSDADO MACAPAGAL ARROYO and GLORIA MACAPAGAL ARROYO

AN ACT
ESTABLISHING A DEPARTMENT OF PEACE IN THE PHILIPPINES.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

As an archipelagic country located in Southeast Asia, the Philippines with
its 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean, sharing maritime borders with
Indonesia, Malaysia, Palau, the Republic of China (Taiwan), and Vietnam, is
considered a tropical paradise due to its vast mountain ranges and forests, the
smallest living mammal alive in the Tarsier, the Philippine Eagle, the perfectly
shaped cone of Mayon Volcano in Biccl, the Chocolate Hills of Bohol, the
Tubbataha Reef in Palawan, home to the world's best beaches, and some of the
finest delicacies the world can ever taste. We have also been considered as one
of the most hospitable and warmest people in the world making us world
renowned especially with regard to the tourism industry.

But despite all these, it is such a shame that the Philippines’ potential as a
tourism haven is being stunted by continued deep conflict with enemies of the
State like the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Moro National Liberation Front, the
Abu Sayyaf and the National People's Army. Moreover, we Filipinos continue to
be embroiled in deep conflict with fellow Filipinos. This type of conflict is
considered unacceptable because it prevents us from achieving our goal of
promoting the Philippines as a safe and secure place for both local and
international tourists.

We should therefore come up with a lasting solution to our age-old
problem of deep conflict and ensure the success of the country’s peace process.
We have come up with this humble proposal which seeks to create a government
agency that will aim to create and foster lasting peace.


Given the importance of this bill, its expeditious passage into law is

earnestly sought.

DIOSDADO MACAPAGAL ARROYO
Second District, Camarines Sur

GLORIA
Secor

CAPAGAL ARROYO

District, Pampanga

i


Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
Second Regular Session

5108

House Bill No.

Introduced by Representatives
DIOSDADO MACAPAGAL ARROYO and GLORIA MACAPAGAL ARROYO.

AN ACT
ESTABLISHING A DEPARTMENT OF PEACE IN THE PHILIPPINES

Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the
Philippines in Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. Short Title. - This Act shall be known as the "Department of
Peace Act of 2011.”

SECTION 2. Declaration of Policies. - It is hereby declared the policy of
the State:

1, To promote human security, peace-building, peace-making, and the
Nonviolent resolution of conflict principles;

2. To develop and support suitable programs to encourage and assist
research, education, training, advocacy, and policy-making centered on
the promotion of human security, peace-building, peace-making, and the
nonviolent resolution of conflict principles;

3. To provide suitable incentives and rewards for those provinces and
regions that espouse peaceful and non-killing principles; and

4. To assist and encourage those communities that experience more
violence and killings in order to alleviate and improve their condition.


SECTIO 3. Establishment of a Department of Peace. — There is hereby
established a DEPARTMENT OF PEACE (hereinafter referred to as the
“Department').

SECTION 4. Mandate of the Department. — The Department shall -

1. Formulate, recommend and implement national advocacies, plans,
programs and guidelines that will promote and uphold a peaceful,
nonviolent and non-killing principles;

2. Initiate, harmonize and coordinate all peace keeping, non-violent and
non-killing initiatives of the government and its respective agencies;

3. Strengthen civilian and non-military means of peacemaking;

4. Promote a proactive, strategic approach in the development of policies
and programs that promote domestic and international conflict prevention,
nonviolent intervention, mediation, peaceful resolution of conflict, and
structured mediation of conflict;

5. Encourage the development of initiatives from local communities,
religious groups, and non-governmental organizations toward peace;

6. Represent and negotiate for government interest on matters pertaining
to peace, understanding, and cooperation in local and international
bodies.

SECTION 5. Secretary of Peace. - The Department of Peace shall be
headed by a Secretary of Peace (hereinafter in this Act referred to as the
“Secretary"), who shall be appointed by the President of the Philippines and
whose appointment shall be subject to confirmation by the Commission on
Appointments.

The Secretary shall have the following responsibilities and powers:

A. IN GENERAL - The Secretary shall -

1. Work proactively and interactively with each branch of the National
Government on all policy matters relating to conditions of violence, peace,

non-killing and conflict resolution;

2. Act as the spokesman on matters of violence, peace, non killing and
conflict resolution;

3. Engage the intellectual and spiritual resources of the Filipino people in
the pursuit of peace, non-killing and conflict resolution;


4. Monitor and analyze causative principles of conflict and make policy
recommendations for developing and maintaining peaceful conduct, and
the prevention of crisis and violence;

5. Promote and develop program(s) involving citizen participation in all the
elements from peace-building, peace-making and peace-keeping;

6. Develop an intercultural competence to manage conflicts among
individuals and groups;

7. Assist in the establishment and funding of community-based violence
prevention programs, including violence prevention and counseling and
peer mediation in schools;

8. Develop strategies and implement programs to address unhealthy
manifestations of violence in Filipino culture as they relate to both humans
and animals.

B. HUMAN SECURITY RESPONSIBILITIES - The Secretary shall
address and offer nonviolent conflict resolution strategies to all relevant parties
on issues of human security if such security is threatened by conflict, whether
such conflict is geographic, religious, ethnic, racial, or class-based in its origin,
derives from economic concerns (including trade or misdistribution of wealth), or
is initiated through disputes concerning scarcity of natural resources (such as
water and energy resources), food trade, environmental and gender concerns.

C. EDUCATIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES — The Secretary shall -

1. Cooperate with scholars, educators and civil society organizers in their
development of peace and human rights education which shall include
studies of -

a. The human rights movement in the Philippines, Asia, and
throughout the world, with special emphasis on how cooperative
endeavor and involvement have contributed to advancements in
peace and justice; and

b. Peace agreements and circumstances in which peaceful
intervention has worked to stop conflict.

2. Offer incentives in the form of grants and training to encourage the
development of provincial and city peace curricula and assist schools in
applying for such curricula;


3. Set up, maintain and publish the Philippine Index of Killing and Non-
killing as a periodic recording, monitoring, and mapping of the incidence of
violence and Killings, as well as of nonviolence and non-killing, in various
parts of the country and the entire archipelago:

4, Provide suitable incentives and rewards for those provinces and regions
that excel in developing peaceful and non killing communities; and assist
and encourage those communities that experience more violence and
killings in order to alleviate and improve their condition;

5. Work with educators to equip students to become skilled in achieving
peace through reflection, and facilitate instruction in the ways of peaceful
conflict prevention and resolution;

6. Maintain a site on the Internet for the purposes of soliciting and
receiving ideas for the development of peace from the wealth of political,
social and cultural diversity in the country and the world;

7. Proactively engage the critical thinking capabilities of grade school, high
school, and university students and teachers through the Internet and
other media;

8. Provide grants for peace studies departments in colleges and
universities throughout the Philippines.

D. DOMESTIC RESPONSIBILITIES ~ The Secretary shall -

1. Support local community initiatives that can draw neighborhood
resources to avoid and reduce or stop killing, create peace projects that
facilitate the development of conflict prevention and resolution at the local
and national levels and thereby inform and inspire national policy for
peace;

2. Develop community-based strategies for celebrating diversity in
languages, cultures, and religions, promoting respect, and combating
prejudice and discrimination;

3. Assist in the establishment and funding of community-based violence
prevention programs, including non-killing, and violence prevention
counseling and peer mediation in schools;

4. Develop policies that address domestic violence, including spousal
abuse, child abuse and maltreatment of the elderly;

5. Develop policies to address violence against animals;


6. Analyze existing policies, employ successful, field-tested programs, and
develop new approaches for dealing with the implements of violence,
including gun-related violence and the overwhelming presence of
handguns;

7. Develop new programs that relate to the societal challenges of school
violence, gangs, racial or ethnic violence, violence against gays and
lesbians, and police-community relations disputes;

8. Make policy recommendations to the Secretary of Justice regarding
human rights and labor law;

9. Counsel and advocate on behalf of women victimized by violence;

10. Contribute to public education programs and counseling strategies
concerning hate crimes;

11. Promote respect for racial, religious, and ethnic diversity; and

12. Ensure that the principles of building a culture of peace guide regional
official languages and employment of equity policies.

E. INTERNATIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES — The Secretary shall -

1. Advise the Secretary of National Defense, the Secretary of Foreign
Affairs, and the Secretary of Interior and Local Government on all matters
relating to domestic peace and to human and national security, including
the protection of human rights and the prevention of, amelioration of, and
de-escalation of unarmed and armed domestic and international conflict;

2. Provide for the training of all government personnel who administer
post-conflict reconstruction and demobilization in war-torn communities;

3. Sponsor country and regional conflict prevention and dispute resolution
initiatives, create special task forces, and draw on local, regional, and
national expertise to develop plans and programs for addressing the root
sources of conflict and violence in troubled areas;

4, Provide for exchanges between the Philippines and other nations of
individuals who endeavor to develop domestic and international peace
based initiatives;

5. Administer the training of civilian peace-keepers who participate in
multinational non-violent police forces and support civilian police who
participate in peacekeeping;


6. Facilitate the development of peace summits at which parties to a
conflict may gather under carefully prepared conditions to promote
nonviolent communication and mutually beneficial solutions;

7. Submit to the President recommendations for reductions in weapons of
violence and destruction including stopping their proliferation;

8. Advice the Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations
on matters pertaining to violence and peace, and the United Nations
Security Council; and

9. Provide ethical and value-based analyses of issues and problems to the
Department of National Defense and the Department of Interior and Local
Government.

SECTION 6. Composition. — The Department of Peace shall be headed by
a Secretary. The Department proper shall be composed of the Office of the
Secretary, the Office of the Undersecretary, and Bureau Directors who shall
function as follows:

1. UNDERSECRETARY OF PEACE - There shall be in the Department
an Undersecretary of Peace, who shall be appointed by the President. The
Undersecretary shall designate the order in which other officials of the
Department shall act for and perform the functions of the Secretary during the
absence or disability of the Secretary.

2. BUREAU DIRECTORS - There shall be in the Department such
Bureau Directors as may be necessary and authorized by law.

SECTION 7. Bureau of Peace Education and Training. - There shall be in
the Department a Bureau of Peace Education and Training (Bureau) who shall
carry out those functions of the Department relating to the creation,
encouragement, and impact of peace education and training at the elementary,
secondary, university, and postgraduate levels, including the development of a
Civilian Peace Service (CPS).

The Bureau shall cooperate with the public and private schools in their
development of peace curricula and learning materials concerned with building
peace communication skills, non-violent conflict resolution skills, and other
objectives to increase the knowledge of peace and non-killing conditions and
processes.

The Director for Peace Education and Training shall -

1. Provide peace education grants to colleges and universities for the
creation and expansion of peace studies departments; and


2. Create a Community Peace Grant program under which grants shall be
provided to not-for-profit community and non-governmental organizations
for the purposes of developing creative, innovative neighborhood
programs for non-violent conflict resolution and local peace-building
initiatives.

SECTION 8. Bureau for Domestic Peace. — There shall be a Bureau for
Domestic Peace. This Bureau, in collaboration with local government leaders,
shall be responsible for promoting and undertaking domestic peace activities,
including the development of policies that increase awareness about intervention
and counseling on domestic violence and conflict, and those functions in the
Department affecting research and analysis relating to creating, initiating and
modeling approaches to peaceful engagement and non-violent conflict resolution

The Director for Domestic Peace Activities shall -

1. Develop policies and build on existing programs responsive to the
prevention of violence and Killing, including the development of community
policing strategies and peaceful settiement skills among local officials and
police and other public safety officers;

2. Develop community-based strategies for promoting and celebrating
diversity and promoting respect for such diversity;

3. Study the impact of violence and war, especially on the physical and
mental condition of children;

4. Implement the UN Resolution 1325 to promote enhanced participation
of women in peace in all aspects of peace activities ranging from peace -
making, peace-building to post-conflict reconstruction;

5. Review and implement UN deliberations on Rapid Response (R2P2) -
Responsibility to Protect;

6. Publish a monthly journal of the activities of the Department and
encourage scholarly participation;

7. Gather information on effective community peace-building activities and
disseminate such information to local governments and non-governmental
organizations in the Philippines and abroad;

8. Conduct research on the effect of violence in the media and make such
reports available to Congress annually; and


9. Sponsor conferences in the Philippines to create awareness of the work
of the Department.

SECTION 9. Bureau for International Peace (BIP). — There shall be a
Bureau of International Peace which shall be headed by a Director. This Bureau
shall be responsible for the country's international peace activities.

The Director for International Peace shall -

1. Provide for the training and deployment of all Civilian Peace Service
graduates and other non-military conflict prevention and peace-making
personnel;

2. Sponsor country and regional conflict prevention and dispute resolution
initiatives in countries experiencing social, political, or economic strife;

3. Advocate the creation of a multi-national non-violent peace force;

4. Provide training for the administration of post-conflict reconstruction and
demobilization in war-torn societies;

5. Provide for the exchanges between individuals of the Philippines and
other nations who are endeavoring to develop domestic and international
peace-based initiatives;

6. Carry out those functions affecting arms control programs and arms
limitation agreements;

7. Advise the Secretary of Peace on all inter-agency discussions and all
international negotiations regarding the reduction and elimination of
weapons of mass destruction throughout the world, including the
dismantling of such weapons and the safe and secure storage of materials
related thereto;

8. Assist nations, international agencies and non-governmental
organizations in assessing the locations of the build-up of nuclear
weapons;

9. Develop non-violent strategies to deter the testing or use of offensive or
defensive nuclear weapons, whether based on land, air, sea, or in outer
space;

10. Serve as a depository for copies of all contracts, agreements and
treaties that deal with the reduction and elimination of nuclear weapons or
the protection of outer space from militarization; and


11. Provide technical support and legal assistance for the implementation
of such agreements.

SECTION 10. Bureau of Human Rights and Economie Rights (BHR). —
There shall be a Bureau of Human Rights and Economic Rights. This Bureau
shall perform those functions in the Department supporting the principles of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights passed by the General Assembly of the
United Nations on December 10, 1948, and subsequent UN Declarations on
Human Rights.

The Director for Human Rights and Economic Rights shall -

1. Assist the Secretary of Peace and the Undersecretary of Peace in
furthering the incorporation of principles of human rights, as enunciated in
the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 217A (Ill) of December
10, 1948, into all agreements between the Philippines and other nations to
help reduce the causes of violence;

2. Gather information on and document human rights abuses, both
domestically and internationally, and recommend to the Secretary non
violent responses to correct abuses;

3. Make such findings available to other agencies in order to facilitate non
violent conflict resolution;

4. Provide trained observers to work with non-governmental organizations
for purposes of creating a climate that is conducive to the respect for
human rights;

§. Conduct economic analyses of the scarcity of human and natural
resources as a source of conflict and make recommendations to the
Secretary of Peace for nonviolent prevention of such scarcity, non-violent
intervention in case of such scarcity, and the development of programs of
assistance for people experiencing such scarcity, whether due to armed
conflict, maldistribution of resources, or natural causes; and

6. Assist the Secretary of Foreign Affairs and the Secretary of Finance, in
developing strategies regarding the sustainability and the management of
the distribution of funds from international agencies, the conditions
regarding the receipt of such funds, and the impact of those conditions on
the peace and stability of the recipient nations.

SECTION 11. Consultation in drafting treaties and agreements. - The
Department of Peace shall be consulted in the drafting of treaties and peace
agreements.


SECTION 12. Consultation in cases of conflict. — In any case in which a
conflict between the Philippines and any foreign government or entity is imminent
or occurring, the Secretary of National Lefense and the Secretary of Foreign
Affairs shall consult with the Secretary of Peace concerning nonviolent means of
conflict resolution.

1. In any case in which such a conflict is ongoing or recently concluded,
the Secretary of Peace shall conduct independent studies of diplomatic
initiatives undertaken by the Philippines and other parties to the conflict.

2. In any case in which such a conflict has recently been concluded, the
Secretary of Peace shall assess the effectiveness of those initiatives in
ending the conflict.

3. The Secretary of Peace shall establish a formal process of consultation
in a timely manner with the Secretary of Foreign Affairs and the Secretary
of National Defense prior to the initiation of any armed conflict between
the Philippines and any other nation; and for any matter involving the use
of the Department of National Defense personnel within the Philippines.

SECTION 13. Advisory Council for Peace. — The Secretary of Peace, the
Secretary of Foreign Affairs, the Secretary of National Defense, and. the
Secretary of Interior and Local Government shall form an Advisory Council for
Peace, chaired by the Secretary of Peace. The Advisory Council shall report to
and advise the President, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the
House of Representatives, and make recommendations about the affairs and
policies of the Department relating to peace, non-killing, and nonviolent conflict
resolution. The Council facilitated by the Secretary of Peace shall also serve as
a national and international sounding board and nexus for fostering domestic and
international peace.

SECTION 14. Responsibilities. - The Chairman of the Advisory Council
shall:

1. Provide a forum for representatives of international actors, national, and
local governments to discuss peace issues;

2. Promote better intergovernmental relations; and

3. Submit biennially or more frequently if determined necessary by the
Council, a report to the President, the Senate, the House of
Representatives reviewing the impact of national and international peace
activities on provincial and local governments and communities.


SECTION 15. Repealing Clause. — All laws, presidential decrees, letters of
instruction, executive orders, rules and regulations, or any part thereof
inconsistent with this Act shall be amended or modified accordingly.

SECTION 16. Effectivity Clause. — This Act shall take effect after fifteen
(15) days following its publication in the Officiai Gazette or in at least two
newspapers of general circulation.

Approved,