Paper details

Paper authors	Sachiko Ishikawa
In panel on	COVID-19 beyond Health Insecurity
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a paradigm shift for the Mindanao peace process between the Philippine government and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). To combat COVID-19 as a common threat, the working relationship between the Duterte Administration and the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) was much smoother and more collaborative than expected. The BTA and local government units also reached out to each other in response to the pandemic. These nested protection methods worked reasonably well. However, the livelihood of the BARMM as the poorest region in the Philippines has been aggravated not so much by the pandemic itself compared to other parts of the country but by the government’s containment measures such as different methods of community quarantine. While top-down protection prevailed during the initial period of the pandemic, the Bangsamoro community started helping themselves at the local level by producing their own food and by disseminating health protection knowledge among people in their community. The top-down protection together with some regionally customized measures could be the key to increasing the credibility of the BTA for the forthcoming parliamentary election, although potential threats to the consolidation of peace should always be identified and taken care of in the BARMM.

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