by Rene V. Carbayas
ISABELA CITY, Basilan – Members of the Basilan Peace and Development Coordinating Committee or simply called “Team Basilan” underwent a two-day training on conflict resolution skills and dialogue here recently.
Around 20 members from government, religious sector, and head of departments of the provincial government, the military, and police engaged in various learning activities that equipped individuals with skills and knowledge on how to handle conflict situations.
Resource person and facilitator Maria Ida Denise Giguento of the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) led participants to a meaningful and fruitful activities, where the opportunities to discover self-capacities, and attitudes, and behavior that is essential in contributing to resolution or escalation of conflicts.
“These are life skills that we can use every day, when we deal with all forms of conflicts,” she said.
The seminar-workshop was aimed at providing input to Team Basilan members and partners even if some are not directly engaging in resolving conflicts in particular communities.
The training hopes to build appropriate attitude and behavior of members contributory to peace-building efforts and initiatives.
The participants have expressed that the workshop helped identified the roles of the third party in conflict resolution, the role that Team Basilan might assume.
The roles include the following: to mediate, negotiate, facilitate, to be a diplomat, regulate, moderate, aggravate, listen, pacify, advise, analyze, evaluate, and mitigate, among others.
As some members have been attending various forums on the Bangsamoro issue, the participants also had the opportunity to reflect on and listen to different “voices” on the issue.
A simulation exercise on conflict situation capped the two-day training, where each participant assumed roles to practice the knowledge and skills acquired from the seminar.