By Professor Menelito Mansueto
Based on my limited engagements with Peace Studies related themes, I agree and share a similar observation with my former classmate and a good friend: Dr. Bernard Caslib, of the University of the Philippines–Manila, who opines that Peace Education is a relatively new import in the Philippine educational curricula.
On my part, my exposure to Peace Studies concepts was brought to my new teaching environment in Mindanao State University System (MSU), which offers and handles the mandatory course “Fundamentals of Peace Education,” among tertiary students, an effort which brought MSU System the status and distinction as a National Peace University.
Part of my personal and scholarly growth is my encounter and collaborations with the research works of Dr. Juichiro Tanabe of Waseda University in Tokyo. Tanabe’s novel Buddhist approach to Peacebuilding Education captivates my interest in the field. Probably the most notable scholarly publication in this area of discipline is Johan Galtung’s “Peace by Peaceful Means: Peace and Conflict, Development and Civilization,” published in 1996, where he distinguished the concepts “negative peace” and “positive peace.”
Galtung was initially inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s “political ethics,” in the concept known as “principle of active non-violence” (philosophy of ahimsa), an interest that he shared with his co-author, Arne Naess, on a book which they co-published in 1955 entitled “Gandhi’s Political Ethics.” Gandhi advocates for not causing violence to other humans and animals, including the natural environment, while actively pushing for social reforms and social change.
Very recently, I was invited to partake in the SAUP Regional Conference 2025 held at Marburg, Germany, a week-long event which was participated in by six (6) universities and institutions in Southeast Asia, namely: Mindanao State University - Iligan Institute of Technology (Philippines); Centro Nacional Chega! (Timor-Leste); Universidade da Paz (Timor-Leste); Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia; Royal University of Phnom Penh (Cambodia); and Preah Sihanouk Raja Buddhist University (Cambodia).
The event was co-hosted by the Center for Conflict Studies, Philipps-University Marburg, and the GIZ Civil Peace Service Southeast Asian University Partnership for Peace (SAUP). The theme of the conference is “Teaching Peace: Didactics in Peace and Conflict Studies.” Our colleagues and partners from the Center for Conflict Studies, headed by Prof. Thorsten Bonacker and Eva Froneberg, organized the lectures and workshops on peace research and curriculum building.
GIZ SAUP, led by Oliver Wiechmann and Cornelia Schmidt, arranged the participants’ city tour in historic Marburg, ensuring the participants’ memorable stay in Germany. It gathered researchers, educators, and peacebuilders across Southeast Asia and Europe.
The delegates from Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) were spearheaded by Prof. Dr. Mark Anthony Torres, who holds the position as the Director of the Institute for Peace and Development in Mindanao (IPDM), and currently the Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives of MSU-IIT. The team was joined by Prof. Dr. Irish Fernandez-Dalona, Director of the Center for General Education; Prof. Amelia Buan, Dean of the College of Education; Mohd Asrin Tabao, Director of the Office of Institutional Planning and Development Services (OIPDS);
Also in attendance were Prof. Yasmin Moner, Focal Person of Gender and Development (GAD); and Professor Emeritus Cesar Demayo. Faculty members, Prof. Menelito P. Mansueto, Prof. John Leandro Reyes, Settie Sahara Mutia (MHIRC), Albert Putong (GIZ Staff), Jonathan Israel Gelogo, Pamela II Pepito, and Ryan Jay Tundag (IPDM Staff) also graced the event and completed the team.
The baccalaureate program in Philosophy and Applied Ethics at MSU-IIT also offers the 3-unit course “Ethics in Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation,” which is a course requirement for Philosophy majors. The course is designed to navigate the narratives of peace and conflict in Mindanao and the country by incorporating various philosophical theories in social and political philosophy, and various moral and educational theories.
The Social Ethics Society (SES) was also very instrumental in the introduction of Peace and Conflict Studies by organizing seminars and conferences on human rights issues, political violence, and academic cooperation. The humble leadership of Fr. Dexter Veloso, Fr. Urbano Pardillo, Dr. Ian Clark Parcon, Dr. Randy Tudy, Dr. Christopher Ryan Maboloc, Dr. Anesito Cutillas, Dr. Agnes Sunga, and Dr. Rogelio Bayod was notably influential in bringing recognition to the indigenous peoples of Mindanao, as well as the marginalized academic presence in Mindanao.
In a world that is very much complex and diverse, we need to regain our basic humanity through endowed fundamental virtues of care, recognition, and concern. Just recently, a war between Thailand and Cambodia broke out within the Southeast Asian region, amidst the Israel-Palestine war and the Ukraine-Russia conflict. The world needs healing, and adding more violence can never be a long-term solution.
Peace and Conflict Studies, as well as Peace Education, are more needed today than ever. There is a timely and urgent demand for social and ideological change and recalibrations. In Southeast Asia alone, there are depressing and devastating effects of wars in Myanmar and Timor-Leste, alleged crimes against humanity in the Philippines committed by both the government and insurgency troops, and the history of genocide cases in Cambodia.
There is a need to restore human faith and dignity, as well as address systemic social and structural injustices, unnecessary violence, and global poverty. There’s a need to acknowledge where we made our mistakes in the past, and the desire to rebuild and make amends for the pain of the past.
The dominant themes in Peace and Conflict Studies include gender violence, post-conflict trauma, generational trauma, racial prejudice and discrimination, and cultural and territorial disputes. More initiatives need to be done to further integrate peace education into the various courses and curriculum, as well as into the research agenda and political advocacy.
The forthcoming International Ethics Conference at Waseda University, co-sponsored by Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) and the Social Ethics Society, is also devoted to discussions on peace and conflict transformations. The theme of the conference this September 5 and 6, 2025, in Tokyo, Japan, is “Harmonizing the Ethics of Global Justice & Peacebuilding: Towards a Sustainable Planetary Future.”