Wherever I am, the world comes after me.
It offers me its busyness. It does not believe that I do not want it.
Now I understand 
why the old poets of China went so far
and high 
into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.
"The Old Poets of China" by Mary Oliver


The students of a graduate course, Security Issues in the Asia-Pacific (AS 211), under Professor Aileen Baviera of the UP Asian Center, are holding a public forum, The Marawi Crisis: Implications for Philippine Security Policy, on 24 October 2017, 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm at the Seminar Room, UP Asian Center, Quezon City. The forum is free and open to the public. Seating is first come, first served, but participants are encouraged to sign up.  

THREE PRESENTATIONS

  • On the ground since the start of the Marawi Crisis, Lt. Col. Jo-Ar Herrera of the Philippine Army will provide an overview of the conflict focusing on the factors that led to the conflict; the actors therein and the issues they presented; and the importance of Marawi City for the Maute Brothers or the Abu Sayyaf.  

  • Professor Amparo Fabe, a Filipino economist and sociologist, evaluates the government’s response to the crisis: the adequacy (or otherwise) of steps it took to address the conflict, the agencies involved, human rights issues involving internally displaced peoples and concerning ethnoreligious sensibilities; lessons learned and prospects in handling similar conflicts should any arise in the future.

  • Kathline Tolosa, Executive Director of Security Reform Initiative, will discuss if, how and to what extent the Marawi Crisis has shaped the Philippine security environment, and the key changes in security policy moving forward.

  • Also speaking is Ma. Carmina B. Acuña, Assistant Director-General, National Security Council. 

Ms. Jamela Alindogan from al-Jazeera English, will facilitate the forum, and Ms. Pat Fongwan serves as emcee. Ms Alindogan covers the Philippines and most of Southeast Asia for Al Jazeera. She has been with the network for nearly ten years. She has covered elections in Indonesia and Malaysia, protests in Vietnam and Cambodia, and has filed exclusive reports from many conflict areas, especially in the troubled region of Mindanao in the southern Philippines.
She is also one of the co-founders of Sinagtala Centre for women and Children in conflict. Sinagtala is a non-profit organization that helps Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) with a special focus on Women and Children.

SPEAKER PROFILES

Lt. Colonel Jo-Ar Herrera is Assistant Chief of Staff for Civil Military Operations, Spokesperson, Joint Task Force Marawi, and 1st Infantry (Tabak) Division, Philippine Army. He holds a BA in Management from the Philippine Military Academy and MA in Social and Development Studies from the University of the Philippines Baguio. Lt. Colonel Herrera managed the Civil-Military Operations programs and collaborative engagements with various stakeholders in Marawi City and its adjacent municipalities.

Prof. Pamela Fabe has authored 40 book chapters and international journal articles on foreign and defense policy and South China Sea issues, among others. She is an alumnae of the National Defense College of the Philippines, UP School of Economics, the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Counter-Terrorism, the Geneva Center for Security Policy, and the University of Asia and the Pacific. She has an article in the Palgrave Macmillan Global Handbook on Counter-Terrorism Policy (2017), and in other forthcoming volumes like The Palgrave Handbook on Civil Society and the Global Security (2018); the Homeland Security Handbook (2018); andPreparing for the Big War: Armies in the 19th Century by Oxford University Press (2018).

Kathline Tolosa is the Executive Director of Security Reform Initiative (SRI), an independent think tank focused on peace and security policy research and coalition building. With SRI as the National Secretariat, she convenes Bantay Bayanihan, a network of more than 150 civil society organizations nationwide that is the independent oversight body over the implementation of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) internal security campaign plan. She leads the development and implementation of projects that push for security sector reform (SSR) in Philippine policy and empower civil society as key actors in peace and security.

ABOUT AS 211

Asian Studies (AS) 211 is a three-unit seminar course on "contemporary problems in the security of the countries and peoples of the Asia Pacific since the end of the Cold War."

VENUE and VICINITY MAP

For directions to the venue, please view this vicinity map or go to Google Street View.

INQUIRIES

For inquiries, please email the Information Office at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 981.8500 local 3586.


The UP Asian Center offers M.A. degrees in Asian Studies with four fields of specialization: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. The Center also has an M.A. program in Philippine Studies that allows students to major in Philippine society and culture, Philippine foreign relations, or Philippine development studies. The Center offers a Ph.D. program in Philippine Studies in conjunction with the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. Get an overview of these programs. The Asian Center also houses a peer-reviewed, open-access journal, Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia. It has published several books and monographs, and hosts or organizes various lectures and conferences.