Lived experiences in the SPMS Box: COVID-19 and beyond

By Datu Raid Salik

We were greeted by bullet holes on the walls, shadows of what was once homes, and shattered glasses of Masjid the first time I entered the SPMS Box back in October 2020. Together with the community patrollers, we were en route to a community session in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao.

The “SPMS” Box includes the towns of Shariff Aguak, Pagatin, Mamasapano, and Salibo. This area is known as rife with conflicts between government forces and armed groups, and even between clans.

It made me reflect on the ways the residents live and how they even cope with the daily uncertainty of peace and security. Now, with the added burden of COVID-19, I’ve come to ask myself, “how does the pandemic affect the lives of the people here?”

We spoke to the community members to get it directly from them.

“The people here have been living with war and violence for decades, but the COVID-19 impact has brought a different magnitude,” said one of the participants in our session. He said that he felt the effect the most during the height of the community quarantine implementation.

During the Social Listening Sessions, we gather the insights of community members on COVID-19 and the rumors, misinformation, or disinformation that they might be getting. We then return to these communities to do the Collective Learning Groups where we hold a discussion and address the previously collected rumors.

The Rooted in Trust: Information as Aid Project of IDEALS, in partnership with Internews and funded by USAID, aims to address the infodemic and empower people with information that can help them protect their selves, their families, and communities.

Moreover, the project has been an eye-opener for me. It has allowed me not just to see the extent of the effects of COVID-19 rumors, misinformation, and disinformation, but to see where else we can improve as a community.

When I first entered the SPMS Box, the destruction left me with a sense of sadness, but talking with the communities have filled me with hope. The project helped me assess the underlying problems, concerns, and realities happening in our fight against the unseen enemy.

As the pandemic continues to loom, I realized that our focus should also flexible enough to consider the needs that are felt in the local level. We must put paramount importance into breaking the cycle of poverty, oppression, injustices, and the perception of government neglect for basic social services.

All these trigger unstable peace and security, compromise the livelihood of the people, and hammer down why people don’t believe that the virus is real. According to them, it is either a well-planned conspiracy of the government to exhort money from the people or just part of the strategy to boost the economy. These alarming beliefs stem from the long-running distrust of communities with the institutions and duty-bearers.

There is an immense need for future work to tackle localized communication — on dialect, language, and also context — and support projects that are tailored to the needs of vulnerable communities such as those in the SPMS Box.

While fighting against this pandemic, dutybearers, organizations, and advocates alike should keep in mind that addressing community concerns will break the vicious cycle of distrust, poverty, and armed conflict. The change should start now.