The Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front: A Case Study on the Common People’s Awareness of the Peace Process in Five Selected Areas of the National Capital Region

Abstract

The study was conducted to assess the peace process between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front (NDF) in relation to how the common people look at it. To do this, a total of two hundred (200) survey questionnaires were evenly distributed to five (5) randomly selected areas of the National Capital Region (NCR) namely: Las Pinas City, City of Manila, Marikina City, Pasay City and Quezon City. Of the two hundred (200) survey questionnaires, only one hundred eighty-nine (189) were returned. The questionnaires were divided into three major parts: the respondents’ socio-demographic profile, their knowledge and willingness to participate in the peace process. It was the aim of the study to measure the Awareness Score (AS) of the common people represented by the respondents. This was done by tabulating the number of correct answers with selected variables which are: sex, age group, civil status and educational attainment. A background of the study tracing the origin of the armed conflict in the Philippines and the events that have happened so far in the peace process were presented. This will be relevant for the subjects for them to have a thorough knowledge on the topic being discussed. It would shed light to some of their doubts and questions about the peace process. At the same time, with the kind of understanding the study is offering, it will urge the subjects to review their ideas and to be able to finally make their own stand based on genuine truth. The data gathered that there were more females (113) than males (76) surveyed. No trend was made which revealed that the selected variables influence the answers of the respondents. In general, the majority of the respondents (151) showed ignorance on the issues. They scored below the mean score of 5.5. On the other hand, there were 38 respondents who scored above 5.5.