SAN FABIAN, Pangasinan — The government and the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army have finalized procedures for the disarmament of some 1,099 CPLA members as the first major step towards the former rebel movement’s economic reintegration, it was revealed Thursday.
The CPLA, a breakaway group of the communist New People’s Army founded by the late priest-turned-insurgent ConradoBalweg, had agreed to lay down their arms as early as 1986 when then President Corazon C. Aquino worked out the Mt. Data Peace Accord, which significantly reduced killings and clashes between Cordillera rebels and government soldiers.
It was only this year, however, when the CPLA’s disposition of arms and forces was finally addressed under a memorandum of agreement between the government, the Cordillera Bodong Administration and the CPLA signed last July 4 by Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos-Deles, CBA President MarcelinaBahatan and CPLA Chairman Arsenio Humiding in the presence of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III in Malacañang.
Under the reintegration process, the government offers a package including a range of options for CPLA’s 1,099 members, such as enlistment of 120 CPLA members into the Armed Forces of the Philippines; employment as forest guards of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, livelihood and job placements.
During a two-day seminar-workshop jointly held by the CPLA and Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, CPLA officers led by Humiding said after 25 years, lasting peace through mutual cooperation and community development “is now within reach” as a result of President Aquino’s directive to “put a closure to the CPLA problem.”
Major Gen. Jessie D. Dellosa, Commanding General of the Northern Luzon Command, said putting an end to strife and killings among Filipinos could be the highest legacy the government and the CPLA leadership could leave for future generations of Cordillerans.
The peace panel leaders acknowledged that the peace process for the Cordilleras officially started with the Mt. Data Peace Accord in 1986, paving the way for interaction and dialogues, now culminating in the July 4, 2011 GPH-CBA-CPLA MOA.
The community development aspect of the MOA provides CPLA members livelihood projects, technical assistance and training in entrepreneurial development, preparation of business plans, cash flows, product sourcing , technical and vocational courses and job-matching services.
A preliminary list of identified sub-projects in 57 Cordillera barangays include potable water systems, road-building, construction of public utilities such as warehouse, solar-drying facility, agricultural tramline, multi-purpose center, purchase of ambulance units and improvement of irrigation canals. -- LBI
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