CPLA turns over 58 high-powered guns

By Charlie Lagasca

GAMU, Isabela – At least 58 high-powered firearms were turned over by former members of the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army to the Army here Dec 31.

Army chief Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Bautista led military officials, who witnessed the turnover at the Army’s 5th Infantry Division.

 “The ceremony also marks the formal integration of 58 more former CPLA rebels into the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines). We are expecting another batch of CPLA members as candidate-soldiers next year,” said Col. Loreto Magundayao, chief of the 5th ID’s civil-military relations operations battalion. 

The CPLA members were from various indigenous communities in the Cordillera Administrative Region, composed of the provinces of Kalinga, Apayao, Ifugao, Abra, Mt. Province and Benguet. 

President Aquino issued Executive Order 49, which seeks the implementation of an agreement for the CPLA’s disposition of arms and forces and its transformation into a potent socio-economic partner of the government. 

The President’s order was an offshoot of the peace agreement forged between his late mother, former President Corazon Aquino, and the CPLA in Bauko, Mt. Province on Sept. 13, 1986, which led to the cessation of hostilities between the AFP and the CPLA. 

The CPLA, a renegade group of the New People’s Army led by the late Catholic priest-turned rebel Conrado Balweg, was formed during the 1980s.