Benguet CPLA?

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

David March Fianza

Sometime in 1992, a team of newsmen traveled to Tinglayan, Kalinga to cover what was supposed to be the surrender of hundreds of M-14 and M-16 Armalite rifles by members of the Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army to the Philippine National Police, Cordillera Command. Not all firearms were accounted for from the CPLA members based in Tinglayan, the hometown of Chico Dam martyr-hero Macli-ing Dulag, within the two days scheduled for the purpose. We were aware of that but I was more interested in finding out about the real members of the CPLA.

Aside from the Lumbaya Company under the command of then Father Conrado Balweg, the CPLA organized commands based in several towns of Abra, Eastern and Northern Mountain Province, and parts of Kalinga whose members were scattered in different towns of the province. I never saw a single CPLA man who was from Benguet, nor read a name of anybody from Benguet that was written in the original list of CPLA members, many of whom were recruited in the 80s. There were no CPLA commands organized in Benguet. Although, I am certain that there were as many NPA cadres who were from Benguet as there were NPA sympathizers to the cause, but there were no CPLA members.

Today, the story is different. Only recently, we read news about CPLA members being recruited to the Philippine Army or being trained as forest rangers called Bantay Gubat. The former CPLA men were occasionally described in the papers as becoming “useful” to the government. The Office for Presidential Assistance on the Peace Process or OPAPP brands them as “former” CPLA rebels which is quite confusing. How can they be called such when they never were rebels in the first place? Many of the real Macoys have already died while some of those who are still alive are aging.

If you see a young man who is sometimes in black attire and claiming to be a former rebel, better think twice. It is either he was recently recruited in exchange for a promise of employment, or he was promised a piece of homelot inside an Ibaloy ancestral land that he can squat on. Now will OPAPP please do its job of screening people more competently? Ibaloys do not squat on their own land and there are no CPLA men from Benguet.

Last week, I was told that a group of men who were all in black uniform were seen having gulps of that colorless coffee in a watering hole along Kayang Street. It was good that they were unarmed. According to bystanders, these men claimed that they were members of the CPLA and also said that they are residents of Nangalisan, Tuba. Every resident of Nangalisan knows that nobody from that area ever joined the CPLA in the 80s. Whoever came up with the idea of recruiting men from Nangalisan and making them appear to be members of a paramilitary group is up to something disturbing.

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When Senator Bong Revilla started defending himself against charges of his involvement in the 10 Billion-peso PDAF scam, I felt like I was being short-changed. He was no longer doing the job of a senator of the people but appeared on the senate floor as a senator for himself. In comparison, no ordinary citizen involved in the same case can do the same.

It has also become too personal for Senator Bong who said, PNoy has only two remaining years in office and it is not good legacy to be charging only those who are not aligned with him. No ordinary citizen charged with the same offense of plunder can just go to the senate floor and attack the President.

There are other senators and former congressmen who were charged for their alleged involvement in the PDAF scam, but they are not hot news so that fortunately they have been spared from the front pages.

Same is true for Senator Jinggoy Estrada. Recently he has been interviewed on nationwide TV and had the chance to pour out his defenses, not for the taong bayan who elected him to office but for himself. In reaction to his brother senator JV Ejercito who signed the committee report endorsing him to be charged in court, he said, “inisip nya na lang sana na masasaktan ang tatay namin.” Tell me, when did the PDAF scam become a family affair?

I still believe that the real victims here are not Revilla or Estrada but the students who were deprived of college tuition, farmers who have to cross rivers because they were divested of funds for foot bridges, and people like them. All of these, because of the doing of a few. When will artista senators learn to be selfless?