Former Abra rebel raises pigs for ‘peace development’

CAMP JUAN VILLAMOR, Bangued, Abra—Happy to receive remuneration for a surrendered firearm, a former rebel said for peace and development, he plans to start raising pigs from the money he received last week.

 Wilson Balansi, a member of the Cordillera Forum for Peace and Development (CFPD), formerly known as the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA), said he plans to buy two to four pigs this month to start his hog-raising project to augment his salary.

This will bring extra income to my family and will help prepare my children for better education, he said.

Balansi belongs to the last batch of former rebels in Abra to receive their financial remuneration this year. Other CFPD members received their payment earlier.

Balansi is now employed with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources as a forest guard under the Bantay Gubat project of the government.

Employment under the Bantay Gubat project is one of the options open to former rebels under the Memorandum of Agreement signed in 2011 by the government and the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army-Cordillera Bodong Administration (CPLA-CBA).

The objective of the MOA or the closure agreement is "towards the CPLA's final disposition of arms and forces and its transformation into a potent socioeconomic unarmed force."

Meanwhile, Senior Supt. Albertlito Garcia, provincial police director, told the former rebels to choose how to spend their money. The view was echoed by Decimia Cabang of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, saying the money should be enough to start a small business.

Both Garcia and Cabang were witnesses to the remuneration turnover conducted by representatives from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.