A MONTH before he is scheduled to marry, a former rebel who surrendered to the military last year received P30,000 in financial assistance from the Cebu provincial government.
Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia personally turned over the check to Dennis dela Cerna Basera, 22, yesterday morning at the Capitol.
Basera said he will use the money to start a piggery business for his future family.
Basera surrendered in August 2011 to the 78th Infantry Battalion, five years after he joined the left movement.
The military turned him over to Tuburan Mayor Aljun Diamante.
Basera is known as “Kumander Orig” and “James” when he was still the vice commanding officer of the Guerilla Front 18 operating in Davao Oriental.
Basera told CEBU DAILY NEWS that at the age of 16, he was affiliated with Bayan Muna.
He already served as a guide for the armed communist rebels who were unfamiliar with the terrain in the area.
Basera said he lived a difficult life while he was still a rebel.
Prior to his surrender in August, he arrived in Cebu on April 10, 2011 and stayed with his grandfather in Sitio Dao, barangay Marmol in Tuburan town. There, he met the woman he will marry, Lea Villacruz.
They will be married next month and will continue to stay in Tuburan.
Mayor Diamante will be one of his principal sponsors.
Gov. Garcia, in her message, recalled that there was reluctance on the part of the rebels when she launched the Social Integration Program (SIP) during her term in 2007.
Her integration program and the giving of financial assistance to rebel returnees were part of her all-out war against insurgency.
As of 2010, there were already 97 rebel returnees who received cash assistance from the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office. CORRESPONDENT CARMEL LOISE MATUS