Economic plan marks end of Balweg’s CPLA

BAGUIO CITY—President Benigno Aquino III on Monday approved a special economic and disarmament program for the militia formed by slain rebel priest Conrado Balweg, ending a 25-year-old peace process that his late mother began and which led to a “sipat” (cessation of hostilities) and the creation of the Cordillera Administrative Region.

In a ceremony in Malacañang, the President said the new memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the government and the Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army (CPLA) completed the first post-martial law peace process began by the late President Corazon Aquino.

The MOA sets in motion a CPLA “closure program” which demobilizes all armed CPLA units in the Cordillera in exchange for an economic program benefiting 53 villages where CPLA members live.

Aquino said government agencies would provide livelihood projects and would ask civil society to monitor the progress made in fulfilling the terms of the closure plan. He said the Armed Forces of the Philippines could absorb some of the CPLA members, while others could be employed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) as forest guards.

But Cordillera leaders have some reservations about the agreement.

Kalinga Governor Jocel Baac, chair of the Cordillera Regional Development Council (RDC), earlier said he had not endorsed the CPLA closure plan because the peace talks could have been the region’s leverage to compel the government to support a third attempt to establish a Cordillera Autonomous Region.

Only Ifugao Representative Teodoro Baguilat Jr. and Governor Eugene Balitang, and four Cordillera mayors attended the event, including Mayor Gabino Ganggangan of Sadanga, Mt. Province, Balweg’s former aide and now secretary general of the militia’s political arm, the Cordillera Bodong Administration (CBAd).

At the ceremony, Aquino made no references to the draft Cordillera autonomy measure that was crafted in May by lawyers commissioned by Baguio Mayor Mauricio Domogan. The region’s representatives have been asked to sponsor the autonomy bill.

In a text message, Baguilat said: “The agreement would serve as a vehicle to bring autonomy into the President’s priority agenda.”

“Autonomy was always part of the Mount Data agenda,” he said. The September 13, 1986, sipat was achieved during talks at the Mount Data Hotel in Mt. Province.

Last week, Marcelina Bahatan, CBAd president, assured Baac that the CPLA would support its autonomy bid.

“Once upon a time at odds with each during the bloody struggle for land and self-determination, the forces of government and tribal warriors of the Cordillera now face each other no longer in battle formation but in the spirit of peace and reconciliation,” said Arsenio Humiding, CPLA chair.

Humiding said the closure plan leaves behind “experiences of failures, discontent and disillusionment and [would] open a chapter for brighter prospects for our people.”

He said no entity forced the CPLA to a “midnight decision [to end] a militarist posturing” and become “a new economic and political force for Cordillera development.”

Aquino said his administration would help the Cordillera grow, but it would be up to its people to fulfill that goal.

“The Cordillera … has access to various opportunities and government will aid it every step of the way. But it is the people in which this government relies on to fulfill Cordillera development. We will grant your people every chance to change the established poverty of the region by proving that peace and security can benefit communities,” the President said in Filipino.

He said the CPLA closure plan promoted his administration’s promise that every Filipino would not be left behind by development under his watch.

“My mother said you were easy to talk to during those days and I have proven that you are indeed easy to deal with. Maybe together we can accelerate change in the region for the next two years,” Aquino said in Filipino.

But Baguilat said the government still needed to deal with disgruntled former members of the CPLA.

Humiding, in an April 2-3 assembly here, said CPLA leaders were forced to purge the militia’s list of members, separating people it held accountable for acts that made the militia notorious.

Like the 1986 sipat, the government and CPLA exchanged peace tokens during the ceremony in Malacañang.

Mr. Aquino was gifted with a handwoven Cordillera ensemble “representing the weaving together of two worlds.” The President handed the CPLA a sculpture that bears a yellow ribbon and a dove.

In 1987, Corazon Aquino gave Balweg a bible, a rosary and an Armalite rifle. Balweg gave her an indigenous shield and spear.