Cordillera leaders defy gov’t deal with Balweg militia

BAGUIO CITY—Cordillera leaders are defying a Malacañang decision to end the peace accord forged by the late President Corazon Aquino and former rebel priest Conrado Balweg in Mt. Data in Bauko, Mt. Province, in 1986.

The leaders are reacting to the decision made on July 4 when President Aquino and Teresita Deles, presidential adviser on the peace process, signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) that would disband Balweg’s militia, the Cordillera People’s Liberation Front (CPLA), in exchange for a promised livelihood fund for its members. CPLA leaders and known Balweg supporters led by their chair, Arsenio Humiding, also signed the MOA.

But Malacañang may not accept the leaders’ action, according to Ifugao Rep. Teodoro Baguilat Jr., chair of the House committee on national cultural communities.

He said Cabinet officials, like Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, would meet the region’s governors this month to clear up what the lawmaker described as a “misunderstanding” over the MOA signing.

The agreement addressed the militia’s “final disposition of arms and forces and its transformation into a potent socioeconomic unarmed force.”

Except for Baguilat and Ifugao Gov. Eugene Balitang, the region’s representatives and governors snubbed the July 4 Palace affair.

Benguet Gov. Nestor Fongwan said: “We did not go because we were not even informed as to what document we were supposed to be signing there with the CPLA.”

During an Aug. 12 session of the Regional Development Council (RDC), the governors and council members passed a resolution contesting the CPLA closure agreement, saying it misrepresented the sentiments of Cordillera communities.

Renato Navata, Department of Agrarian Reform regional director, said disbanding an armed group should be considered a positive development, but his point was dismissed when the members voted to challenge the agreement with Malacañang.

Kalinga Gov. Jocel Baac, RDC chair, said the council position was the result of an Aug. 8 meeting between the governors and Deles.

Baac said Deles was told that terminating the peace accord would relieve the government of its obligation to create an autonomous region in the Cordillera.

The RDC is scheduled to confirm by the end of the month a third measure seeking to create an autonomous Cordillera region. Two earlier laws creating the autonomous region were rejected in the 1990 and 1998 plebiscites, despite the support of Mrs. Aquino and former President Fidel Ramos.

Baguilat said the RDC decision treads on dangerous ground.

He said suspending the closure agreement amid all the objections could discredit Malacañang and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Opapp). He added that this could affect the government’s standing as it engages other armed groups in peace talks.

The RDC’s contrary position on the CPLA closure agreement, he said, also supports the contention made by a Kalinga-based group of CPLA members, who disowned the document.

This group has its own set of officers, among them lawyer Andres Ngao-i, this faction’s president of the CPLA political arm, the Cordillera Bodong Administration.

Ngao-i spoke against the closure plan during the Aug. 12 RDC session.

To protect the integrity of Mr. Aquino’s decision on the peace accord, the government could start negotiating with Ngao-i’s faction members and ask them to take part in the closure plan, Baguilat said.

The RDC also passed a second resolution urging Malacañang to freeze a presidential directive that tasks Cordillera agencies with helping enforce a support program for the CPLA.

Baac said the directive, Executive Order No. 49, was an indication that the Aquino administration was standing by its decision to close the peace agreement forged 25 years ago.