PNP seeks talks with ex-rebels securing claimants

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines—Police have reached out to former members of the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA) for a dialogue after they were identified in a Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) report as providing security to land claimants and squatters here.

Speaking at the Cordillera Regional Law Enforcement Coordination Committee meeting here on Thursday, Chief Supt. Isagani Nerez, regional police director, said he had informed the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Opapp) about evidence linking the militia formed by slain rebel priest Conrado Balweg to squatting groups and ancestral land claimants.

The report identified CPLA members who allegedly provide protection to claimants, who have since acquired Certificates of Ancestral Land Title (CALTs).

Some of the CALTs, however, cover disputed lands because these have encroached on government reservations, parks and other government facilities.

On Thursday, the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) discussed the complaints aired by three town mayors about armed CPLA men who had been recruiting villagers and protecting pocket mines and disputed lands in the Cordillera.

Vice Mayor Edwin Bandao of Bakun town, Mt. Province, said armed men identified themselves as CPLA members and urged villagers to join their ranks, promising them financial aid if the proposed Cordillera autonomous region is approved.

“But the villagers who signed the membership forms were shocked when the CPLA men began collecting a P400 membership fee days later,” he said.

Mayor Florencio Bentrez of Tuba town, Benguet province, reported to the PPOC that CPLA men were protecting small-scale mines and disputed lands in his town.

The Opapp’s response to the CIDG report would be discussed during the dialogue that would address the issue.

Balweg and the government, through then President Corazon Aquino, formally ceased hostilities after the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution that led to the creation of the Cordillera Administrative Region.

In 2011, President Aquino, Corazon Aquino’s son, signed a closure agreement with CPLA officials to conclude the peace talks, which obliged the government to accept eligible militiamen into the military and the state forest guard service, and to provide development to communities where the former CPLA members live.

The agreement, which was facilitated by Opapp, also required the CPLA to disarm and disband. The militia has been converted into a nongovernment organization dedicated to improving Cordillera economies.

But the CIDG report that was sent to Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan on Feb. 5 identified former CPLA members who were allegedly acting as “protection groups, short for privately armed groups,” for land claimants, Nerez told the committee.

The report was prepared for the city government, which went to court to nullify at least five disputed CALTs. Vincent Cabreza, with a report from Kimberlie Quitasol, Inquirer Northern Luzon