CPLA surrenders some 400 firearms

From the Philippine News Agency (Sep 11): CPLA surrenders some 400 firearms

The Cordillera People's Liberation Army (CPLA) headed by Arsenio Humiding has surrendered more than 400 firearms to the Police Regional Office Cordilleras (PROCOR) as part of the on-going cooperation between the group and the government to pursue various infrastructure and livelihood projects.

Police Chief Superintendent Benjamin Magalong, regional director of the PROCOR said the surrendered firearms came from the city of Baguio and the provinces of Benguet, Abra, Kalinga and other parts of the region.

Two years ago, the CPLA inked an agreement whereby the government provides the needed funds for various construction of roads and bridges as well as local medium scale industries in areas which were ravaged by insurgency wars in the 1970's when the New People's Army (NPA) had that strength to wage wanton armed conflicts against government forces in the region.

The CPLA in that agreement served as the administrator of what projects to be pursued and how they are implemented in order that these would alleviate poverty in concerned areas especially in the provinces of Abra and Kalinga where economic growth was stunted during two decades of insurgency.

Historically, CPLA was a breakaway faction of the NPA in the Cordilleras through the late renegade priest Conrado Balweg who fought earlier with the NPA guerillas against the perceived undue exploitation of natural resources in Abra and environs, and the alleged abuses of the government forces against the natives.

Balweg's determination to break ties with the communist NPA, however, was aggravated when nine of his trusted lieutenants were ambushed and killed by their former comrades in 1985 in Baay-Licuan, Abra, some 30 kilometers northeast of the capital town of Bangued.

After the EDSA revolt in 1986, Balweg's overture of peace in the region was positively entertained by the late President Corazon C. Aquino, who gladly welcomed the CPLA's offer as partner of the government in the counter-insurgency in the Cordilleras as well as in the development efforts in alleviating poverty in the area.

Some of the CPLA guerillas were absorbed as members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) since then but the remnants chose to stay with their families to lead new lives within the mainstream society.

These former guerillas were the ones who surrendered their firearms lately as they pursue various development projects in the region which were agreed on since l986 through the wisdom and vision of two great leaders in the country –the late President Cory Aquino and renegade priest Conrado Balweg.

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