It comes by different names and with it is billions and billions of pesos in funds and the communist rebel group calls it the “milking cow” of the government and the military officials – from Balik-Baril Program to Guns-for-Peace Program – it lures rebels to return to the folds of the law in exchange for rewards and livelihood aid for those who surrender their weapons - dilapidated, vintage or not.
Despite the corruption tag it is associated with, the Balik-Baril Program – first introduced during President Corazon Aquino’s time stands for “Bring a Rifle Improve your Livelihood,” where the government pays as such as P25, 000 for every weapon surrendered by rebels, aside from at least P18,000 in initial aid.
Formerly under the National Reconciliation and Development Program (NRDP) which was intended to coordinate and integrate efforts of the government and non-governmental organizations, and the private sectors for the rebel returnees.
The Beginning
According to the government, although launched in December 24, 1986, it was not until 1988 that the NRDP went into full swing providing loans to rebel returnees under Balik-Baril Program. The Aquino administration said the program was so successful that it transferred Balik-Baril to Peace and Order Councils which facilitated and hastened the processing of assistance to the rebels at the lowest levels of government.
It said NRDP had greatly contributed to the substantial neutralization of the secessionist movement in southern Philippines as well as improved peace and order situation in erstwhile insurgent affected areas with over 1,800 rebel returnees from the New People’s Army; and 837 Cordillera People’s Liberation Army members, and 12,978 Muslim rebels returned to the fold of the law between 1987 to 1991. The rebel returnees were granted P53.8 million in financial assistance to start their livelihood, resettlement, and training programs. Another 1,845 subversive mass activists and 4,655 NPA sympathizers also availed of the program.
With the success of the program, the government called expanded this and called it Social Integration Program and offered rebel returnee higher cash aid of P20,000 improved emergency assistance, P50,000 livelihood fund and increased amount for the Balik-Baril component, which used to be only P18,000 on M14 and M16 automatic rifles.
Ramos regime
And in July 1992, newly elected President Fidel Ramos continued the Balik-Baril with Abu Sayyaf members in Basilan and Sulu provinces being included in the amnesty program. But many rebels had returned to the mountains shortly after receiving government aid. Others who surrendered to the military were not even members of any rebel group, but recruited and paraded as rebels for propaganda and many of the weapons they yielded were mostly defective Garand and homemade rifles. And worse, the military has no monitoring or full records and inventory of those who surrendered the past decades and in recent years.
Under President Gloria Arroyo, communist rebels accused the government of pocketing billions of pesos in Balik-Baril program, saying, military commanders paraded “fake” rebel returnees and handed them dilapidated weapons to be able to collect from the fund which was coursed through the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
With the current presidency of Benigno Aquino, the Balik-Baril Program continues under the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, but it has scrapped the inclusion of the Abu Sayyaf and other terror groups such as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in Mindanao.
Silent
Request of data from the Armed Forces of the Philippines related to the Balik-Baril and the amount of money spent on the program was unanswered by officials, but in 2000, the Commission on Audit released an executive summary of the annual audit report on the National Program for Unification and Development Council involved in the program showed that more than P124 million were unsettled or disallowed.
In 2011, Major Christopher Patindol, a disbursing officer of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, went into hiding after being accused of pocketing some P1.4 million in Balik-Baril funds following an audit into the funds. Judge Maria Filomena Singh, of the Regional Trial Court Branch 85, issued a warrant for his arrest last year.
Guns-for-Peace
Following the controversy, the Armed Forces of the Philippines scrapped the Balik-Balik and launched the Guns-for-Peace Program, the same mechanism used for the Balik-Baril, but this time rebel returnees are paid much higher for the weapons they surrender - P200,000 for a machine gun; P60,000 for an M14 rifle; P50,000 for M16 rifle, and P40,000 for an M203 grenade launcher aside from other government livelihood aid and financial assistance as part of its amnesty program.
In Southern Philippines, the Eastern Mindanao Command based in Davao City said the Guns-for-Peace Program has so far attracted many communist rebels who surrendered in recent months. The 4th Infantry Division in Cagayan de Oro City headed by Maj. Gen. Ricardo Visaya, which is also under the Eastern Mindanao Command, has presented at least 98 rebel returnees to Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Emmanuel Bautista and Lt.. Gen. Ricardo Rainier Cruz III during a ceremony in May this year.
The Eastern Mindanao Command said the surrender of the communist rebels were part of the so-called "Pagbabalik-Loob," a campaign under the Guns-for-Peace that encourages NPA members to surrender peacefully and avail of the government amnesty program and eventually integrating them back to mainstream society. It said 33 returnees, including two women, were regular NPA members, while 64 belonged to the NPA's underground Barrio Revolutionary Committees or Militia ng Bayan. And 70 of them are Manobo tribesmen, to include 12 minors recruited by the NPA to fight the democratic government.
The Eastern Mindanao Command said the rebel returnees received a total of P881,750 from the Guns-for-Peace Program in payments for 93 assorted high-powered firearms they surrendered. "For the record, the 4th Infantry Division's Pagbabalik Loob (program) helped 204 NPA rebels with 201 assorted firearms return to the folds of the law safely. A total of 4.2 million pesos was released by the Eastern Mindanao Command taken from the AFP’s Guns-for-Peace Program fund. NPA returnees are also entitled to receive another cash and livelihood assistance from the OPAPP," it said.
Cumulative data of rebel returnees in southern Philippines were not immediately available from the army.
Through the years since the Balik-Baril Program was introduced, some of the rebel returnees have been used as military and police informants, others had returned to their group and continued fighting the government, while some had been killed by their former comrades for abandoning their cause. And others, who have assumed false identities for fear of being assassinated, have live quietly with their families.
Armed Forces Chief Gen. Emmanuel Bautista together with Lt.. Gen. Ricardo Rainier Cruz III, chief of the Eastern Mindanao Command, and Maj. Gen. Ricardo Visaya, chief of the 4th Infantry Division receive surrendered members of the communist rebel group New People's Army during a ceremony in May this year. (Photos from Eastern Mindanao Command)
http://www.mindanaoexaminer.net/2014/07/balik-baril-program-where-are-rebel.html
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