Camp Melchor Dela Cruz, Isabela — Finally, closure is had with the issue on the integration of the Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army (CPLA) into the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), with 168 former armed rebels – the last of the CPLA forces – joining the military yesterday.
“This is the end. It is the final closure,” said a triumphant Mayor Gabino Ganggangan of Sadanga, Mountain Province, also the secretary general of the CPLA’s Cordillera Bodong Administration (CBA), at the simple rights at this camp in Gamu town.
As part of the final closure, Marcelina Bahatan, chairman of the CBA and Major General Lysander Surte, commander of the 5th Infantry Division (5th ID), signed a document titled “Joint Declaration on the Successful Completion” which would formally end the clamor for integration of the CPLA.
The EO220 was issued by the late former president to prepare for the creation of the Cordillera autonomous region. Ganggangan said that the government has already complied with its commitment and they are thankful for that.
Yesterday, a total of 168 former CPLA members, the last of their kind, have been integrated. Among them are 62 former armed fighters from Kalinga; 52 from Mountain Province; 29 from Abra; 17 from Apayao; four from Benguet; and four from Ifugao.
This brings to 1,564 the total number of former CPLA members who are now formally with the country’s armed forces. There are 49 who became officers; 661 enlisted personnel; and 888 Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit Auxiliary Group (CAFGU-CAA).
Aside from integration, a total of 511 from CPLA were employed as forest guards in the different provinces of Cordillera and a total of 915 peoples’ organization were established for their livelihood program.
http://www.mb.com.ph/last-168-cpla-ex-guerrillas-join-afp/
“This is the end. It is the final closure,” said a triumphant Mayor Gabino Ganggangan of Sadanga, Mountain Province, also the secretary general of the CPLA’s Cordillera Bodong Administration (CBA), at the simple rights at this camp in Gamu town.
REBELS NO MORE — The last 168 former rebels and members of the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA) brave the blazing sun (left photo) as Major General Lynsander Suerte (seated left, right photo), commander of the 5th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army, and Marcelina Bahatan (seated right), chairman of the Cordillera Bodong Administration, sign the Joint Declaration on the Completion of the Military Integration Component of Executive Order 49 at Camp Melchor dela Cruz, Gamu Town, Isabela, yesterday. (Zaldy C. Comanda)
“There can longer be a CPLA because the government has already made good its promise to integrate our members into the AFP,” added the former rebel leader as he cited the realization of the government’s commitment to the region as contained in Executive Order 220 issued during the term of President Corazon Aquino.
This brings to 1,564 the total number of former CPLA members who are now formally with the country’s armed forces. There are 49 who became officers; 661 enlisted personnel; and 888 Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit Auxiliary Group (CAFGU-CAA).
http://www.mb.com.ph/last-168-cpla-ex-guerrillas-join-afp/
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