Over 300 breakaway rebels get settlement areas

From Panay News (Dec 22): Over 300 breakaway rebels get settlement areas

More than 300 former members of a breakaway rebel group in Negros Occidental were awarded three settlement areas as part of the government’s commitment to a peace pact signed 18 years ago.

The beneficiaries belonged to the Tabara-Paduano Group of the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa ng Pilipinas / Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade, or RPM-P / RPA-ABB.

The group took on the name Kapatiran para sa Progresibong Panlipunan, Inc. as part of its institutional transformation.

One of the settlement areas was in Kabankalan City. It was intended for 80 beneficiaries.

The other two were in Cadiz City for 73 beneficiaries and in San Carlos City for about 180 beneficiaries.

These areas were under by the Community-Based Forest Management Agreement, or CBFMA, which is covered by a memorandum of agreement as tenurial instrument within the protected area where members of the Kapatiran serve as forest guards.

“Tutulong ang OPAPP (Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process) sa amin para magkaroon ng housing,” said Kapatiran chairwoman Veronica Tabara, who represented the group during the awarding of the areas at the Social Hall of the Negros Occidental provincial capitol.

Environment assistant secretary Joan Lagunda, OPAPP special assistant to the secretary Milo Ibrado Jr. and Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. led the awarding of the sites.

Under the peace agreement, Kapatiran members will stay together in one area as part of the cessation of hostilities, Tabara noted.

“We will build houses and set up livelihood projects based on the tenurial instrument under the guidelines of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Community Resource Management Framework Plan,” she said.

Lagunda said the DENR was employing the beneficiaries as forest guards.

For his part, Ibrado said they aim to fulfill the commitments of the peace agreement before the term of President Rodrigo Duterte ends in 2022.

“There was an implementing document during the time of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo but [the timeline] was not very clear,” he said.

“We have a final implementing document that will define all aspects of implementation and majority of these programs and projects will be implemented in three years from now,” he added.

A breakaway group of the New People’s Army, the RPM-P / RPA-ABB signed the peace agreement with the government on Dec. 6, 2000.

They later split into two – the Tabara-Paduano Group led by Veronica Tabara and Stephen Paduano, and the Nilo de la Cruz Group.

Eventually it was only the Tabara-Paduano Group that pushed through with the peace agreement with the government.

https://www.panaynews.net/over-300-breakaway-rebels-get-settlement-areas/