Government provides housing for ex-rebels in Negros

From the Philippine News Agency (Apr 6, 2022): Government provides housing for ex-rebels in Negros (By Mary Judaline Partlow)

CORE SHELTER. The first batch of six housing units for former communist rebels in Negros Oriental will be turned over soon by the Philippine Army and the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas. The Core Shelter housing project in Barangay Miguel, Tanjay City, Negros Oriental will benefit 60 families of former members of a breakaway rebel group. (Photo courtesy of 302IB, Philippine Army)

The first batch of housing units for former rebels of the breakaway rebel group Rebolusyong Partidong Manggagawa-Pilipinas/Revolutionary Proletarian Army/Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPMP/RPA/ABB) in Negros Oriental will be turned over this month to the beneficiaries.

Brig. Gen. Leonardo Peña, commander of the Philippine Army's 302nd Infantry Brigade based in Tanjay City, Negros Oriental, told the Philippine News Agency on Wednesday the turnover of the first 16 housing units will be done after the Holy Week.

“We don’t have a specific date yet although the houses have been completed, but definitely it will be this month at the earliest or in early May for Kapatiran members in Negros Oriental, as part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s whole-of-nation approach,” Peña said in mixed English and Filipino.

The RPMP/RPA/ABB is a breakaway group of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) and is now known as "Kapatiran", which has a standing peace agreement with the government.

The Core Shelter housing project in Sitio Ling-ab, Barangay San Miguel in Tanjay City is a collaborative effort of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), through the Philippine Army, and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (formerly Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process), under the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (PAMANA) program.

“The housing site will accommodate 60 families of profiled Kapatiran members who have 'surrendered' to the government over the past 10 years or so,” Peña said.

The six housing units will be the “show window” of this collaboration to show the government’s sincerity in helping former rebels in their new life away from the underground movement, he said.

The 542nd Engineering Construction Battalion of the Philippine Army is undertaking the building of the concrete houses.

The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

The National Democratic Front has been formally designated as a terrorist organization by the Anti-Terrorism Council on June 23, 2021, citing it as “an integral and inseparable part” of the CPP-NPA created in April 1973.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1171547