Gov’t to push grassroots amnesty

The government will replicate the so-called Quirino amnesty program, where thousands of Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon (Hukbalahap) or post-World War II rebels were granted amnesty and given tracts of land in Mindanao, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol said yesterday.

Apostol said the amnesty program of the government would be carried out in the grassroots level to woo some 5,000 armed guerrillas to come down from the hills even without a final peace agreement with the National Democratic Front (NDF) and communist leaders living in exile.

He said the amnesty proclamation issued by President Arroyo, now being deliberated on by the House of Representatives, would make communist leaders, including their allies in Congress, irrelevant.

“Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo, who is acting as spokesman for the rebels and exiled communist leader Jose Ma. Sison, will become irrelevant when the government implements the amnesty program,” he said.

Apostol said that similar to the program of former President Elpidio Quirino, the grant of amnesty for communist leaders and members will be carried out at the municipal level.

The communist rebels, he said, will be able to avail themselves of livelihood assistance programs. The post-WWII rebels later became successful farmers after they were granted amnesty, he said.

Included in the package is the setting up of communities exclusive for rebel returnees where they can start rebuilding their lives as productive citizens.

Apostol said an initial P100,000 would be given to each returnee as seed capital.

He added that there is no need for the top leaders of the NDF to reject the amnesty because it will be offered directly and individually to the armed guerrillas, estimated at 5,000 and their mass base of 20,000 people scattered across the country.

Earlier, Ocampo said the amnesty is a divide-and-rule tactic that aims to deviate from the issue of a final peace accord with rebel movement.

Ocampo said the amnesty program would further worsen the insurgency problem because it might breed corruption among local officials who might be tempted to recruit fake returnees to get the fund.

But Apostol chided Ocampo for acting as a mouthpiece of the NDF.

As a member of Congress, he said Ocampo can ventilate his opposition in the plenary debate rather than making public statements on behalf of the rebels.

“Representative Ocampo is supposed to pursue their political objective in parliamentary struggle, not in engaging the government in a propaganda war,” Apostol said. – With Lelith Abe and Aileen Gatchalian