53 ex-rebels, sons join AFP

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – Another 53 former members of the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA) and their sons were accepted into the military after completing the six-month training requirement.

The Army’s 5th Infantry Division (ID) in Isabela said the sons or nearest relatives of the former rebels were among the 79 graduate soldiers officially recognized as organic members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in a commencement ceremony on Sept. 5.

 Major Gen. Gregorio Catapang, commanding general of the Northern Luzon command based in Tarlac, said the new soldiers would be dispatched to Army units in the Cordillera and Cagayan Valley regions.

In the same rites, 159 new candidate-soldiers, including relatives of former CPLA members, were accepted to the same training program so they could join the military.

1st Lt. Rowena Abayon, chief of the 5th ID’s public affairs office, said the integration of former CPLA members and their kin into the military is part of a peace agreement signed between the government and the Cordillera Forum for Peace and Development.

The program was part of President Aquino’s Executive Order No. 49, mandating the implementation of the Closure Agreement geared toward CPLA’s disposition of arms and forces. 

The President’s order was also an offshoot of the peace agreement forged between then President Corazon Aquino and the CPLA in Mt. Province in 1986.

The agreement resulted in the cessation of hostilities between the AFP and the CPLA.