Some beneficiaries are not authentic rebel returnees
Posted on | Friday, 8 April 2011 | 1 Comment
by Andrew Doga-ong
BONTOC, Mt. Province - The 22 rebel surrenderees who availed of the rebel returnee livelihood program of the provincial government are authentic former members of the communist front.
This was the reaction of one rebel surrenderee William Ekwasen to an open letter of the New Peoples Army (NPA) under the Leonardo Pacsi Command alleging that some beneficiaries of the rebel returnee livelihood program are “dubious” saying that they are fake rebel surrenderees.
Ekwasen, who assumed the nom de plume Ka Front, stayed with the underground movement starting 2005 until the early days of 2007 when he finally decided to rejoin the mainstream society.
As evidence that they were former NPA fighters with the aim of returning to the folds of the law, the livehood program beneficiaries were required to show documents that they had undergone the process as required by existing national law. Documents are then authenticated by the military or the police who received and conducted the tactical interrogation.
Under the livelihood program, qualified rebel returnee will get P5,000 monthly allowance in exchange to a community service he/she will render to his/her own community. Community service could include reforestion, health services, securing barangay managed institutions and public schools, and maintenance of community irrigations, pathways and roads.
Disqualified in the program are rebel returnees with pending cases in courts involving crimes against chastity, rape, torture, kidnapping for ransom, use and trafficking of illegal drugs and other crimes for personal ends and violations of international laws.
Rebel returnee beneficiaries who refuse to send their children to school who are of school age, those who fail to live within the norms of the community and those who continue their relations with the underground movement could be disqualified in the program.
Barangay chairmen were tasked to supervise the program beneficiaries in their barangays.
Expressing their gratitude to the present provincial leadership, Ekwasen said the rebel returnee livelihood program is a great help for them to start a normal life.
Governor Leonard Mayaen announced last year his administration’s plans to come up with a livelihood program to address the concerns of former communist rebels who returned to the fold of the law. He said special privilege must be afforded to rebel surrenderees for them to start a normal life. * (PIA-CAR/ Mt. Province)
BONTOC, Mt. Province - The 22 rebel surrenderees who availed of the rebel returnee livelihood program of the provincial government are authentic former members of the communist front.
This was the reaction of one rebel surrenderee William Ekwasen to an open letter of the New Peoples Army (NPA) under the Leonardo Pacsi Command alleging that some beneficiaries of the rebel returnee livelihood program are “dubious” saying that they are fake rebel surrenderees.
Ekwasen, who assumed the nom de plume Ka Front, stayed with the underground movement starting 2005 until the early days of 2007 when he finally decided to rejoin the mainstream society.
As evidence that they were former NPA fighters with the aim of returning to the folds of the law, the livehood program beneficiaries were required to show documents that they had undergone the process as required by existing national law. Documents are then authenticated by the military or the police who received and conducted the tactical interrogation.
Under the livelihood program, qualified rebel returnee will get P5,000 monthly allowance in exchange to a community service he/she will render to his/her own community. Community service could include reforestion, health services, securing barangay managed institutions and public schools, and maintenance of community irrigations, pathways and roads.
Disqualified in the program are rebel returnees with pending cases in courts involving crimes against chastity, rape, torture, kidnapping for ransom, use and trafficking of illegal drugs and other crimes for personal ends and violations of international laws.
Rebel returnee beneficiaries who refuse to send their children to school who are of school age, those who fail to live within the norms of the community and those who continue their relations with the underground movement could be disqualified in the program.
Barangay chairmen were tasked to supervise the program beneficiaries in their barangays.
Expressing their gratitude to the present provincial leadership, Ekwasen said the rebel returnee livelihood program is a great help for them to start a normal life.
Governor Leonard Mayaen announced last year his administration’s plans to come up with a livelihood program to address the concerns of former communist rebels who returned to the fold of the law. He said special privilege must be afforded to rebel surrenderees for them to start a normal life. * (PIA-CAR/ Mt. Province)
Category:
Mountain Province
22 June 2011 at 23:26
We can not blame those people who say, they are RR and people who say they are not. These people who say, they are not, because they have the reason/s to say it so. I dont think, conscience nowadays count for a moral excellence, if your stomach is empty. On the other hand, there are people who testifies that those people are really RR and they deserves to be acknowledged and to be assisted thru livelihood programs by the government so as they can become an asset of communities they are living in. Though, it is also a fact that there are livelihood programs of the government purposely for the RR, but it who are benefiting are not really the RR, they are the faked RRs. Sometime, i don't understand, why and how those people were able to received such assistance while infact, they are not RR? I just don't know how people in the government come to verify who really are the RR and who are not, those who are fake, but they claim, they RR in exchange for an assistance.