Three alleged members of the New People’s Army, one of them the punong barangay of Hillside in Baguio City, have either came forward to clear their names or surrendered to the Police Regional Office-Cordillera citing their difficult life in the mountains because of the incessant combat operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.
Two of them also want to avail of benefits that the government grants to former members of the NPA through the program called Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP), the PRO-Cor said in a press release.
Those who surrendered were identified only as alias Balyer, alias Nanay, while Hillside PB Jose Cawiding came forward to clear his name and alleged link to the underground movement. They were presented to PRO-Cor Regional Dir. B/Gen. R’Win Pagkalinawan on June 23.
Alias Balyer, 25, is a squad leader of the Komite Larangan Guerilya operating in the boundaries of Benguet, Abra, Mountain Province, and Ilocos Sur.
According to the PRO-Cor, Balyer started joining cultural presentations in Baguio City in 2013. Because of his skills in playing the gong, he was recruited in the Pinatud-Anakbayan, Kabataan para sa Tribung Pilipino (Katribu) under Beverly Longid of Cordillera Peoples Alliance. He eventually became active in protest rallies.
In 2014, he and other recruits began joining anti-government protests and later joined the underground movement where he was inducted as candidate party member of the NPA where he earned his moniker “Balyer.”
Balyer submitted a KG9 submachine gun with nine live ammunitions and an MK2 hand grenade.
Balyer’s mother, alias Nanay,47, is a Militia ng Bayan operating in Barangay Tabacda, Tubo, Abra. She surrendered along with a Colt 45 with seven live ammunitions and MK2 hand grenade.
Of the three surrenderers, the PRO-Cor did not officially identify who alias Willy was, but gave an extensive background of who he is.
Willy, or Hillside PB Jose Cawiding, 54, is activist since 1986. He became a leader of Bayan Muna and a member of the Philippine Mediation Center, Justice Hall, Baguio City.
In Oct. 1, 2007, he was arrested in Baguio City for frustrated murder and seven counts of murder for his alleged participation in the ambush of soldiers in Talubin, Mountain Province. The cases were dismissed on March 16, 2008 for failure of the prosecution to present their witnesses. However, Cawiding carries a monetary reward of P500,000 under DND-DILG Memorandum Circular 02-2007.
Beverly Longid, now a member of the CPA Advisory Council, said the latest press release of the PRO-Cor is another effort to vilify her activism and the organizations where she is a member.
She maintains that the CPA, Katribu partylist or Kabataan para sa Tribung Pilipino (Katribu) Youth are not fronts of the NPA.
Longid said CPA is a non-stock, non-profit organization registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The group has been campaigning for the defense of ancestral lands and for self-determination in the Cordillera since its founding in 1984.
The Katribu partylist is accredited by the Commission on Elections and participated in the 2010 and 2013 elections where she was its president and first nominee.
The Katribu Youth is a non-profit and non-partisan organization of students and youth advocating for the collective rights of the indigenous peoples in the country.
“I denounce the inclusion of my name and that of esteemed people’s formations in this terror-tagging campaign especially with the legislated Anti-Terror Act of 2020 that will justify the already aggressive crackdown against activists and dissenter,” Longid said.
She said the “terror tagging“ of the police only perpetuate the culture of impunity in state institutions that tend to commit grave human rights abuses in the name of maintaining “peace and security.”
Pagkalinawan said the surrenderers will undergo custodial and stress debriefing prior to their enrollment to the E-CLIP. – Rimaliza A. Opiña
