Caraga: The Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU) led the launch of the United Caraganon for Peace and Development Federation, Inc. (UCPDFI), a unified organization of former rebels (FRs), here on Monday. The launch was carried out through the agency’s national program, dubbed Community Assembly for Peace and Development (CAPD), which was attended by 286 former combatants of the communist New People’s Army (NPA), stakeholders, government agencies, and security personnel.
According to Philippines News Agency, OPAPRU Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. attended the launch and was joined by Governors Maria Angelica Rosedell Amante of Agusan del Norte, Johnny Pimentel of Surigao del Sur, and Santiago Cane Jr. of Agusan del Sur. The UCPDFI is composed of more than 3,000 FRs from the four provinces in the Caraga Region. It was organized in 2023 and was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission this year.
‘The UCPDFI aims to unify all the FRs in the region to ensure their well-being and that of their families, including the ongoing support of the government in rebuilding our lives,’ group treasurer Rosel Polinar said in an interview at the sidelines of the event on Monday. Polinar once served as an officer under the NPA North Central Mindanao Regional Committee (NCMRC) operating in Agusan del Norte.
In a briefer provided to the Philippine News Agency, the OPAPRU said the CAPD functions as a leading platform for convergence, knowledge exchange, and participatory dialogue. ‘The activity seeks to consolidate the progress of existing reintegration efforts while empowering FRs to articulate their transformation journeys, surface community needs, and collaboratively design localized peacebuilding solutions,’ the OPAPRU said.
It added that the sustainable reintegration of the FRs, their families, and the conflict-affected communities remains a critical component of the government’s whole-of-nation approach to end local communist armed conflict. ‘At the core of this strategy is the transformation program, a comprehensive and community-based intervention under the Localized Peace Engagement (LPE) framework, which aims to facilitate the social, economic, psychological, and political reintegration of former combatants into mainstream society,’ the agency said.
Meanwhile, the FRs lauded the government’s continued support through various intervention programs, including the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program. ‘Ka Patrick,’ 30, a father of two from Buenavista, Agusan del Norte, noted the changes in his life, including his family, when he decided to abandon the communist movement in 2021. He was the former political guide of the defunct NPA Guerrilla Front 4A, Sub-Regional Committee 3 under the NCMRC.
‘I joined the NPA movement in 2011 and for almost 10 years, my life was constant running, violent and ruled by uncertainties caused by the false doctrine of the NPA,’ Patrick, now a member of the military’s Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit, said in an interview. When he finally surrendered, the government provided him with full support to rebuild his life and his family, receiving PHP425,000 cash for the remuneration of the firearms he surrendered.
Another FR, alias ‘Rapido’ from La Paz, Agusan del Sur, is now actively involved in a local farmers’ organization in their village. ‘We organized a farmers’ group and a local inland fisherfolk organization in our place that receives full support from the government and the local government unit,’ Rapido, who left the NPA movement in 2020, said.
