Ex-rebels hired as farmers in Northern Samar
CATARMAN, NORTHERN SAMAR—The Northern Samar provincial government has hired former communist rebels to work in different government-run farms in the province in an effort to integrate them into local communities.
In the town of Mondragon, for example, the municipal government has set aside a 4-hectare lot in Barangay Cablangan, some 10 kilometers from the town center, for former rebels to plant crops such as palay and vegetables.
At present, at least 50 former members of the New People’s Army (NPA) were hired by the provincial government as farmworkers who get a daily wage of P350, according to Gov. Edwin Ongchuan.
It is also in the village of Cablangan where the provincial government has put up a housing project intended for former rebels.
Northern Samar has been considered by authorities as the last bastion of insurgency in Eastern Visayas.
In a meeting with Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos on May 6, Ongchuan asked for help from the national government so roads could be opened in villages located in the shared borders of Northern Samar and the provinces of Eastern Samar and Samar, the two other provincial government units on Samar Island that are also severely affected by insurgency.
New roads Ongchuan said the provincial government wanted to open roads of interior villages in order to address the insurgency problem.
Abalos commended the governor for his efforts to stamp out the insurgency problem in the province.
Abalos said the interventions made by the province could lead to the end of the insurgency problem in the locality, considered the primary reason why its poverty incidence remained high at 23.1 percent.
Abalos assured Ongchuan of the national government’s continued support in addressing the insurgency problem of the province.
Maj. Gen. Camilo Ligayo, commanding general of the Philippine Army’s 8th Infantry Division based in Catbalogan City, the capital of Samar province, said they were on track to quell the insurgency problem in the entire Eastern Visayas. The region is composed of the provinces of Leyte, Southern Leyte, Biliran and the Samar Island provinces.
According to Ligayo what remains of the armed group operating in Northern Samar were just regular “armed bandits.”“The trend is irreversible. We can end the communist terrorist movement by the end of the year,” he said. INQ
