Integration of CPLA rebels into AFP pressed

"Give peace a chance."

President Arroyo made this appeal yesterday as she rejected last-ditch attempts to block the integration of Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA) elements into the police and military services as part of the peace accord it forged with the government.

The President flew to Tinglayan, Kalinga yesterday for the ceremonial signing of two executive orders that would implement the integration of the former CPLA rebels.

Mrs. Arroyo also signed in the presence of Cordillera folk another executive order organizing a Regional Development Council for the Cordilleras to facilitate economic and development planning.

The signing ceremonies were held at the 92nd founding anniversary of Baguio City, which was supposed to be the center of the aborted Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR).

After the ceremonial signing of the still measures, she told Cordillera folk at the Baguio Convention Center that the three directives were her gifts to the Cordillera people after only one province agreed to join CAR in a plebiscite.

The Supreme Court subsequently ruled that an autonomous region must be comprised of more than one province and junked the CAR as invalid.

Instead, the Ramos administration instead created a Cordillera Executive Board and appointed chairman renegade priest Conrado Balweg who also led the CPLA when it decided to split with the communist New People’s Army (NPA).

Balweg was later assassinated by a communist hit squad allegedly led by his own brother.

"The integration of the CPLA into the AFP and hopefully that would contribute to peace and development in the Cordilleras," the President said.

"It is important to fulfill an old, old promise to integrate the CPLA after many years. Now at last it has come to pass," the President pointed out.

Mrs. Arroyo said she would continue to pursue the unfinished business of the peace pact in the Cordillera region even as her administration continues to forge peace in Mindanao.

"You might think that we’ve only been concerned about the peace and development in Mindanao," the President said.

She said the three new presidential directives would implement many of the things that CAR would have implemented, like turning Baguio City into a hub for commerce and education.

The President renewed her appeal to Baguio City folk to help her administration preserve its beauty, adding the Department of Tourism (DOT) has selected Baguio City as a tourism hub that would be entitled to substantial infrastructure investments.

"Baguio is not only for the people of Baguio. Today, it is not only for the people of the Cordillera, it is for the people of the Philippines. And not only for the people of the Philippines but for the people of the world," she said.

She also noted that another executive order, automatically adjusting public holidays so there would be more three-day weekends, would encourage more arrivals to Baguio City and spur the local economy.