Secretary Jesus Dureza, presidential assistant for Mindanao who represented President Arroyo in accepting back to the fold of the law some 170 MILF rebels at the Philippine Army’s 401st Infantry Brigade headquarters in Maria Cristina, this city, last Friday said that the MILF rebels were more admirable in their decision to lay down their arms and pursue peace and work for the unity of the country.
Dureza said the battle-weary MILF rebels, seeing the futility of fighting the government, have come to realize that it is better to work for unity and improve their lives through government assistance that will be extended to them. "Your decision to lay down your arms and unite with the country at the same time reap benefits for the improvement of your lives is better than what the Magdalo soldiers did, which was to disunite the country,"Dureza told the rebels in the Visayan dialect.
At least more than 300 Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) soldiers staged an attempted coup de’etat last July 27. The soldiers called themselves the Magdalo group after the revolutionary Emilio Aguinaldo’s faction in the Katipunan. The rebel returnees were led by Guiling Lucsadato, Murad Lucsadato, Jomar Maruhom and Amer Diarangcal field commanders of the Bangsa Moro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) operating in Tangkal, Munai, Maigo, Kolambugan, all in Lanao del Norte and Tubaran, Marogong, Malabang, Balabagan and Kapatagan, all in Lanao del Sur.
The rebels also turned over some 118 high powered firearms to Armed Forces Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Roy Kyamko, who was assisted by the Philippine Army’s 4th Infantry Division chief Maj. Gen. Cristolito Balaoing and 401st Infantry Brigade commander Brig. Gen. Ernesto Boac.
Dureza said that even as the government’s rebel returnee program has been criticized for accepting "recycled rebels," the program will continue in the spirit of unity. For each and every rebel going back to the fold of the law, it is government’s gain toward attaining peace and unity, Dureza said.
However, military units tasked to process prospective rebel returnees said that the rebel returnees’ identities are validated and checked against existing records if said rebels have already surrendered or not.