Comprehensive aid package sought for rebels covered by amnesty

Senator Grace Poe on Friday sought a comprehensive aid package in light of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s decision to grant amnesty to communist rebels and other insurgent groups.

“We hope the amnesty program will provide a comprehensive package for the rebels, including training, livelihood, and employment opportunities,” Poe, chairperson of the Senate committee on public services, said.

“This [comprehensive package] will fully reintegrate the rebels into mainstream society as peaceful, productive, and law-abiding citizens,” she added.

Poe said the grant of amnesty resonates with the Filipinos who shun violence and conflict, while rebel groups waging armed struggle out of their political conviction will no longer feel that they could be arrested or charged at any time.

Meanwhile, House Assistant Minority Leader Arlene Brosas of the Gabriela party-list described the amnesty proclamation as ''ironic.''

“It is ironic that the government is offering amnesty when there is intensified militarization of communities, aerial bombings, forced/fake surrenderees, and murder of children under a purported counter-insurgency program,” Brosas said in an online press conference.

Brosas also questioned the inclusion of those who were charged with illegal assembly and those affiliated with front organizations of the communist rebels.

“The assumptions of the amnesty proclamation are dangerous since [they do] not distinguish [between] armed and unarmed. By stating 'front organizations,' the amnesty becomes an open-ended one and subject to the interpretation of security forces,” she said. 

“If the President really wants peace,  they should stop state-perpetrated human rights violations, release political prisoners, drop the terrorist tag on the National Democratic Front (NDF), the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), and the New People's Army (NPA), and reopen the peace talks.''

Kabataan party-list Representative Raoul Manuel said that the government ''should not force anybody to surrender, especially those who are not really rebels but are being tortured so that they can be presented as rebel surrenderees.''

''Otherwise, the foundation of this amnesty would be flimsy,'' he said. 

“That is why, in pursuing genuine peace efforts, it is crucial to abolish the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) because this entity has a penchant for linking various organizations to the communist rebels without basis,” Manuel added. 

The amnesty needs the concurrence of a majority of the members of the Senate and House of Representatives. —VBL, GMA Integrated News