By Rey Anthony Chiu
PIA - Bohol
If the amnesty gets the concurrence by Congress, most likely, former Boholano rebels would be the first to get the clean slate and walk free again.
This as the first locally implemented amnesty would be in Bohol, assures peace adviser Secretary Jesus Dureza.
The Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, who has been working on the details of the social integration program for rebels hinted that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Proclamation 1377 would be fully dependent on the set up local mechanisms for it to be implemented.
By local mechanisms, Secretary Dureza means that the new amnesty program would be run, done and implemented by local amnesty councils unlike the past when the national government sees to it all.
This time, the amnesty covers communist rebel groups who file the application under oath with the National Committee on Social Integration (NCSI) after filing at the Provincial or City Peace and Order Council Amnesty Centers (P/CPOC-ACs).
The local councils assure the national government the integrity of the process, Dureza said.
The Bohol experience of which has become a national template against beating insurgency has also become another weighty matter, the country’s top peace adviser said.
Forging the way to peace as far as insurgency is concerned for the Philippines has stalled after the government and the communist insurgents ceased to level off on certain points, Dureza said.
But even with the stalled national peace talks, Bohol has succeeded in resolving local issues which has also become a major reason for rebels to come back to the mainstream.
With the Provincial Peace and Order Council and the Local Peace Forum at the helms, Bohol took on the task.
The Dureza assurance also came on the time when the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) brings to mayors, Provincial Board members and Congressional representatives here a re-orientation course on the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect Human Rights and the International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and the Human Security Act (HSA) at the Bohol Plaza Resort here, February 1-2.
The reorientation, Dureza shared, would be very crucial to the continuing peace process.
Explaining more on the need for human rights advocacy, he explained “the continuing efforts for peace hinges so much on the advocacy of the human rights.â€
The orientation is just one of the many activities of the Local Monitoring Board (LMB).
It may be recalled that the Bohol, by virtue of an Executive Order signed by Governor Erico Aumentado established the LMB to act as the local counterpart of the national Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC).
The JMC was established as an interim body to monitor the peace process especially on the protection of human rights, explains Yvette Matabalan, Bohol LMB member.
The JMC on the other hand is the body tasked by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Communist Party of the Philippines New People’s Army/ National Democratic Front (CNN) to monitor how the two parties performed on the standing agreements.
One of the very few engagements both parties agree despite the stalled talks is the CARHRIHL, Dureza added.
Bohol LMB then has become a major venue for monitoring the agreements including the CARHRIHL which is inherent in the local peace talks.
With Bohol keenly traversing the way to peace, local peace advocates agree that human rights protection remains a key responsibility by both parties, hence the orientation.
With a nagging insurgency problem here, Bohol sectors pushed for a multi-sectoral efforts to address insurgency.
The efforts center on reducing poverty, organizing local peace talks and setting up local dialog mechanisms mediated by the church and the local peace and order council.
But the sustainability of Bohol peace milestones can only be achieved with an amnesty policy that allows the rebels to fully integrate themselves with the society.
To decide who could avail and to vouch on the identity of the persons availing of the program, PP 1377 has set a the local mechanism in the Local Amnesty Board, to be run by a local council composed of the prosecution, the Integrated bar of the Philippines, the police, the army and the local amnesty officer.
To preserve the integrity of the local efforts, the movement to critically involve the local authorities seem to be one which may be a good protection mechanism to ensure the integrity of the whole amnesty program, observers said.
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