Govt admits ABB used to swell ranks of private armies

THE government on Wednesday admitted that local politicians have used some members of the communist breakaway Alex Boncayao Brigade as hired guns or to boost their private armies.

At the same time, a House official urged ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio to name those politicians whom the party-list lawmaker claimed to have hired some members of the former hit squad as private bodyguards.

Louie Montalbo, an undersecretary at the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, said they could not blame the ABB members who had turned mercenaries and allowed themselves to do the dirty jobs for politicians.

“Some rogue elements [of the ABB] have been available, engaged in criminal activities, have been used by local politicians as private armies, which should not have been the case,” Montalbo told the Manila Standard.

He said the past three administrations neglected the group, so some of them were forced to engage in criminal activities.

“And so under the Aquino administration, we offer them a livelihood program,” he said.

He said he believed the ABB members had realized the sincerity of the present government to uplift their lives.

Montalbo confirmed the government’s grant of P31 million to the group for its members’ housing and livelihood.

The government group wants to forge a peace deal with the group to end its rebellion, which would be similar to the deal it signed with the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army.

But Montalbo could not say how sincere the group was in signing peace with the government.

But he said the government had been profiling the group’s members to determine the appropriate livelihood and other programs for their communities. –Maricel Cruz with Joyce Pangco Pañares, Manila Standard Today