“Happy home” for former rebels now called “new peace advocates”

CITY OF MATI, DAVAO ORIENTAL — Being a new beehive of Communist rebels wishing to embrace the fold of law, the sprawling facility called a “Happy Home” situated right across the biggest military camp in DavOr, is producing individuals or “graduates” who had once advocated for an armed struggle against the government but are now the government’s “strong partners” for its peace and development efforts.

“This government program, the Happy Home, gives us, former rebels, another chance in life, a better life for ourselves, our children and our children’s children,” says a teary-eyed Karl Jay, a 17-year-old former NPA rebel who was one of the sixteen former Communist rebels who graduated from the government’s Alternative Learning System program.

Of the sixteen former rebels who graduated from the ALS program, five are minors aged 16 and 17. “Let us choose hope over fear. Let us break free from the endless cycle of violence because we are all brothers and sisters. May they (comrades in arms) learn from our beautiful experience from this beautiful home called Happy Home,” says Yan-Yan, a 26-year-old female former rebel who is carrying her newly born three-month old baby girl. Inside the Communist movement, she says, “We don’t have a spiritual life. We are not allowed to believe in God. Here in the Happy Home, I and my fellow former rebels have become devout Christians. Today, we have just been baptized at the Mati Cathedral.” Of the sixteen graduates, five graduated from ALS’ Basic Literacy Program, five for elementary and five for secondary.

Officials of both the provincial government and the local military here have said that the Happy Home program is a “worthy vision”, being the first and only of its kind in the whole country, and is “the price” the government is willing to pay for peace and human development in our time. “You are now the New Peace Advocates. Today, you are now civilians, no longer the insurgents and you will be our strong partners in our peace and development efforts,” provincial administrator Art Benjie Bulaong told the former rebels. Meantime, the vegetables and livestocks that include pigs and poultry being tended by the former rebels are all owned by them. All the proceeds will go to them. The ‘Happy Home’ is among the shining examples of excellence in local governance that is worthy of emulation and recognition.