Conrado Balweg
Conrado M. Balweg was a former Filipino Catholic priest and rebel who was the founder of the Cordillera People's Liberation Army, a militant group which advocated autonomy for the Cordillera region in the Philippines. He was also known by the nom-de-guerre Ka Ambo.
Life
Early and personal life
Balweg was born on December 29, 1942, in Buanao, Malibcong. He was a member of the Tingguian tribe; and came from a wealthy family in northern Abra. He had four brothers and three sisters.His younger brother Jovencio was the municipal secretary of Malibcong by 1970s until joining him in the communist Cordillera People's Democratic Front of the New People's Army in 1979. By early 1998, he was a top cadre of the CPDF in Abra. He held several key positions in the Communist Party of the Philippines–New People's Army hierarchy in the Ilocos and Cordillera regions, notably being a ranking member of the executive committee of the area's Regional Party Committee. He left the NPA upon his arrest in 2009. In 2016 elections, he won a seat at the Malibcong municipal council.
Balweg was married to Corazon Cortel; with whom he had six children. Upon Balweg's death, Cortel became the chief of staff of the Cordillera People's Liberation Army. She died of cardiac arrest at Camp Upi in Gamu, Isabela, on March 10, 2008.
In 2012, one of his children, a CPLA member, was integrated into the Philippine Army.
Life as a priest
Three Balweg brothers entered the Society of the Divine Word congregation, but only Conrado was ordained a priest by Pope Paul VI during the latter's pastoral visit to Manila in 1970. He became the parish priest of Luba, Tubo and Sallapadan. In the early years, he combined Catholic mass with Tingguian rituals.CRC issue
Later, Balweg, along with fellow Tingguian priests, brothers Cirilo and Bruno Ortega, led the Tingguians in their opposition to a project by the Cellophil Resources Corporation, which was planning to establish a rayon plant in Tayum, to retain their ancestral lands. CRC was granted the largest logging concession by the national government under president Ferdinand Marcos in 1973–74 for its paper project; and threatened to affect over 200,000 hectares of forest land in Abra, the present-day Kalinga, and Mountain Province, as well as much of ancestral land. CRC had began a massive logging operation in Abra in 1972, displacing Tingguians from their ancestral lands in the forest.Meanwhile, CRC, being "the primary issue" involving Tingguians, among other development projects in the 1970s including the Chico River Dam Project, contributed to the increase of strength of the communist NPA in Cordillera mountains in northern Luzon, as well as its support from the displaced Igorot people. The leftist group first appeared in the area in 1976.
As a result of their activities, Balweg was accused of being an NPA sympathizer. The struggle involving CRC later drove Tingguians to join the NPA. After receiving death threats, and to protest what he believed was repression and land-grabbing under the Marcos presidency, as well as to defend his tribe against loggers and further denudation of the forest, in 1979, he left the rectory, fled to the hills, and joined the said communist group. Such involvement resulted to his expulsion from the SVD where at the time, there was reportedly a split among Filipino and foreign priests. However, in 1984, Balweg claimed being on leave from SVD, as his colleagues in Manila still consider him a priest.
Revolutionary career
With the NPA
In the first interview with NPA members, aired on a government television station on April 18, 1986, Balweg said he would not join the NPA if the Church in the province had responded to human rights abuses against the tribals.Balweg was later inspired by the heroism of tribal leader Macli-ing Dulag, one of the leaders of the Igorots opposing the government's Chico River Dam Project, a planned hydroelectric dam in the Cordilleras—a predominantly tribal region. Dulag was assassinated in 1980.
Balweg, the Ortegas, and Nilo Valerio, from being Roman Catholic priests, eventually became members of NPA, particularly the CPDF, hence they were called "rebel priests." Balweg, belonged to the Lumbaya Company, adopted the nom de guerre "Ka Ambo". He was the CPP spokesperson in the Cordillera in the early 1980s. He fought in the Cordillera mountain range until the 1986 People Power Revolution.
Balweg, upon joining the Cordillera guerrillas, had 32 fighters, which were believed to have grown to up to 700 by mid-1984. He claimed 99% of the recruits were from mountain villages. In 1984, a military operation composed of a 1,000-member team was launched against them.
Balweg had strongholds in the present-day Kalinga. Efforts to negotiate his surrender became difficult. By mid-1983, the Armed Forces of the Philippines offered for his neutralization as he had been tagged as its most wanted. The bounty was lifted by defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile on June 19, 1986.
CPLA
President Corazon Aquino, since the beginning of her tenure in 1986, offered reconciliation with the communists. Meanwhile, Balweg led the advocacy for the autonomy for the Cordillera people.In April 1986, Balweg, along with Bruno Ortega, and his CPDF's Lumbaya Company, broke away from the CPP–NPA and formed the CPLA, which would be headed by him. They were joined later by some cadres, particularly in present-day Kalinga and Abra. Balweg, citing disagreement with other commanders, alleged that the NPA had ignored the plight of the Cordilleras, and that their ideology was inappropriate. The split weakened the CPP-NPA in the region.
Balweg revealed in an exclusive media interview that he was opting for a legal or open struggle rather than armed struggle while the latter was effective. Since as early as June, there were meetings and peace talks between Balweg's group and the government panel, including president Aquino and negotiator Butz Aquino, in the Cordillera mountains, in an attempt to resolve problems regarding insurgency. Discussed were plans for a ceasefire and proposed autonomy for the tribal Cordillera region.
In September, president Aquino recognized Balweg as chief spokesperson for the Cordillera area. On September 13, in a hotel atop Mount Data in Bauko, Mountain Province, the Aquino government, the CPLA, and the Cordillera People's Administration, forged the Mount Data Peace Accord, the first peace agreement granting autonomy for Igorot tribesmen, covering the five provinces that would make up the tribal Cordillera mountain region—the first step in reaching a lasting peace with the government. In a traditional ceremony known as a sipat that ended hostilities, Balweg and Aquino, with defense secretary Enrile, exchanged tokens. This paved the way for Executive Order No. 220 in 1987, creating the Cordillera Administrative Region, integrating Cordillera rebels with the police and the military in anti-communist operations, and calling for the creation of a regional security force.
President Aquino later decided against his appointment as the executive director of the CAR due to opposition from various groups. During the presidency of Joseph Estrada, Balweg, with then Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora, chaired a committee created to discuss the autonomy for the Cordilleras.
Balweg later envisioned the establishment of the Cordillera Universal Peace Center in Banaue, Ifugao, "as a contribution of all indigenous peoples of the world to the pursuit of universal peace and harmony."
Status of Balweg's campaigns
For the 1987 plebiscite, Balweg supported the ratification of the constitution which included a provision calling for the creation of autonomous regions for both minority tribes in Luzon and the Moslems in the country's south. Such provision on the regional autonomy was likewise promoted by highlander organizations including CPLA. However, it was rejected by a majority of voters in two separate plebiscites. Balweg was among those supported the autonomy in 1990; but decided to campaign against it in 1998, causing his ouster as CPLA head.Meanwhile, Balweg and other CPLA leaders were in favor of the proposed regional security force, which was never materialized as CPLA members became part of the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit, the countrywide auxiliary force. They opposed the integration into the military, creating internal rifts within the CPLA. On August 3, 2001, president Gloria Arroyo signed Administrative Order 18 providing for the integration of 1,200 CPLA members as officers, enlisted personnel, and CAFGU Active Auxiliaries. Since then, a number of CPLA members, mostly new recruits, joined either of these.
Balweg's wife, in her later years, supervised livelihood projects for cooperatives of former CPLA members, and the integration of others to the Philippine Army.
Since the 1986 sipat, isolated indigenous communities in the Cordillera had become more peaceful. CPLA, despite setbacks, never again involved in conflict against the state; while their political exposure declined. Moreover, an effort to unify the factions eventually failed.
Since the effectivity of EO No. 220, the CAR's annual appropriation has been reduced. At the time of presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, Balweg's brother Jovencio was leading those still seeking the implementation of the 1986 agreement. Balweg's remaining brothers and former CPLA members still wanted the autonomy for the Cordillerans over Duterte's proposed federalism if it would be acceptable to them.
Rivalry between NPA and CPLA
In June 1986, an eight-day meeting between Balweg and the NPA resolved some of their differences and they "agreed to be military allies and forge tighter unity."Nevertheless, Balweg, since leaving the NPA, was publicly renounced by the group for his abandonment of the latter's cause. NPA claimed expelling Balweg for misusing funds and womanizing; and later accused him of stealing firearms, abduction, killing, and treason after forming the CPLA. An execution order for him was issued in 1987.
The CPLA had been regarded by some groups as an anti-communist vigilante due to their cooperation with the military's anti-NPA operations. It had also been accused by groups in the region of "misrepresenting the Cordillera people" and of powergrabbing, and had been racked by defections by two ranking leaders protesting "Balweg's dictatorial ways."
On the other hand, the split among the rebels later restrained relationship among the Balweg brothers. In a media interview in 1998, Jovencio, who had not met Conrado since 1986, said the latter has long betrayed the Tingguians, and criticized a radio interview by the latter who said that political leaders should be educated.