Prov’l Gov’t Extends Educational Aid to 300 Kids of Ex-RPA Rebels

The Negros Occidental Provincial Government has extended educational assistance worth PHP1.5 million to 300 students, who are children of former breakaway rebels and now members of the Kapatiran para sa Progresong Panlipunan (Kapatiran).

Negros Occidental Scholarship Program division head Karen Dinsay said on Wednesday each grantee received PHP5,000, covering the school year 2025-2026.

“This is now the third year of the province’s next-of-kin educational assistance to Kapatiran students since it started in 2023,” she said in an interview.

Of the 300 grantees, 221 are college students while 79 are in senior high school.

They are members of the Kapatiran next-of-kin chapters in the cities of Kabankalan, San Carlos, Cadiz and Bago as well as the municipalities of Cauayan, E.B. Magalona and La Castellana.

In 2023, the provincial government initially allocated PHP1 million for 200 grantees while in 2024, the budget allocation was increased to benefit 250 grantees.

By 2025, the program expanded further with an additional 50 slots for a total of 300 grantees.

This school year, 35 college student-grantees are set graduate, following the 25 others who already finished college in the previous school year.

The 300 grantees received the educational assistance in a ceremony led by Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson at the Provincial Capitol Social Hall in Bacolod on Tuesday.

“Lasting peace and order in the province can only be achieved through unity and collective action, with government, communities, and all sectors working together,” Lacson said, adding that “cooperation and shared responsibility are vital in building a safe and progressive province”.

The distribution of educational assistance was also attended by Fifth District Board Member Rita Gatuslao, chair of the Provincial Board’s education committee; Director Susana Guadalupe Marcaida, co-chair of the Joint Enforcement and Monitoring Committee (JEMC) under the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity; Col. Victor Llapitan, deputy commander of the Philippine Army’s 303rd Infantry Brigade; and Veronica Tabara, co-chair of the JEMC.

The next-of-kin educational assistance program is one of the government’s key initiatives that underscores its strong commitment to providing timely and appropriate interventions for Kapatiran beneficiaries in Negros Occidental.

“The whole of Kapatiran continue to be very grateful for the consistent, sincere, and genuine support to the Kapatiran transformation,” Tabara said. “It is our ardent hope and prayer in our hearts na ito’ng pagtutulungan natin na tulad nitong magandang gawa, ay patuloy na makapag-inspire at strengthen sa lahat sa atin para sa ating commitment para sa kapayapaan.”

The name Kapatiran was assumed by the Tabara-Paduano Group of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB), a breakaway armed group of the New People’s Army, as part of its institutional transformation under the clarificatory implementing document to the peace agreement it signed with the national government.* (Nanette Guadalquiver/PNA)