Ex-Army Capt. Milo Maestrecampo, who has been reunited with his family in Talisay City, Negros Occidental, for almost two months now, may have been barred from re-entering the military service, but not as a peacemaker.

Presidential Adviser on Peace Process Hermogenes Esperon yesterday confirmed the hiring of Maestrecampo, and six other Magdalo leaders who were pardoned by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo after a Makati Regional Trial Court convicted them for coup d’etat and sentence them to a maximum of 40 years imprisonment.

Esperon said seven of the nine Magdalo leaders were hired to help him in the integration of former communist rebels into the mainstream of society.

"We are happy to be together working for peace again," he said.

Maestrecampo used to serve as a company commander of an Army Scout Ranger Unit in Mindanao, while Esperon commanded the Special Operations Command, which supervises the elite Scout Ranger and Special Forces Regiments, including the counter-terrorist unit, Light Reaction Battalion.

Another Magdalo leader, former Army 2Lt. Julius Navales, of La Carlota City, who, with 16 others, was discharged dishonorably from the military service, is already employed as an agent of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

Asked how the military background of the group would help in their new jobs, Esperon said : "It's very essential, very important because one, if they know the problem of the rebels, they know the systems that go with that."

He, however, said he will not allow the group of Maestrecampo to talk with military rebels. "I'm not taking them to that because it might be misinterpreted,” Esperon said.

Meanwhile, the Communist Party of the Philippines yesterday dismissed as a “delusionary gimmick” the renewed push for an "amnesty program".

CPP spokesman Gregorio Rosal, in a statement, said the CPP will totally ignore and roundly reject the amnesty offer, claiming it will only be useful to the Arroyo administration as another “milking cow."

Military records, however, showed that 11 high-powered firearms were surrendered by several rebel returnees to the 61st Infantry Battalion in southern Negros since last year up to this time, to avail of the government’s Balik Baril program.

Each high-powered firearm, such as M-16 or M-14 rifles, to surrendered by a rebel returnee will have a corresponding value of P60,000 each,, 1Lt. Ronald Putol, 61st IB Civil Military Operations chief, said.*GPB

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