Life Stories of Former Rebels in the Second District of Bohol

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the life stories of former rebels in the second district of Bohol. Specifically, it sought to answer the following questions: the experiences of the informants as former rebels, the impact of the program of the government on the rebel returnees and the aspirations of the informants to improve their quality of life.
Utilized the qualitative method of research employing the descriptive phenomenological approach using an interview guide with an open-ended questions for both individual and focus group discussion in exploring the life stories of the informants as former rebels. There were ten selected former rebels in the second district of Bohol, four of them had been interviewed individually and the remaining six participated in the focus group discussion. I used an interview guide aided with the audio recorder for the basis of transcribing the responses of the participants utilizing the Colaizzi’s method or phenomenological analysis procedure in analyzing the responses of the informants during the conduct of interview.
For the positive experiences of the informants as former rebels, emergent themes were created: Freedom and Liberation, Happiness and Contentment. For the negative experiences of the informants as former rebels, themes were created: The Erosion of Educational Integrity, Exploitation and Unfulfilled Promises. For the impact of the program of the government on the rebel returnees the created themes were: Financial Assistance, Family Unity, and Empowerment through Skills and Resources. Lastly, on the aspirations of the informants to improve the quality of their lives, themes were created as follows: Hope for Better Future and Economic Stability, Inclusive Government Support, and Unity and Cooperation for Peace.