The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Field Office (FO) Caraga provided assistance to (29) Former Rebels (FR) under the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP) last June 16, 2020 at Watergate Hotel, Butuan City.
DSWD showed its full support to the program, together with the other National Government Agencies and the Local Government Unit of Butuan City by providing the FRs with services and assistance. Jessie Catherine B. Aranas, DSWD FO Caraga OIC-PSD chief, along with the staff from the Crisis Intervention Section, distributed family food packs, sleeping kits, hygiene kits, and a cash assistance worth five thousand pesos (5,000) to the FRs.
The FRs also received sixty-five thousand pesos (65,000) through the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Caraga Region represented by Regional Director Lilibeth A. Famacion. The assistance provided is in response to the needs of the FRs who will now be reintegrated to the community.
The said event was also attended by Colonel Maurito L. Licudine of 402nd Infantry “Stringers” Brigade, PBGen. Joselito T. Esquivel, Jr., Regional Director of the Philippine National Police- Police Regional Office 13, and Mayor Ronnie Vicente C. Lagnada of Butuan City.
The E-CLIP is in pursuant of Administrative Order (AO) no. 10 signed by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte on April 3, 2018 entitled Centralizing all Government Efforts for the Reintegration of Former Rebels and Creating for the Purpose on Inter-Agency Tsk Force, as stated on the Section 2 of the said AO, it is the policy of the state to prioritize the maintenance of peace and order, the protection of life, liberty, and property and the promotion of the general welfare which are essential for the enjoyment by all the people of the blessing of democracy.
The beneficiaries of this progrm are the FRs who used to be members of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), New People’s Army (NPA), and National Democratic Front (NDF) who voluntarily abandoned their groups to go back to the government’s arms.
DSWD FO Caraga has always provided social protection and social services to individuals, families, communities, especially those who are poor, vulnerable, and disadvantaged.
The Agency envisions all Filipinos free from hunger and poverty, have equal access to opportunities, enabled by a fair, just, and peaceful society, thus the full support of the agency for FRs to be successfully reintegrated to their communities to be productive again.
